OVERVIEW
Faith, Dillon and Ransom are the main teachers of Soulful Equine. Soulful Equine is their messenger. Enjoy their stories below.
ABOUT FAITH
Faith is a beautiful flea bit gray Appendix Quarter Horse (QH) mare, born February 1986. She’s a retired racehorse and it’s been a challenging journey with her. Faith has been a special part of Stephanie’s life since the summer of 2000.
Faith was in her mid-teens when the two of them met. By then, a lot of damage had been done to her not only from a physical standpoint but also from a mental and emotional one.
So, how do you reverse the damage? Can you reverse it?
Basically, Stephanie was not aware of the extent of Faith’s damage until several years later. The more she learned, she realized changes needed to be made or Faith may not live a long, quality life.
As the years passed, Stephanie came to understand what the term bleeder meant in relation to horses. Faith would show bleeding from her nostrils. Over time, through change in diet, trial and error, Stephanie now has Faith’s bleeding under control using natural horse care strategies.
Being an appendix QH, Faith is also difficult to keep weight on, especially the older she gets. She’s doing great despite the challenges involved. From a hoof care standpoint people usually say that the foot has been bred off of our horses. This is a common thing to hear in relation to Thoroughbreds. People think that by default Thoroughbreds have thin walled hooves, which is not true. Faith has the thickest and toughest walls of any horse Stephanie trims and one hoof is even WHITE!
Faith loves to move, move, move. This is great for her since it keeps her healthy and feeling younger. The natural boarding arrangement she lives in provides lots of movement and she loves it.
Faith has been another one of Stephanie’s great teachers and she hopes that Faith will be around many more years to come. She’s a loving companion that will always be cherished and her name says it all, Faith.
ABOUT DILLON
Dillon is a beautiful sorrel QH gelding and he was born in April 1989. He came into Stephanie’s life during the fall of 2000, not long after Faith. Dillon is a big stocky horse who used to help pony horses on the racetrack. He’s also one of those types of horses who’s great for anyone to ride and to be around because he is just a safe kind of horse. He has a low spirit level and is such a kind-hearted gentleman, when he wants to be.
Dillon also came into Stephanie’s life, as did Faith, when he was in his teens. Much damage from a physical standpoint had already been done by that time. From a mental standpoint, Dillon is the kind of horse who internalizes things, call that good or bad.
It didn’t take long (about a year) before Dillon started to have an “off-ness” at the trot, almost like he had an old injury to his shoulder. As time went on Dillon had more and more problems and it became difficult to keep him sound. The farrier at the time felt that he needed corrective shoeing to deal with this problem. Dillon went through the traditional corrective shoeing methods, which are still applied today by traditional farriers, and nothing worked.
Some of the last shoes he had on were bar shoes and those came after shoes with pads. After a long journey and a lot of research, Dillon is now a happy barefoot horse. His story will be written up in a series of articles since there is much to learn from his journey.
ABOUT RANSOM
Ransom is a beautiful red roan QH gelding and he was born in May 2006. As Dillon and Faith started to grow older Stephanie knew she needed to start looking for another horse to add to the family. This time the plan was to obtain a horse with little or no baggage from both a physical and mental standpoint.
In May 2007, Stephanie met Ransom. At that time his name was Levi, but that name didn’t fit him. The picture on Stephanie’s About Page is of the first time Ransom and Stephanie met. It was their first hand shake so to speak. Stephanie knew the minute that little guy came walking up to her in the pasture that it was a match.
Something told her “this is him, this is the horse I’ve been waiting for all this time.” The funny thing is that Stephanie had gone over to look at this horse with the full intention of not yet buying. She had intended to wait another year, but little Ransom just captured Stephanie’s heart. It was almost perfect.
If you ever meet Ransom, you’ll probably realize that he’s one of the smartest horses you’ll ever get to know. He loves to smile for treats or for the camera and he loves to pick on his buddy Dillon (Dillon allows Ransom get away with a lot). Ransom is the kind of horse that can figure out almost any puzzle.