Adoptable Horses

Gibbs is a lovely moving, sweet, talkative dude. He loves people and prefers to have a job and friends. If you like talkative horses, he’ll nicker / chuff sweetly at you all day long just to draw in more attention. Gibbs is WTC for an intermediate rider with a good trainer / barn manager who knows how to handle sensitive-footed OTTBs. 

Gibbs is good to have a full life of riding and companionship, but he requires a few extras: his own stall and a good farrier (and limited turnout). Look, I’m a huge fan of getting these horses outside as much as possible. That said, his feet really just can’t currently handle it the wet-dry cycle of turnout. He can turnout but smaller, dry spaces would be preferred. He cannot go barefoot and just be in boots – that’s a fine stop gap if he loses a shoe, but this kid is tender and needs all the bottom-up help he can get. 

Gibbs would be a lovely dressage mount or just a good all around kiddo. He has not spent much time jumping and gets quite nervous outside of arenas, so I wouldn’t recommend him for a trail home unless said adopter knows how to work with green and anxious types. Inside the arena or the near-field, he is lovely, kind and has super movement under saddle. 

His issues to know about: 

-  Feet: Needs a quality farrier and at least front shoes at all times

-  Limbs: Has a well-healed lesion of his superficial digital flexor tendon (LF at 30%) *Is currently sound on the leg

-  Back: Is slightly roach-backed. This has no impact on his riding ability

The backstory: 

Gibbs has been in and out of my program since 2023. This war horse with 72 starts had a kind eye and deserved a serious letdown and great restart to match him with the right home. That said, Gibb’s retirement has not gone entirely as planned. 

To briefly summarize: 

In September of 2023, Gibbs made it to my farm (Kivu Sporthorses & Training – then located in McDonough, GA) and on his third day of turnout, cantered around my field while I watched and put a 30% lesion in his left front superficial flexor tendon. I brainstormed what to do and ultimately my vets and I came up with a plan that donated him to a lovely local rescue where they could provide his care. Gibbs stayed at Southern Star Animal Rescue and received all the care he needed including Renovo treatment and shockwave for seven months. After he passed his final ultrasound scan with flying colors, Gibbs returned to me to be restarted. After a few months, I managed to rehome him to a set of good riding, kind folks and the story should have happily ended there. 

However, Gibbs’ feet don’t hold up to full time turnout and he needs individual feeding away from other horses. He had dropped weight and was less than sound (due to his feet, not the rehabbed leg). They kindly shipped him back to me, and we started over. Gibbs has been back with me in New York since September and has packed on the pounds (and the hair- he’s a fuzzy yak!) and his feet have been challenging, but are getting better.  I have hopped on him a few times since he has come home but mostly have been letting him pack on the pounds and start to feel better across his whole body.

 The kiddo feels fantastic currently and is ready for a job!

His adoption fee is TBD to help get him to the right home. Fee is shared with Southern Star Animal Rescue

Sews is a huge, elegant goof ball who has three lovely gaits and a jump with clear, pretty knees. He feels great and has made it very clear that he feels great and really needs a job! What job does Sews need? He could succeed at pretty much anything – eventing, dressage, fox hunting, jumpers, and even hunters for his daisy cutter movement. 

That said, Sews absolutely needs a herd… and he needs to have someone in that herd who can keep him in line. Sews is smart and has a slightly mischievous side, which if unchecked can be read as “a little too much.” He struggles to differentiate malice from play and he’s so big that it can get him in trouble. 

Under saddle he is pretty uncomplicated but it needs to be clear – like on the ground – that there are boundaries. Sews needs to know what he is allowed to do and what he is not. If the boundaries are soft or inconsistent, he just decides he is in charge, and that’s not always in his best interest – he’s just too big for those shenanigans. 

Sews came through my program in Georgia last year and was with me from Christmas to March. In that time he gained a solid foundation and was coming along well.

 He shipped to Washington to a very knowledgeable rider, and didn’t quite work out in the situation. To no fault of anyone’s he just needed a set of other geldings to play with. Alone in a paddock next to a pony, Sews just got himself in more and more trouble. His owner did everything under the sun – she treated for ulcers, worked him on the ground, and xrayed his back – he does have kissing spine, which he does not palpate to. *I'm happy to share more insights here as I do not believe that this is a limiting factor for him. 

Unsure how to go forward, she kindly shipped him back across the country.

Sews has hung out with my geldings and found his feet and herd. He requires reminders to not play too hard, but has done super well. I have hopped on a handful of times and he has been a good boy WTC for each ride. He’ll come back into work here in the spring but is available to also be brought back along at this point. 

Requirements:

-  Shoes (he has tender feet)

-  A herd of geldings

-  A rider & trainer with intermediate or better skills in the saddle and solid abilities to maintain boundaries

Sews is available for an adoption fee of TBD the perfect, knowledgable home. 

Major Spin is probably the only true rescue in the barn. I don’t use that word lightly. He’s a huge, kind, Klingon-headed goober who needs a lower level job with a knowledgable rider. 

Spin’s life hasn’t always been easy. was running at Fingerlakes under a trainer who has a reputation for not being the shining gem of the backside. When Spin first walked out of his stall for a listing with the Fingerlakes Finest Thoroughbreds organization, he hobbled out on three legs. The track trainer helping to list the horses was like, “Please just bring a trailer and get him out of that barn.”

Spin’s issue was his knee. Various vets have looked at the knee since we radiographed it and can assume that he may have slab fractured, continued to run on it, chipped, and developed arthritis both on the front side and rear sides of the joint. 

Compounding the problems, another reputable rehomer had recently seen Spin sitting in icepacks on the knee before heading to the race paddock to run on it. S*&$ like that makes my blood boil.

The track vets went so far as to donate radiographs of the knee. Suffice to say, the knee isn’t pretty and was not a candidate for surgery. But the trainer didn’t want to give him away, he “had a buyer in New Jersey” who wanted him… maybe to keep racing, maybe to retire (I find that dubious), who knows? So I did what was financially irresponsible at the time and ponied up the funds and got him out of there.

My hope with Spin is that we can get the knee to cool down enough that he’ll make a nice lower level horse — unfortunately, he’s not a surgical candidate. Multiple reputable surgeons have looked at the rads and noted that we could make the knee look better cosmetically, but that’s not going to change the biggest problem — the arthritis.

So in the meantime, while I sort out his next move, he’s turned out with a couple of calm Thoroughbreds currently and getting the rest, calories and down time he needs. The plan is to restart him soon and see how he holds up to lower level work. What I can tell you in the meantime is that he has gotten nearly fully sound on that knee (assuming he hasn’t lost his shoes in the mud) and he loves ground work and people. 

Spin is slow to trust and headshy, but once he recognizes that you’re one of the good guys, he is sweet and extremely level headed. He’s frankly one of the smartest horses in the barn and I think anyone hoping for a horse of a lifetime – a join up type who will try his heart out for you – will find this horse to be right up their alley. 

Spin is available for an adoption fee of TBD to help get him to the perfect low level home.