Two Socks

Yesterday I had the pleasure of getting to ride Two Socks. Two Socks, or To Ci as I called him (and he liked) is a Tennessee Walking horse  x  Clydesdale cross. He is 20 years old and has spent the past five years in a rescue. Two Socks seems to have bad luck, everybody that has ever adopted him brought him back, never because of HIM.
To Ci was rescued from a starvation case along with some others, he was rescued from a "rescue".
Not too many people volunteer at the rescues, so when the rescues do have volunteers they will put them to work doing really urgent stuff like cleaning stalls, filling water, feeding, and things that keep the horses alive.
        Needless to say, that they don't have enough people to brush all the horses and work them.

 I went to get him out of the pasture, and he was easy to catch.  My friend, who boards there told me that no one had been able to get him to stay at the trot and he would NOT lope. I walked him around for a bit and found that somebody must have beat him, because when I move the rope, he got really scared.
He was also scared of  sudden movements. I took the rope and rubbed it all over him, gently swung it at his legs and over his back. We did this and some other things and before long, he would let me jump up and down around him and through the lead rope over his ears.

I think after that he began to see that I wasn't going to hurt him. Then I tried to get him to trot, no go. I was the one that did the trotting. I walk over and looked in his eyes, and we just stood like that, looking at one and other, then he looked away, and we tried it again. I had loosened the rope to the point that he didn't have to go if he didn't want to. Then I started to jog, and he followed. From then on ground work was when I stopped, he stopped, when I walked, he walked, when I jumped, he jumped. I took him into the round pen, to groom him and saddle him up. He had some pretty nasty knots, and was thrilled to be "Luved".
I didn't get any before pictures, but here are the after pictures.

                   He had the thickest tail ever!

To Ci was a doll to saddle, I think he liked it!
We walked around, and he was pretty rusty, but willing to please.
After some work we went out of the round pen. To Ci was an angel! and then I asked him to trot, and he did WITHOUT breaking the gait. And then after working some more, I asked for the lope, and he did.

Two Socks is a wonderful horse, and he might be 20, but he has the energy of a 10 year old.

           Love,
Neighgirl
P.S. If you have a rescue nearby, please consider giving some love to horses (or other animals) that life has been unkind to.