Pokey

I acquired Pokey from a friend in 2013. I knew very little about him except he was supposedly 25 yrs old and his papers had been lost. He has always had very bad feet and it was a constant struggle keeping him sound up until fall last year when my farrier (who is also my brother) decided to try padding him. (Now he still has crappy feet, but he doesn’t get stone bruises anymore). He is typically the low man on the totem pole in the pasture, so is generally only turned out with one other horse. He also has very worn teeth, so his diet consists of a soaked complete feed in place of hay.

I was recently fortunate enough to locate Pokey’s breeder, who gave us additional information on the old man. It turns out, Pokey’s registered name with the AQHA is “Hotrod Hank” (Skip’s Country Star X Ms Blazin Hotrod), and he was actually foaled on 4/08/1993, which means he just turned 24 years old!

In spring of 2016 Pokey suffered a stifle injury whilst playing in the pasture, and he was given most of the year off – only recently returning to light work. At his age you would think he should be retired, but he has made it perfectly clear he has no interest in doing so (in fact when he is not ridden regularly he gets bored and causes trouble in the pasture). Keep an eye out for the old man – he’s bound to surprise us all!