Freya's Story

When the message from my friend came through with a YouTube video, there was no text.  Just the video.  She is prone to sending me videos from YouTube and TikTok that amuse her.  Things like riders falling off their horses spectacularly and cute cats playing practical jokes on their owners.  So I didn't click on it right away.  I was at the barn, as is usual these days, and wanted to get through all of the tasks before I tested the theory that I wouldn't actually melt in the run of extreme heat and humidity we were having. 

I saved watching the video until I got home, and was astonished to see that it was a video of Freya as a two-year old.  I had done a Google search for Freya after I bought her, but hadn't found anything.  My friend, however, has exceptional searching skills and she had managed to track down one of Freya's previous owners.  In fact, the previous owner still had an album of pictures on her Facebook page from when she had listed Freya for sale.  (Note: if you can't see the video below, try clicking on "View Web Version" at the bottom of the page.  For some reason, linked YouTube videos don't always show up in the mobile version.)

 

I decided to send the previous owner a message because it looked like the farm was still active and it was a business that occasionally sells horses and has a riding lesson program.  I had no idea whether I would get a response or if the person would even remember her.  As it turned out, I got a response almost immediately and the woman remembered her very much.

She was extremely confused as to how I ended up with her and asked if I had bought her from a woman named Susan (not her real name).  I said I thought I must have because that was the name on Freya's Coggins test that I had received in the sale packet from the auction.  The previous owner (let's call her Kathy to help keep the story flowing) said that she didn't think there was any way Susan would have sold Freya at an auction.  She was a special horse and would never be sold that way.  In fact, Kathy considered Freya to be so special that she said if Freya ever needed a new home, she would be happy to take her back.

Then Kathy suggested that she put me in touch with Susan, who as far as she knew was supposed to still have Freya.  I got the impression that Kathy and Susan were friends at some level and at least occasionally still chatted about Freya.  So Kathy set up a Facebook Messenger chat group for all three of us and brought Susan into the conversation.

That was how I discovered Freya's story.  

Kathy had bought Freya as a weanling from her breeder.  She had raised her and showed her a little in-hand as a yearling.  She also shed light on the scar Freya has on the front of her hock.  Apparently, she had gotten her leg caught in a fence as a yearling.  Kathy said the wound was significant because a lot of skin was torn off, but that the wound didn't go deep, and that it had never caused Freya any issues.

Once Freya was two, Kathy listed her for sale because that was what she did for her business.  Susan bought Freya when she was about two-and-a-half and trained her under saddle for her riding program.

The riding program at Susan's barn seems like it is for more advanced kids who are jumping 2'6" and 3' in bigger shows like ones down in Florida.  Given that hauling from New England, where Susan's barn is, down to Florida is a big effort, it became clear to me that Susan's program was definitely at a level well above what we have at the barn I board at.

And that is why Freya ended up for sale.  Apparently, she started having issues when she was asked to jump more than 2'.  After injecting her right hock a couple of times without seeing the results she wanted, Susan decided that Freya wasn't a good fit for her program and in fact, she thought the best fit for her would be a trail riding home.  (This is something that doesn't quite make sense to me.  I mean, really?  A horse that can cart kids around a show ring and jump 2' is a valuable animal, and is worth its weight in gold around here.  The only thing I can think is that Susan didn't want to risk Freya going to a home where the owners would be tempted to push her further than she could go, so she decided to market Freya as a trail horse to avoid the show-type homes.)

So she listed her for sale as a trail horse, which Freya did have experience with.  Susan said Freya was good on trails and could go out with other horses or on her own.  So after owning Freya from age two-and-a-half to eight years old, she sold her not that long before the auction to a man who said he would use her for just that - trail riding.  And that is how good horses end up at an auction.

Because that man was not a regular guy.  He was a horse trader.  And he took Freya to the auction where I bought her.  I don't know how much, if any, profit he made on the sale because I don't know how much he paid for her, but I will give this guy credit.  He was good at recognizing a horse that could be flipped.  He shamelessly used pictures of Freya that he got from her owner's Facebook page in the sales listing for the auction.  And he was also good at lying, at least to a certain degree.

He clearly misled Susan about what he was going to do with Freya.  Maybe he didn't lie outright, but he gave her the impression that he was just shopping for a trail horse for himself.  And he lied to me when he said the seller was a good friend of his.

But the good news is that he didn't lie about anything else, as far as I can tell.  All the things he told me about Freya were confirmed by her previous owner and most of those things I have confirmed myself with Freya over the past couple of weeks.  She is friendly and likes people.  She loads in a trailer easily and hauls well.  She stands in cross-ties for a bath.  She leads well.  She has a good temperament for Gemma.  She has been safe for Gemma to ride, and I have managed to ride her too:)  I don't know about the trail riding yet, but she has yet to spook at anything beyond taking a couple of steps sideways.  She has been exposed to tractors and other farm equipment, running dogs, screaming kids, hang-gliders, small aircraft, fireworks, gunfire, lots of vehicle traffic, chickens, cats, and lots of general barn activity without blinking an eye.

Freya even tolerated wearing some celebratory decorations:)

 

The photo of her jumping that I saw in the sales ad was a bit of a misrepresentation because Freya has struggled with jumping higher than 2', but I wasn't at all surprised to hear that she was having trouble.  For one thing, if she could jump more than 2' and was all the things she was reported to be, she simply would not have been for sale at the price I got her for.  A horse that can jump 2'6" or 3' is a very expensive horse, even if that horse isn't suitable for a kid to ride.  For one that a kid can ride, I think you would be lucky to find a horse like Freya for less than $15,000, and most of them go for much more than that in this area, even if they need hock injections or other physical maintenance.

I could tell that Susan was very upset to learn that Freya had gone to an auction, because her intention had clearly been to sell her to a good home where she wouldn't be exploited.  But she seemed happy to learn that despite the auction sale, Freya ended up in a good place.  She was a wealth of information about Freya and I believe she did her best to be honest with me about any perceived shortcomings Freya has.  For example, she can be bossy in a field with other horses.  And she had front shoes put on about a year ago because Susan though she was short-striding a bit and she thought the shoes would help.

Both my instructor and I noticed the short-striding in front after I pulled her shoes.  But I don't see any lameness.  And the short-striding is only apparent under saddle.  So I suspect that with a little physical therapy, we may be able to partially or completely resolve it.  I also think that getting her hoof balanced and using some Hoof Armor to toughen the sole will help.  In the meantime, she is quite rideable and very willing to work!  She basically begs to come out of her pen every time we see her and clearly wants to be doing something rather than nothing.

In terms of her bossiness with other horses, it's hard to say.  Freya has only been out in the field with the other horses for a day - we kept her isolated for a little over two weeks as best as we could just in case she had picked up an illness at the auction.  I found the initial introductions went very well.  I put her in the same herd that Donut and Star are in, and that herd is a very low key herd.  Donut is probably the bossiest one there and that is only when it is time for her to come in for breakfast or when she sees her people.  Otherwise, she will be submissive to the other horses, who basically don't ever get excited about anything except their grain meals.  I suspect that if Freya wants to be in charge of the herd, she won't get much resistance because the other horses really don't care that much.  And that lack of resistance may defuse her bossy behavior.  Or she may never even demonstrate it.  After introducing her to the herd and some initial running around and posturing, it seemed like she really just wanted refuge from the flies or to eat.  

Yes, there are three paints in the herd.  Freya even has her very own Mini-Me with Butters, who is the small paint pony.

One thing I did notice is that after she went out with part of the herd during the day yesterday, she was a little calmer.  I had noticed that she fidgeted a bit in the wash stall before turnout with the herd, but afterward, she stood as still as a statue.  I noticed the same thing under saddle.  She had just a little edge that was gone last night when I rode her.  I suspect that while she appeared to be handling her isolation well, it was causing her some worry, and after she had a day hanging out with Star and Butters, who are both really quiet horses, it helped her relax a bit and feel more comfortable.

My instructor had recommended that we not try to do any real work with her until after she was being turned out with a herd.  She had seen and felt that same "edge" that I had and she felt that Freya would be better once she was with other horses.  It's hard to know for sure with just one day, but so far, I think that will be true.  Gemma and I have done fairly minimal work under saddle with Freya during the last couple of weeks.  I had gotten on once and Gemma got on once and both times we just walked.  

Gemma was on cloud 9 when she got on the first time!

Last night, we had more of a regular ride, and I rode for about a half hour and walked and trotted Freya in the big arena and practiced one of the intro level dressage tests to see how she did with steering.  Then Gemma got on and did the same.  I admit that I was a little anxious about it, not because Freya has ever done anything wrong or exciting, but because my mom brain always has a little part that is screaming when Gemma is around a horse.  I know all the ways people can be hurt with horses, and I know that Gemma doesn't know those ways.  Like many kids her age, she thinks she knows everything, and I worry she'll get hurt because she is overconfident, even though Gemma pays attention and generally keeps herself safe when she works with horses.  That said, Gemma absolutely trotted Freya better than I did.  Probably because she doesn't have a litany of disaster scenarios running through her head like I do.  Or maybe because, like many horses, Freya recognizes a kid from an adult.

In terms of things we need to work on going forward, we do have a couple.  One is that Freya has some level of anxiety about a mounting block.  I get the sense that maybe she is used to people getting on and then either allowing her or asking her to immediately get moving.  So we are going to work on helping her understand that we want her to chill at the mounting block and even take a short nap.

Another is working on helping her balance under saddle.  This is something that I expected to have to work on no matter what horse we got.  Most horses don't move in a balanced way and Freya is no exception.  In particular, she tends to move with her head way out and nose stretched even further.  That is putting her on her forehand and causing her to rush her stride a bit.  I've got a lesson scheduled with my instructor in a couple of weeks, and I expect she will want to work on slowing Freya down and asking her to bring her awareness to how she is moving.  Right now, Freya just moves on autopilot and she lacks an inner awareness of how she moves each leg and places it on the ground.  She also doesn't seem to know that she can generate a connection with her rider.  So we will work on refocusing her attention from outward to inward.  And I suspect that once we do that, there will be no stopping this lovely horse.