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Gambler's Lucky Draw
Golden Gambler x Commanding Spirit
Commanding Spirit decided to foal nearly a month early. She easily
delivered a beautiful buckskin colt and all seemed well at first. A few
hours later, the colt developed symptoms of colic and went down. Luckily,
his owner, Vicki Thomas, was quick to realize something was wrong and
called the vet immediately. He had an inguinal hernia and his intestines
were coming through an opening into his testicle sac. He was rushed to the
Equine Medical Center in Ocala, Florida and underwent surgery to repair
the hernia at the tender age of 6 hours!
Once he was in recovery, he acted just like any other happy, healthy foal.
(He has since made a full recovery.)
When I spoke to Vicki on the phone, I laughingly called him "Lucky." It
just seemed to fit. Vicki came up with "Gambler's Lucky Draw" for his
registered name.
Updates from Vicki
January
9, 2008 -
Lucky gave me a scare yesterday morning. I moved Lucky, Sunny, and
my gelding Dusty to a different pasture last week away from my
mares. This pasture has a shade barn with two stalls divided by 2 x
6 boards. The bottom board is about 12 inches from the ground, give
or take several inches because the ground slopes in my pasture.
Sometimes both colts will lay down in the same stall to sleep.
Victor told me earlier this week he saw all three laying down in the
same stall. I only lock them in separate stalls at feeding time,
all other times they are free to come and go from the stalls as they
please.
It was very foggy yesterday morning, and I could only see Sunny and
Dusty standing at the fence line when I took the dogs out first
thing in the morning. I didn't see Lucky. At the time, I thought
it was odd because he doesn't usually stray very far from the other
two, but I wasn't alarmed by it because the fog was very dense and I
couldn't see very far into the pasture. I finished walking the dogs
and went out to feed the horses.
I fed Fancy and Fire and then trucked out with hay and grain to the
Golden Boys. It was about 20 minutes before I actually got out to
the Golden Boys with their food from when I first stepped outside
with the dogs. When I was about 25 feet from them, I saw Lucky. He
was pinned on the ground between the two stalls lying flat on the
ground ... as still as a ghost. Most of his body (from the hip
forward was in one stall and his hind legs from the hip back was in
the other stall). He was perpendicular to the boards. I dropped
the hay and grain and ran past Dusty and Sunny towards Lucky. As I
approached him, I began talking to him soothingly, and I saw his
ears flick back and forth, but he wasn't too concerned. Actually he
was extremely calm. I could not tell how long he had been
pinned because the ground around him was undisturbed. It looked as
if once he'd discovered he was pinned, he just layed there (waiting
for help). Amazing!
I have never seen anything like that before. My other horses would
have exploded and tore up the fence in order to get loose. That
actually happened to my mare Fire about 10 years ago when a leg got
tangled in one strand of barb wire attached to a similar 3-board
fence made out of 2 x 6's. She literally tore the fence down. It
looked like a truck had ran through the fence and broke the fence
post.
Anyway, Lucky was extremely calm as if he had been waiting
patiently for me. As I spoke to him, I reached down and ran my
hands down his body to his top hind leg and grabbed the pastern. I
pulled as hard as I could. His hind quarters moved maybe 3 inches
sideways towards me, but I couldn't move him any more. I was
surprised I could move him at all; he weighs almost 400 lbs. There
was no one else home to help me, so I decided to go into the house
and get the electric screwdriver to dismantle the bottom fence
board. I left him and as I walked towards the pasture gate, I
turned to check on him one last time before he was out of sight, and
HE WAS STANDING UP! I had moved him just enough; he was able to
move his legs under him just enough and dig in with his hind legs to
get up. I think I only moved him 3 inches, but maybe I moved him
more. What a scare.
I promptly added additional boards below the bottom board right
after this incident to prevent this from ever happening again. When
I was running up to him, I was sick because I really thought he was
dead, he was so still. He's definitely got a little angel looking
out for him. Maybe he is bound for greatness because that was
amazing.
Maybe it also helped that he's been handled quite a bit and that
he's been taught to tie and stand and that struggling if futile.
He's got an incredibly sensible mind, and I can't wait to ride him
on the trails!!!
November 22, 2010
Wanted to tell you that we measured the
boys a couple weeks ago (squared up on concrete), and Lucky Beau
is 15 hands exactly and Sunny is 15.1 hands. In our training
session yesterday, Beau clearly is a little more ahead of Sunny in
ground training exercises. Jan has had 6 weeks to work with Beau
using the Clinton Anderson ground training techniques and lunging
while I was recuperating from surgery. No worries, I'm sure Sunny
will catch up quickly just as he proved to me yesterday. While I
went through the exercises with Sunny, Jan was simultaneously
reviewing them with Beau. Beau was bored and literally falling
asleep. Beau is so calm just like when he got caught under that
fence 2 years ago and patiently waited for me to find him and help
him out of the situation. I believe they will be A+
students.
We would like to congratulate Jan
Chamberlin on convincing Vicki to part from this amazing fellow. We
know that the two of you will have many great adventures on the trail.
GAMBLER'S Lucky Draw
TWHBEA #20703108
DOB: 08-17-2007
COLOR: BUCKSKIN
SEX: STALLION
MARKINGS:
GENOTYPE:
[Ee A- N/Cr]
|
GOLDEN GAMBLER
20112890 BUCKSKIN |
Blue Gold
905820 CREMELLO |
Jetstar's Sunrider
868692 CHOCOLATE PALOMINO |
Delight's Jetstar
702623 BLACK |
Merry Man's Charm
698609 Palomino Sabino |
Big Star's
Gold Lady
790692 Palomino |
Eldorado's
Big Star
662833 BLACK |
Hero Merry
Rose
694854 CHESTNUT |
Cindy's Image - GH
823206 BAY |
Solitude's Eb Master
685658 BLACK |
Ebony Masterpiece
560586 BLACK |
Go Boy's Lady
Ann
550330 |
Threat's Cinderella
730274 BAY |
Triple Threat
612233 Bay |
Handshaker's
Sue
655566 BLACK |
COMMANDING SPIRIT
19907753 CHESTNUT |
I'M IN COMMAND
861533 CHESTNUT |
A COMAND PERFORMANCE
785883 CHESTNUT |
PRIDE OF
MIDNIGHT H.F.
661459 BLACK |
SUN'S BUTTERFLY
662071 BLACK |
COIN'S LUCKY PENNY
811103 CHESTNUT |
PRIDES GOLD COIN
742472 CHESTNUT |
EBONYS MISS AMERICA W
750204 CHESTNUT |
SPIRITS LADYAIRE
940358 BLACK |
PRIDE'S DARK SPIRIT
793670 BLACK |
PRIDE OF
MIDNIGHT H.F.
661459 BLACK |
SPIRIT OF MERRY BOY
671855 BLACK |
SENATOR'S LADYAIRE
784874 BLACK |
EBONY'S SENATOR
641156 BLACK |
DELIGHT'S LADYAIRE
716332 CHESTNUT |
COMMANDING SPIRIT
TWHBEA #19907753
CHESTNUT
|