GORDON'S STORY
Gordon arrived at the rescue in November 2015 as a hard-to-catch, afraid of halters, buddy-sour, highly reactive and scared of everything 10-year-old gelding. He had been born on the property that we picked him up from, originally owned by an older gentleman that knew nothing about horses. Gordon was completely unhandled and ungelded until he was 8 years old when a friend of the rescue bought the property and began the process of gentling Gordon. They had him gelded right away, which helped, but did create a bit of a needle phobia for him that would take years to overcome. He was terrified of halters initially, which made him nearly impossible to catch unless you could coax him into a small space with some food. We found quite quickly that he was incredibly food motivated, which opened many doors in his training journey. In fact, the only way we convinced him to walk in the barn onto the concrete walkway that first night was to give him a cookie every few steps. He picked up his feet as high as he could, as he was convinced the floor was going to eat him.
While he feared virtually everything, that DID NOT include mares. Boy did he love all the mares that he met, and they loved him. We had many fence boards broken in between pastures, with mares ending up in Gordon’s pasture on a regular basis. Within a couple of months of arriving at the rescue, we noticed Gordon was out of his stall in the mornings when we arrived at the barn for breakfast. We initially assumed someone had been forgetful and did not latch
his door properly. It began happening more and more often, which led us to discover that Gordon (aka Cassanova) had learned how to open the latch on his stall door and let himself out to go visit with his numerous girlfriends.
In May 2016, Gordon was sent off for 60 days of professional saddle training. He built up his confidence and was a dream under saddle, even if he remained a bit spooky. When he arrived back at the rescue, he continued his training and schooling with our exercise rider team until the following summer when he and his friend, Gizmo, were adopted by Monet & Candy’s adopters. He lived happily with his new herd for the next 6 years until his herd returned to Trinity when their family had to make the heartbreaking decision to return them due to unforeseen circumstances.
Gordon is now nearly 18 years old, and although still a bit nervous when dealing with new environments, he is as sweet and loving as he always was. He has settled into the sanctuary with his herd mates and enjoys long grooming/cuddle sessions with all the volunteers.
