Echo River Ranch

I Wanna Be Your Pal

This horse has a kindness about him that makes you want to hug him and he loves the attention. He is the most vocal horse at the ranch, and begs to go out on every ride.

Statistics - A Description of Pal

I Wanna Be Your Pal I Wanna Be Your Pal goes by the barn name "Pal". He is a gelding of uncertain age; a veterinarian believes him to be born about 1986. He is about 15-2 hands (or 62 inches) tall at the withers. Since he has no registration papers, he is technically a Pinto and could possibly be of saddlebred breeding.

Horse Statistics At A Glance Pals main body color is chestnut and white, because his mane and tail are flaxen (not black). He has a blaze, long and narrow, the full length of his face. All four legs are white, which is typical of the Tobiano pinto coloring.

     

     

The Beginning - How We Obtained Pal

Pal is always watching In March of 2014, Pal came to the ranch with a large straight nail in his right front foot. Not knowing how long the nail had been there, it had caused an absess inside the foot. Working with our farrier (horseshoer), we medicated the foot and designed special shoes and padding to ease his pain through the healing process.

Pal was lame for many months. But eventually he was walking more soundly and we allowed him to follow along on shorter rides. He has been ridden many times on short rides and remained sound on that foot. So he is now ready for longer rides.

     

     

Horse Tails - Funny Things & Stories About Pal

Pal enjoys going on the trails Very little history is known about Pal. It was assumed that he had been a trail horse of some sort. So during his foot healing, we allowed him to follow along loose on one of our trail rides.

Pal was eager to go along, so he proudly followed the string of horse just as if he too had a rider on his back. At a point where the trail became wider, he was able to get between horses and follow along in the middle of the group. Then eventually, he became confident enough to get out front and take lead of the group, going down the trail first. The trails are brushy, but still easy to follow.

All of a sudden, Pal saw a deer in the trail before him and without a second thought he bolted sideways off trail and headed cross country (good thing he did not have a rider on his back). About 20 feet in he realized that none of the other horses were following him and he stopped. After pouting a second or two, he relunctantly once again took the rear position and followed us back to the ranch.

     

     

The Present - What We Think About Pal

Pal hiding from flies in the shade
Pal truly hates to be left out, he hangs his head over the gates and begs to go out on the trail rides. He positions himself at the gate and often tries to follow the other horses out the gate so he can go on the rides.

He is a high energy horse and should have a more experienced rider unless he is being ponied from another horse. After so much time off from his sore foot, we will be slowly building up his muscle and tolerance for the longer day rides.