Mini-bios all around!

The One Eyed Horse - I think it's important for me to introduce who shall be known as "TOEH" from here on out FIRST, because he is the most important.

TOEH is a pretty special guy. I have known him since he was a yearling - we have carried on a love/hate relationship since then, culminating in a love/love relationship since he became less "The Two Eyed Horse" and more "The One Eyed Horse". He is a registered Paint Horse, breeding stock registry (which means that he does not visibly have "enough" white to be considered regular registry, but can still carry color patterns that allow his offspring to be colored). He is a 6 year old stallion who lost his eye in March 2007. He came to us with limited vision in one eye (not genetic, due to injury at his previous home), and lost vision in his "good" eye in March when he managed to (inexplicably) escape from his stall (Houdini?) and we are not certain whether the eye was bitten/kicked or scraped on wood/equipment in the barn - the eyeball was punctured. The vet who saw him did not feel it important to remove the eye, but rather felt it would fall out on it's own and would not need to be sewn shut (Coincidentally, we also found out during that episode that he is acutely allergic to Pennecillan). It was an uphill battle to keep that open wound clean without being able to use antibiotics, but we managed and no raging infection killed TOEH.

TOEH lost his eye completely a couple of weeks after the vet saw him, and now has an open socket with an unattractive mele of flesh and tissue. He has absolutely no pain in the socket. His remaining eye we estimate to have roughly 50% vision (IF that). We believe that he can see shapes and shadows but are not sure how much he can actually see defined.

TOEH learned to get along pretty well with only one eye - miraculously, that one eye seems to have grown in vision strength. He has learned to trust his handler and copes very well. He longes on both sides, but is a little more wary when his blind eye is on the outside of his circle. When his blind eye is toward the middle, he feels safe, trusting his handler to "watch his back". He was not previously trained under saddle. (Critics will ask why, so..) He is extremely halter bred... as in, his sire is in the top 3 of the lifetime leading sire of halter champions in the APHA. His damsire is in the same list. For any of you who are familiar with the halter vs pleasure divisions between horses in stock breeds (and arabians), a halter horse's job is to look pretty, and his value lies more in his conformation (which is not always the most conducive to longevity as a riding horse). Movement does not play a huge factor in. Fortunately, TOEH has usable conformation, it could definitely be very worse (while still being attractive, of course!).

We have crossed him on mares with performance backgrounds and they have produced some very nice foals that excel in both the riding ring and the halter ring... but TOEH himself does not have a ridden show record... YET.

Mandy - I like to think that I am an adventurous spirit and I like to take on challenges. The truth is that I hate it when I get hurt, I hate falling off a horse even more. As a result, even though I have ridden green horses (green, not naughty!) for the last decade, I haven't fallen off in as long. I hope not to break this staying-on streak. I am 22 and overweight - I won't lie. I have a big frame so I look out of place on lots of horses. Fortunately, TOEH (and I have been sizing him up for a year now!) looks to be just about the right height and frame of horse to carry me well.

My family has had horses for as long as I can remember, and from the time I was about 12, I have been competent and comfortable handling stallions in a variety of ages and stages in life. TOEH is no different, and I have found, based on his personality, I actually prefer a stallion every once in a while. Sometimes it is nice to handle a gelding or a mare and not have to keep an eye on them 100% but I feel that handling stallions helps keep me sharp and concious of my surroundings and abilities when handling ANY horse, not just stallions.

But this blog isn't about stallions. This is about TOEH's journey to rideability, and I want to invite the cyber horsey world out there to join us on this journey.