Meet Miss Patricia Tee

Miss Patricia Tee aka The Old Girl

I have a dear friend that works for our local animal control. I have always wanted to rehab a horse and told her that if she every found a quarter horse that was in need, to call me. AC had seized many quarter horses but there was always some reason that I could not do the rehab, either a legal issue or someone else had paid to take the horse etc. Out of the blue one day she calls and said that she had the perfect horse for me. I told her that I would come out and look at her. My heart broke into pieces when I saw her. The owner/x-caregiver showed my friend pictures of her when they were showing her and showed her registration papers. She was 22 years old, severely underweight and had a yearling foal still nursing on her. AC also thought she might be pregnant. I committed to take her and showed up at AC the next day to pay, yes pay, my $30 adoption fee. I went to get her and she could barely carry the weight of her own head. But she JUMPED into the trailer! This is a picture of the old girl the day I picked her up.

I got her to the boarding facility that I was boarding at and the manager was so helpful. We started her on Senior Stable pellets. They were a mix of alfalfa, grain hay, beet pulp and supplements. We soaked them and added some senior grain in for good measure. She was eating good and seemed to be doing o.k. After a week or two I wormed her really good and had her feet done. Then she started loosing her hair. By the clumps, down to bare skin. I thought she had some kind of disease. And she was looking more pregnant than ever. At three weeks I had her teeth floated and gave her all her vaccinations. She continued to gain weight and you could see the light coming back to her eyes. I had her about a month when my friend told me that her pasture mate - a horse that I thought was in better shape than she was - had died the week after I took the old girl. It's liver had shut down from starvation. I believe that the old girl was probably days away from dying when I took her home. Below is her sires and dams on her 4 generation pedigree.

SIRE side of pedigree

Mach I 1960
Junior Reed 1954
Mac's Nix 1973
Spanish Joy 1954
Ricky Coquette 1967
Ricky Taylor 1954
Mac Paddy 1984
Miss Scatter Bar 1962
Rudy Buck 1958
Pretty Buck 1942
Aggie Buck 1965
Rosy Poco 1953
Poco Diosa 1959
Poco Bueno 1944
Cuerva Rey 1950

DAM side of pedigree
Two Eyed Jack 1961
Two D Two 1957
Joe Joe Jack 1967
Triangle Tookie 1951
Bay Queen Jo 1956
Monsieur Joe 1948
Tweedle Miss 1976
Roan Queen 1944
Mr Sen Sen 1957
Barred 1946
Miss Tweedle Bar 1968
Miss Sen Sen 1947
Tweedle Dee 1956
Driftwood 1932
Tuckaluck 1953

She is bred pretty well and trained even better. After we got probably 300 lbs on her and were sure that she was not pregnant, I asked a friend to ride her. I was over 250 lbs at the time and I just felt that I was too heavy to ride her. My friend rode her for what we figure was the first time in ten years and this mare rode like she had been ridden every day for the last 10 years! I was so excited and almost in tears. I turned her out with a couple of my mares for a few weeks and then decided that maybe I should finish my rehab project. My goal was to rehab a horse and give it a useful life. I called a friend that I know gives lesson to small children and asked if she might need a lesson horse. She had seen the mare when I brought her home, she had seen her under saddle and knew that she was trained for western please, halter, trail, etc. She said "to heck with the kids, I want her for myself". She wanted a horse she could do Trail Trials on. I told her to try her out, but she is not for sale, but you can use her till you are done and then I will retire her at my home. She came out the next day and had her 15 year old daughter ride her and then she rode her and they were both hooked. They took the old girl home that weekend. She has been kicking butt at Trail Trials all summer on her!

Here is a picture of her at the last one they went to. PS they don't call her "The Old Girl" they call her Trish.