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Killian/Karmella
Killian
- Sorrell QH mare, 7 yrs. old, 14.3 hands. This mare is sound
and it is obvious she is a QH. She rides well, but is not for
a beginner rider. Intermediate to Advanced Intermediate rider
recommended as she has some get up and go!
UPDATE
After much going back and forth with the feedlot about whether
or not she is pregnant (they don't think she is, but she is awful
fat!) this mare will be leaving for her new home with Nikki &
Tim on Wednesday! Thanks for your patience and caring on this
Nikki & Tim.
UPDATE
9/28/99 It's not the best picture of Killian,
but it will have to do since I can't seem to find the other ones.
I will just have to take more! Anyway, as you know, her name is
now Killian's Red (for the beer), but she goes by Killian. She
is doing very well, has lost some of her weight, and is better
about her feet being handled. Although, she did teach the farrier
a lesson last week. He was working on her and I saw that her ears
were really starting to swivel around, so I suggested that he
give her a break for a couple of minutes. He told me that the
only way she was going to learn was if we (I) showed her who was
boss. So he kept working and the ears started swiveling faster.
Then she pinned them and I told him to stop and he didn't, so
she kicked him! It was just a glancing blow on the thigh, but
it was enough to make him yelp. It was all I could do not to laugh.
He couldn't believe how fast she was, and complained that she
didn't give any signs because she didn't shift around or paw at
the ground. I wasn't too happy, though, because after that he
wouldn't finish her, so one hoof didn't get touched. I couldn't
be mad at her, though. She warned him and I warned him. I love
that saucy little redhead!
Update 6/29/00
- As for Miss Killian, she is as fiesty as ever. We went out to
spray
them for flies tonight and she led Tim on a merry chase. You see,
Killian hates
to be sprayed with ANYTHING. She knows it won't hurt her,
but she hates
it anyway. And to make matters worse, that horse can
smell a spray bottle a mile away. I wasn't even down the front
steps
and she was already giving me the evil eye. So Tim goes out to
the
corral with a halter and lead and she takes off down to the other
end of
their turnout. She doesn't do this when he goes to get her for
anything
else, just whenever a spraying is in the offing. He goes down
there,
tries to pen her in a corner and she goes thundering by. This
is
repeated several times until he finally breaks down and starts
closing
gates so she has less room to run. By the time he caught her,
I had
completed sprayed Echo down (with her just standing there) and
was
having a good chuckle watching her game. She is looking good and
is
enjoying bossing Echo around as always.
So, that's our update for now.
Update1/1/08
- When I started training at the facility in Moorpark that I am
currently at (about three years ago), the owners had "Killian"
and Echo boarded there. As I understand, they had been there for
quite some time; around three and a half years. During the time
that I was working there, while the horses were still being boarded
there, I had maybe seen the horses get out three times, and two
of those times we had turned the horses out ourselves to do some
tractor work in front of their stalls.
The condition
of those two horses was just obscene. The horses' coats were caked
with some kind of a rain rot or summer's itch condition from hardly
ever getting groomed, except when one of the boarders felt sorry
for the horses and brushed them out. The horses were never kept
up to date on farrier appointments, and would always be extremely
long and chipped up. When we couldn't take it any longer (we meaning
the ranch) we would go ahead and deworm them and give them their
annual vaccinations on our tab, because otherwise we knew it just
would never get done. From being cooped up in their stalls all
the time, the horses were so atrofied that when they did get out,
just walking down the hill to the arena would put them in a sweat
and cause them to breathe heavily, and stamina; forget about it.
I'm sure the owners must have thought in their own minds that
they had taken "Killian" out of a bad situation and
saved her, and in a way they did. However, I can't say that that
horse was ever happy in the situation she was in, and had been
living in for some time. Actually, I can say she was most likely
miserable, and wondering what the point of being taken out of
that feedlot was, because sitting year after year in that 20x20
stall in total neglect was not her opinion of a grand life.
Feeling sorry
for the situation that those two horses had been put in, and especially
"Killian" (I just always felt that she deserved better),
I had offered to turn out the horses free of charge a couple times
a week for the owners. That way the horses could at least stretch,
to say the least. But they declined all of my offers, I'm not
quite sure why. After not seeing the owners for over six months,
the owner of the ranch stopped them when they were paying a portion
of their board, and told them they better take a look at their
horses and do something with them, because they were looking worse
than her 20+ year old TB with cancer. And it was true. There was
only so much we could do to make the horses look decent when the
owners refused our help.
So that week
they took the horses out of our stable without paying their board
that they owed and thought it was over. But no, we took them to
court trying to get paid what board they had owed, and instead,
after months of trips in and out of the courtroom, always in our
favor, we ended up seizing Miss "Killian".
After two
months or so of conditioning, we tried to sell her for what board
money was owed to the ranch, but every time someone came out to
look at her, this horse was just absolutely awful. And as soon
as the potential buyer would leave the horse was an angel for
me. Not to mention I could hop on her at any time with simply
a halter and take her for a spin around the property no problem.
It was as if she just did not want to be sold. So I ended up buying
her for what the court fees had cost, because she had chosen me
to be her new owner.
The first
thing I did was change her very unladylike name to Karmella, because
she's as sweet as caramel and matches in color. Her full name
is Karamel Koated Mistress. Since her time of purchase I have
trailered her out all over, run through riverbeds and crossed
bridges; ridden to the beach and up in the hills. She just loves
going. And she really is the sweetest, most grateful horse about
everything. I have had her for 13 months now, and never question
the reason I ended up with Karmella. I believe it was just meant
to be. But Karmella is still with me and is now finally able to
get out and enjoy life. She no longer searches for the reason
she was pulled out of the feedlot. She lives it.
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