Belladonte's Blog!

it would have been cool to have this running a while ago... but better late then never


little background on Belladonte:
I was flipping though photos of a group of horses (on Facebook) that were going to be shipped for horses if not "bailed out"
I've check pages like this many times before.
i clicked next and up pops this little tri color filly. As soon as she came up I had this feeling inside me. "There is something about that horse" feeling. Pretty much the same feeling as I got with Arizona. Todate I've never gotton that feeling over any other horse by just taking a quick glance at their photo.
It was on a Saturday so banks were closed.
But where I really wanted to buy her, the rescue who posted the photos told the broker I wanted to do so and he held her for another week. After a stress fulled week, The rescue picked up the money on thursday night. Friday night she would have been shipped to slaughter. The money was picked up and she was officaly mine on Nov 11th 2010.

Not being able to find a shipper (Shipping fell through many times) I was able to email a vet tech in Birdsboro PA and she was able to pick up the filly on Monday (the only day the broker could let people on his farm) And take the filly back to her place. The Filly turned out to have Trailer Fever, She ran a temp and had snot coming from her nose.
So the Vet tech called me and told me as I gave them the go ahead to put the filly on meds
the Filly has the nickname of Blue eyes. as she has two blue eyes.

Photo I bought her from


Then threw a good friend I was able to contact a vet clinic in Batavia NY.
Where she was hauled to by a very very nice lady on Nov 18th.
my Boss let me borrow one of her trucks and let me take it accross the boarder (we are just outside Toronto ontaro)
to Batavia to see this little filly come in. the plan was to meet at the vet's at 4-5 PM. 11PM the horse trailer finally pulls in.
if Id known it was going to be so late I would have worked that day then went down and spent the night with her. as I still had a 3 hour trip home and had to cross back into Canada. I ended up pulling into the driveway at 3 in the morning. needing to be AT work for 7am up at 6 am.

She stayed there only for a few days then my new friend (the owner of the vet farm) set it up with a guy to haul Belladonte to just outside Brantford ontario. for free.

she stayed at this boarding farm while I went to Florida. I was able to go see her once or twice the entire time she was there. We then learnt that she was full of Strangles. it was a hard winter. being a country away from a horse that was very very sick. not only did she have strangles but she was not at a good weight and just scared to death.
in spring we had a very scary experience and thought she was coming down with the deathly strain of Strangles. and for half a day I had to go through work Wondering if that night I was still going to have her. in the afternoon the BO emailed to say Belladonte was still alive and waiting on more vet info.
three weeks later everything checked out clean! and just for good measure she got some Vaccs.

I came home from Florida early April.
April 25 my boss let me borrow another truck and her two horse trailer and I went to pick up Belladonte and brought her home!

I was happy to fine her in better health when she came home


In the Summer i started to lunge her and she met my Gelding Arizona as i had him shipped up from NB.
She can be very hardheaded and has a huge diva side to her. she thinks she is the best thing made.
she will show off

june 17th I put the saddle on her for the first time and went for a walk around the front of the farm


for the next two months I'd saddle her up and just sit in the saddle. or get up on the left and then off on the right and vice versa

She then moved to the barn right behind my house in August
and on Aug 29th I sat up on her bareback and rode around. got off and started "freak out" that I just rode Belladonte for the first offical time. took a few breaths then went and remounted her for a few minutes and rode around. then jumped off for a few minutes then remounted. it was alot of fun for both of us.

since then she has been rode 4 more times. and I plan to go get on her again here shortly!



She stands at 14.2 hands
I call her my little Mustang. we have no idea what her breeding is, so where no one knows for sure I will just lead myself to believe she does have a bit of mustang in her. (mustangs are my light horse breed of choice.)

THAT little mare sure has come through a lot in her short life span..........She looks terrific and healthy in that last picture.....cant wait to read more........Way to go Kiddo for the RESCUE............. :cowboyhound.gi

Thanks.
she has come along ways!!!
I did get on her yesterday to make it 6 offical rides

today was Arizona and I's 2 year anniversary, it rained so I did not ride either but I did just hang out in their pasture for a while.
(and gave them some treats)
learnt something about belladonte, she does not like me going too far from her. get to far and she stops doing whatever she was and catches up to me. it was too cute!
Arizona was more interested in eating.
can't wait to see what other cool or cute or awesome things this mare has up her sleeves!
:2anpaint2.gif:

Rode belladonte again today.
After playing with a tarp with Arizona


and lunging for a short time...


She wanted to go into the big field so I let her just to see what happened when she went away from Arizona. She was perfect!!

Really nice pix kiddo........they look so healthy and shiney............ :cowboyhound.gi

today was the first nice day in a while
after work I went down to the barn to ride belladonte and did jump on her. but I could feel she was not very focused on what I was asking.
so before anything happened I slid off. and just played around in the pasture with her
I have not pushed her yet and don't plan on it any time soon. if she does not feel right in the mind Im not going to push her to work.
without knowing her history I don't feel right with pushing her
and there is no rush. and I did get up on her so it was still a good day!
BUT
after playing with the horses I had a crazy thought. I should try to see if arizona is up to a ride!
so I made belladonte's halter bigger and some leading around, to make sure he was listening to Woah and all that
then I jumped up on him for a while. (of course doing all this with a helmet!)
walked around the pasture for a while then even jogged a few circles!
Feeling that horse under me is one of the best feelings ever!
and he has such smooth gaits that you hardly notice you are riding bare back.
till you get off and your jeans are very dirty!!

hahaha............dirty buttercup or no.....great fun, smells good.......it is the best feeling.......glad your day was good. :cowboyhound.gi

Rode them both today!

arizona's ride went perfect! walked and jogged a little bit.

Belladonte's ride was not so perfect. she was not focused again. she would back up. but that was about it. I desided to stick with it and take our time and get her to atleast walk a short distance. after a while I was able to get her to walk! so we ended the ride and I gave her lots of praise.

so in the end it was still a very good day!
just hit a speed bump.

but still happy walking away!

rode both again today.
arizona was great

Belladonte did not want to remember what walk on ment.
after a really long time of just getting her a short distance mostly of backing up to our objective we headed out to the field and she was perfect while heading out! Woahed and walked on like a pro.
and even in the field I'd let her grab a mouth full of grass then we would walk on a few steps

so over all good day!!

hey kiddo, do you have Friends down there.....are you getting to come home for thanksgiving, or do you have somewhere to go with folks you know?// I hate to think of you by yourself on this holiday.

nope
just me and my horses (and cat and puppy)

and this year we are leaving for Florida the first week of December. which means Christmas in FL. away from even my horses.

HOW far away are you from Guelph......do you know where that is.....Straight along the 401 towards London??.. it's probably a little late for me to ask my friends to let you eat with them,. but maybe I could set something up if you were interested in meeting some truly great folks who are nearly as crazy as me.......

I definately dont feel sorry for you about the Florida gig....I would trade you any day to be there instead of here for december.........hahahaha.

its about an hour away they say from where I am at
and some of the staff is thinking on having a large supper here at the main staff house.
so we will probably have a nice supper here on sunday.
and the owner will probably ask people if they want to go over for supper

Florida is nice but I'm not a huge fan of how many deadly animals are just hanging out in the back yard. I love just going out for walks and exploring...
this summer the grounds keeper on the farm where I stay said she had a huge rare extremly deadly snake removed. it was really huge. they are still wondering how it got into one of our ponds as the farm is 100% fenced in even in the canal that runs threw the farm.

Glad you hear you are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner of some sort Heather........enjoy!!!!! :cowboyhound.gi

Well today is a big day!
Belladonte had her 10th ride!
and it was the BEST one YET!
she was walking on cue (which we have been having troubles with) turning circles woahing
everything but backing up.
but I was over joyed at the fact she was walking around like a pro, steering and staying walking untill I asked her to stop!!

got no photos as it was getting really dark ...

Well work, weather, sickness and other things had pushed back riding.
but today I forced everything else to the back burner and decided I would put a saddle on belladonte and offical have her ridden under saddle! (as we have always just went for bareback rides)
she was... better then amazing! No lunging. I put the saddle on. jogged her in hand maybe ten feet. she did not even try to do anything. so I got right on. Walked a few straigh lines. (in side the run in shelter with over two feet of shavings. we were walking on a beaten down path but still lots of padding around. but I really was not too worried) (yes I had a helmet. and padding as I wore a sled jacket because its a bit cold)
After walking a few, I asked for a jogging line just to see what she would do. she picked it just about right up. we walked back down to the other end of the shelter and it again. she was just about perfect.
so we then went out side after walking around abit.
we walked around the area right behind the shelter in large circles. after a few circles I asked for a jog. would do a quarter circle twice then try a half circle... then a full. and even two circles!
that was to the left. we went to the right and got one. where she was being SO good I desided just to walk her out.
we walked out beside the shelter (and toward the gate opening to the large field) which she wanted to go out because all the good grass is out there. but when I wanted to go back she listened. she woahs great. she is a bit stubborn turning but hey its not bad and she is in no way dirty so I'll happily take it!!!

we then went back into the shelter and praticed backing up... which she did NOT want to do at all. so I got off and praticed backing up in hand. got her to the point she would do it just about only on voice commands. (normaly she is great to back up) then got back on and tried it again. and she did it and did it pretty good!

so with that we ended the ride then they got a few treats...

one thing though... arizona wanted to play... the entire ride... he would walk quickly up and then start throwing his head up playfully. untill I told him to get lost a few times. and ment it. so he went to eat grass while we walked along side the shelter. Men! always trying to stur up trouble! LOL

Seems like you got some progress with Belladonte :-)

Always end on a good note works wonders..lol

Hello all!!!
its been a while!

just an update, I've been away for 4 months so Belladonte has been just getting fat.

but she remembered me right away and we went to playing like no days had past!

on Sunday we will be trailering back to NB! and all the horses will slowly go back into work..

I'll be able to update this more then!

Good to hear from you Heather!! Are you moving back to NB or going to stay in Ontario?? Send us some updated pictures of Belledonte and Arizona, pleaasseee.

Moving back to NB.

photos to come in a few minutes!

LOVE my little rescued Indian pony!!! 4 years old. just broke under saddle last summer. 4 months OFF. short lesson in who is lead mare and POP! ON and gone off riding! ♥ no fuss. like no day had past! same old same old! LOVE IT!!!



now... would I go out and jump on arizona without a little lunge... ha.. ha..ha.. my 8 year old would act like a 2 year old who had been out in a field all his life and never had a rider touch his back! haah love him so much though! give him 10 minutes in lunging and 5 in hand and he would then be good! as long as you take it slow. as for speed, and hed give you ten times what you asked for with some added butt movement! ♥


And yes Helmet was worn! :)

Well Belladonte and Arizona are settling in on the home farm very well so far!!!





Harold is still his old self


Sandy is back into work too. :) doing a total of 4 minutes of jogging. 2 minutes each way. lots of walking.
she is really over weight. we`ll taking everything really slow so we don`t run into problems