Gazsi’s big chance

Gazsi’s big chance
2011.12.05.

The story of Gazsi started 2 years ago. He was neglected by his owners so the 18th district local government confiscated him.

When he arrived:

His hooves were in a terrible condition, so neglected that his joints at the fetlock became deformed because of claw mistreat or just the lack of a shoeing-smith. A long time of rehabilitation began and we thought his leg would never be well enough. We did, however, our best to normalize his legs, to relieve the pain. The smith couldn’t repair his hooves all at once because it would give him a lot of pain for Gazsi. So he shaped the hooves just a little bit every time not to overload them. During this time Gazsi was recovering step by step: put on weight, his hair grew healthy and regained his real self. Other horses like Tündér, Palko and Cox became his new friends.

In 2 years time he turned to be a jewel of our stud. Most people having seen our stud wondered at this extremely beautiful pony of hempen mane. His beautiful motion wast full of action when he wanted to attract attention in the shelter. People didn`t understand what was he doing in a shelter so we showed his hooves and everyone was surprised how he was able to walk on those ’slippers’ at all.

Lately we noticed he was getting bored. He teased the other horses, chased the dogs and tried to attract the attention of the people. We often watched him running up and down in the meadow and performing stunts just for fun. We also tried to keep him busy but we run a shelter and not a fitness camp for horses whom are suppose to outlet his energies day after day.

Then the idea arose to find a foster family for him where he could be trained on a daily basis. But whom? We didn’t want to give him to a traditional riding-school where he would get different riders each day but would spend the rest of the day in a box of 3×3 meters. Anyway, we agreed that Gazsi needed a training before anyone can ride on him. We’d have loved if he had got a natural method of training without being constrained as he had had enough of it in his life.

But what are those natural methods? Maybe the movie ’The Horse Whisperer’ comes to the mind of yours. Fortunately more and more people are starting to use this method. Basically, it means that people start to speaking the ’langauge’ of the horse instead of teaching this beautiful animal how to obey the master’s words (it doesn’t matter if it wants or not). This is an other kind of philosophy. The fans of this method start an enduring friendship with the horse without breaking its will to do what is said as soon as possible.
The most spectacular representative of the natural horsemanship and freestyle horsetraining is Jean-Francois Pignont

Of course, his is a variety show but the point, I think, needn’t be explained.

Several years ago I also took part in a natural horsemanship course and I have made use of it until now. So I tried to find my then master if he could recommend me someone for Gazsi. On my request he immediately proposed me one of his students who was looking for a pony for his daughter (how small the world is!). I contacted him and as he looked very kind so I offered him a meeting with Gazsi in the shelter. Needless to say it was love at first sight with our little hempen-colored mane dude.

We agreed to a meeting on his farm to see Gazsi`s hopefully future home. We couldn’t find a better place! The farm is in a valley with spacious meadows on the hillside. The horses are not confined in boxes at night. They have an open hurdle where they can decide for themselves where to spend the night: in- or outside.
What really fascinated me was the silence and the calmness. The horses looked happy and of even temper and the people were quite friendly. The atmosphere of the place really enchanted me. If I were a horse, I would surely want to live in a place like this.

And how small the world is: our smith’s (István Mészáros Jr.) pony was also kept there as it turned out when we were there. So the issue of Gazsi’s hooves were settled: he undertook the horse’s hooves which was a big relief for us as no one knows the ’story’ of those hooves better than him.

After long organizings the day came when we had to say goodbye to Gazsi. Everything happened so fast. We arranged the paperwork, caught Gazsi – was standing curiously at the gate with Palko (I thought they might suppose we had brought a new nag here). The halter was quickly put on and he walked into the transporter wthout hesitation.

At that moment Palko suddenly realized that something was wrong. His best friend was just taken to a transporter and most probably he wouldn’t get him back.

Gazsi looked back at us for the last time.

Then they quickly set out because horses don’t like staying in the horse carrier when it is standing. On the way they are concerned with balancing themselves.

Palko was standing at the gate for hours and called his friend back. Anyway, when the other one left, no tear had been dropped…

The transportation was smooth.

The arrival:

And the new neighbour (the curious aboriginals in the background).

Since then we also got news from him. He befriended with his neighbour soon and slowly started to fit in.
Of course, we are going to visit him later, to see if everything is okay. Up to now he seems to get his hind quarters on the best place ever found. We hope he will appreciate his new home!