The Day we meet Sunday…… Part Two..!
I had gotten Marys note left on my cars windscreen to bring the float up to the Fowlers hut as soon as I arrived back at St James, so popped Shae on the float and left Bailey behind and travelled the 17 odd kilometres to the hut…
Sunday was still very weak, but he quickly paired up with Shae, and this alone seemed in some way to give Sunday a little hope as such,,,Mary heated up 6 litres of foal rearing milk that her vet had given her before departing Hanmer, and the foal gulped that down in a flash..
We loaded Shae back on my float, then with everyone helping, sort of lifted Sunday into the floats spare partition, and Mary gently held him against the float wall for the journey down country to Hanmer,Springs where we had arranged the local Vet, to check him over and advised us on his milk feed requirements.
The vet made up a milk mix containing a little colostrum, as he wouldnt have had sufficient from his mother , but overall the vet seemed happy with his condition considering..
He called daily for the first week to Mary paddocks, checking on his diet, and weight gain, giving Mary advise on six hourly feeds, slowly increasing each from 6 litres to eight litres..
During the first few weeks the vet provided all of the milk needs and his services totally free of charge, which was so very much appreciated…
So what are we going to do with this wee fellow..? he wasnt ours as such, so I suggested we ring the Stevenson family who still owned and managed the wild horse herd, which we did, explaining the whole story of what happened and how Sunday came into our lives and where he was now…
The family came back to us a day later, and said if we wish to continue looking after him, then they were happy to let us have him….. they also said that not far from where we initially came across Sunday, there was a report of a dead mare found in a gully, which putting two and two together explained the reason why we couldnt find Sundays Mother..
The Stevensons said Sunday was one very lucky foal as without its mother it wouldnt have survived
Word, in the village of Hanmer Springs spread like wild fire about the little foal who attached himself to new parents and the story of his epic journey thru the mountains and then down to his new life, with many many visitors arriving to take a look..
Mary and I decided that neither one of us would own him, but agreed that we both would share 50/50.We decided that Sunday should stay in Hanmer under Marys care for the first three years, and then he came down to us here in Rangiora, to be started under pack saddle and then later started s a riding horse by myself…Mary imagined in years to come riding Sunday back into his old initial stamping ground of St James… but there was a lot of water to flow under the bridge in the mean time..
At a month old Sunday was consuming 8 litres of milk, four times a day and by the time he was weaned at 6 months had consumed almost $3000 worth of milk….
Mary often would led Sunday out when she rode her own horse around the town of Hamner adding to his celebrity status, which by the time he reached 6 months had become known to nearly all the residence. He would follow Mary around and one day slipped out of his paddock and followed her into town where he tried to enter her restaurant, and then seeing the adjacent pub next door poked his little nose into each of the opened windows seeing what the punters had for him to eat,,, hats , table cloths, food, infact anything that he could reach
Growing up in the artificial world he unfortunately missed out on his natural mothers lessons on manners, and with daily human attention, Sunday soon learnt to get his own way, which……became a bit of an issue, if Mary wanted him to do something which Sunday didnt want to do he could be difficult to handle, and especially once he was a year old and developing into a strapping big lad
At around 2 and a half we decided it may be best for him to come down to Rangiora and intergrate with our horse herd where I could quietly start some basic handling..
I started leading him out when I rode any of our horses , introducing Sunday to a different world, a horse world, miles away from lots of human interaction, but straight away i came up against his stubborn streak when he didnt want to do something…. at times an awful lot of patience was required, but with quiet perseverance, we started to see some progress..
Sunday was a stubborn brute by nature, and now a fully grown horse was powerful and somewhat unpredictable, like the first day I introduced a basic pack saddle to him, he let me put it a couple of times on and off his back the a third time he seemed ok, so slowly slipped the saddles girth strap under his belly, holding it briefly, and had then just done it up on its first hole when Sunday reacted violently, breaking his halter which was tied with a lead rope to a fence, he started bucking and bucking with at times all four feet off the ground, as he bolted flat out around the paddock…hmmmm..
He eventually calmed a little and allowed me to walk up and put a new halter on him but when I tried to remove the saddle he wasnt happy..
I needed a different tacked to working with him over the next year, and with patience we did manage to saddle him with just the basic pack saddle each time I led him out around the country roads from my riding horse, and after the following winter, we did manage to get him finally as our new pack horse loaded Lighty initially, but that stubborn pig headed boy was still unpredictable..
One day he would be fine with everything, the next look out, with one day, out of the blue he blew up and nearly flattened me on my horse while out on a trek….I said after this incident to Mandy, that I think he just wasnt safe to be around..
Talking to Mary she suggested we take him to a friend who delt with problem horses, and had broken in hundred of horses, which we did, however after only one week, he telephoned saying there wasnt much he could do with Sundays wild mood swing and unpredictability..
So returning home I just turned him out for around a year, and didnt do anything further with him..Mary telephoned one day saying another friend had a team of clydesdale horses and on hearing of Sundays plight asked if he could try him as a cart horse jammed between two big horses…
Eventually this chap did manage to get some work out of him and he did settle somewhat but still Sunday was Sunday when he didnt want to do something..
Today he is now back with Mary and she looks after him as a ten year old, occasionally being used as her pack horse, but mostly just a paddock mate for her other horse…
A sad sort of story, and one I personally have felt beaten by him as I have started many many horses under pack saddle initially and then given time under riding saddle, each horse being different and each horse learning at different rates, with me adjusting my program to suit each horse, but Sunday… well he will always be Sunday I guess..!
Pictures below ..top left the day Sunday came down to us in Rangiora and immediately, tried to exert his dominance over Gizz..top right… one of the many trips around the block with just the basic pack saddle, being led off my riding horse..note the look in his eye..Bottom Left…. another day out being led to get used to saddle, and surrounding conditions such as passing traffic etc…Bottom right stopping for lunch..
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