Choncho was a special horse who came to us in a very peculiar way...
Back in the spring of '03, we lived in a small town outside Chino Valley, AZ. One day Brandon and I were in town and then took the long way home to enjoy the drive a little more and our neighborhood. We went by a house with a scrawny horse in a dry lot. Not only was he scrawny, scraggly and shaggy, he was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen with his lovely white spots on his red butt. But he was very skinny, around 150-200lbs skinny, and I wondered why and how?
We continued home but I still thought about that horse and how he was doin'. I'd see him every so often and he looked the same. There was hay at the house, so I figured he might be a hard keeper and left it at that...but still thought of him.
Fast forward to the following spring...we had a car for sale. A guy came by askin' about the car. We told him that we would consider all offers as we didn't need the car and it was just sittin' there. He offered a 2 year old colt, Appaloosa colt. I promptly told him yes, horse unseen. I had longed for my own horse since I could remember. Not a little girl crush on horses...I yearned for a horse. I had even rescued a horse from a dog food/colic mess in the same neighborhood. I felt a complete passion for horses...feeling they are as close to humans/emotions as an animal can get.
We went over to see the colt without a name...and it was HIM!!! That scraggly, ugly, beautiful horse I had seen a year ago. I was blown away and just in awe at how things work.
We finally get to pick him up and it was horrible. The conditions of his housing/feed was awful but the owner also didn't want to take the time to have him load properly, as he had never been in a trailer, let alone even out of his stall for all of his 2 years. Ropes, kicking, pullin', pushin'...all sorts of methods were used by this asshole(sorry) to get Choncho in the trailer, even though we had told him we would do it and take our time to earn his trust. Choncho ended up in the trailer, on his back with his feet flailing everywhere. I had turned away to hide my tears and horror from the girls and prayed for us to get him outta there and to his loving home.
We got him home and I don't think I quit lookin' out the window at him or pettin' him for days...maybe weeks. We slowly got him fattened up on good alfalfa and grain for a growin' boy and then made an appointment to get him gelded.
His surgery went well except we had found out that he had no front bottom teeth. When the vet took out his wolf teeth, he noticed severe trauma to his bottom teeth/gums. Well, come to find out, the guy who had him had tried to breed him as a yearling (the spring of '03) and the mares kicked his teeth out. And the worst part of it was the guy never took him to the vet and that is around the time Brandon and I had seen him so skinny. He was unable to eat the nasty cow hay the guy fed him.
My heart broke all over again for him and my love grew stronger. What a special horse. And we had such a fun summer that year. We did all sorts of ground work with him, I gave him baths and we played in the water together. It was a beautiful time in my life...me and my horse.
We then moved to another house in the area until it was time to move to Montana in May. We thought after a long day of movin' our stuff (o-and I was preggo with our third, Colton, at the time) that Choncho and Spirit (the Mustang we rescued and Chonch's pard) would be tough to load. Choncho had not been in a trailer since we took him home. Brandon loaded Spirit and after a few test runs and calming him, he loaded right in. I was amazed at his willingness and trust in Brandon...just an awesome horse.
Spirit and Choncho proceeded to follow us to Montana, then to Idaho to spend a couple long, cold winters.
But we also gained Star, the beautiful lady you see in this pic. We had some good times in Idaho with the horses.
My brain is finally allowing me to not think about how he died and just think about the good times. Though it is hard...maybe I'm crazy for takin' it so hard, I don't know. It's just unreal for things to change and happen so quickly to me. I have a hard time adjusting...
My mom did bring us a yellow lab/Pyrenees puppy yesterday that will be our huntin' and inside big dog. Charlie is greatly missed and I like a big dog to go to the woods with us and be inside the house in case the outside dogs are off huntin' somewhere.
We also have been huntin' deer and are scoutin' for a turkey for Thanksgiving. We don't get much time but we are hopin' to bag a big doe, maybe 2 and a couple hogs. Montanna is a whiz with the bow and wants to come with us some time.
Anyhow, I need to go and get things done around here on my day off. Have a good day!
