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	ARRIVED	July 2004
	ADOPTABILITY	ADOPTED! November 2004
	SPONSORED BY	ADOPTED!
	BREED/AGE	4-yo registered QH gelding, "Buster" aka "Realtime Investment"
	Summary: Buster arrived as a 4 year old well bred quarter horse gelding who had problems weaning from his mom, and was badly lame. Time helped Buster get over notc having mommy any more, and his repeated hoof abscesses were traced to a chronic urinary tract infection. Buster was adopted by Karen Kaluf, who loves and enjoys this big boy VERY much. She also lets her son, Andrew, do contesting (gaming/gymkhana) shows with Buster, and you can see a poles run photo below of just how fast this guy is!

"Buster"

History: Buster is a VERY HANDSOME 4-year old (foaled April 2000) deep red sorrel gelding. He is a sweet, well mannered, very handsome youngster who simply never really got through the weaning process at his home farm. Raised at a small facility that has raised just a few exceptionally bred foals from a single mare, they were not able to adequately separate Buster to get him to understand that he no longer needs to spend his entire life at his Dam's side. Even 6-weeks training offsite didn't convince Buster - the moment he was home again, he was back at her side.

Buster's full sister is a state futurity western pleasure champion, and we are told Buster has had basic riding training, but has never learned to ride anywhere except a ring/roundpen. Buster has obviously been raised lovingly by hand, and is wonderful about grooming, leading, loading, clipping, vetwork, etc. We look forward to expanding Buster's riding training and finding him a wonderful home as a pleasure riding or show horse. Buster is currently 15.2 hands tall, but obviously still intends to grow, and his sire's babies tend to reach maturity as 5-6 year olds, filling out into the classic broad-chested quarter horse. Buster was  mildly to severely lame on his left front hoof after arrival.

Health issues: We are thrilled to announce that our concerns of Buster possibly having Cushings have been totally resolved. Buster struggled with a chronic urinary tract infection, which we treated, and we will continue to watch him carefully to ensure he does not relapse. Buster's mystery lameness turned out to be a very nasty hoof abscess, and strain on the other foreleg from supporting the pained hoof for several weeks. Rick Burten, an amazing farrier for special needs hooves, was able to locate and clean the abscess and numerous trails throughout the hoof, and within 24 hours Buster was coming sound. He remained mildly tender-hoofed on the foot that had the severe abscess for a few weeks, but it fully resolved!

Finally feeling like a horse, Buster had the chance to show us not only how nicely he knows how to round pen, but also how well he rides!!!! Buster has had basic western pleasure training, and both neck- and single-reins with ease. We have worked only in the round pen so far, and only at a walk and jog, but he is amazingly comfortable, sweet, and a real pleasure to ride. As with everywhere else in his life, Buster showed himself as timid under saddle, needing a lot of encouragement, but we are enjoying watching him grow out of that with time.  The photo is Karen Kaluf, Laddie/Majesty's Mom, being Buster's second rider at Crosswinds.  Karen is adopting Buster and taking him to join the Kaluf family in Indiana!

10/04 update: Buster continues to bloom under saddle. He has now been on numerous field/trail rides, and is comfortable around cars. His only scare was a pheasant popping out of the corn, and he did an excellent job of "spooking in place" (hopping one step and holding still, trusting his rider, and not attempting to bolt.) We started out with a slow, very "heavy forehanded" lope with Buster in the round pen. Several more field rides, and Buster has found his confidence, enjoying leading, and smoothly and elegantly hand galloping to keep up or pass other horses! Now that he is sound, we really look forward to helping build his muscle tone and developing him into the excellent riding horse he is so capable of becoming.

11/04 update: Buster continues to bloom -- and so does his new mom! Karen, an accomplished rider as a teen, has had limited riding time in the years in between. This weekend, Karen loped Buster in the round pen -- her first canter of any sort in more years than she cares to admit -- and then took him on a field ride, alone, and CANTERED HIM in the open field nearly 1/4 mile!! Karen's grin was matched only by that of her proud husband and, very possibly surpassed by Buster's own pride. Buster is quickly muscling up, and growing up as well. This youngster is developing into something special, and he couldn't have a more perfect partner for his future.

11/28/04 update: BUSTER WENT HOME TODAY!!! Karen and family could not be happier!! And neither could we! Buster says goodbye to Annmarie and Tory before heading for home.
"Just to let everyone know Buster arrived home safely last night and is now spending quality time with his two new sisters Majesty and Laddie.  The below picture is right after Karen unloaded him last night at his new barn in Muncie IN.  AKA Majesty's Kingdom." Buster's first ride in the indoor arena at his new home went perfect!
	February '05 Update: Karen is having a wonderful time with Buster.  He continues to gain a little weight.  I wish he was putting it on a bit, faster but he is really in nice condition.  He is without a doubt the perfect horse for Karen, she really loves him and him her.  He has really found himself also. He canters, trots and walks with no problem when asked.  Karen's confidence is now very good (she's found that old experienced rider that was bottled up inside her).  Andrew also works him from time to time and has galloped many times, run poles and some barrel turns.  The boy [Buster] can flat fly when asked to!  He can turn on dime.  As he matures and fills into that butt and gets that classic Quarter Horse chest he is really going to be something.  We are all looking forward to a little warmer weather where Karen can begin to work him hard.  He loves to work.  Maj and Laddie have a little hard time with him..as his walk is slooooow!  He will step it up, but he reverts back to his old Western training quickly.  Although he no longer does the "nose on the ground" walk ("pushing peanuts" as AM calls it.)
	July '05 Update: Buster is doing fantastic! He's gone from "where's my mommy" to "color me gone"! Here Andrew and Buster are rocking the competition at poles, heading on their way to 4H State!
	August 05 update: Buster continues to do great! Buster here is contesting with Andrew in Dash for Cash at the Hartmeyer show. (Photo courtesy of www.bowtiephotography.com -- lots more great pictures there as well!) Photo courtesy of www.bowtiephotography.com -- what a great service, taking these wonderful professional photos at the show, with prints available IMMEDIATELY! or at your leisure later online. Need photography at your next event? Don't miss out - call BowTie!
August 2006 update: BUSTER 5th at STATE!	Andrew and Realtime Investment (Buster around here normally, but when he does well he goes by his registered name) competed at the Indiana State Fair this past Friday in Flags.  At times Buster has had some arena anxiety but not this time.  Their class had 43 in it from all around IN.  Several horses were slipping badly around the top barrel, one even fell.  The footing simply was not deep enough for this level of contesting.  This course is also full length meaning the fast horses obtained a pretty incredible amount of speed around the course.   As the time grew closer for Andrew and Buster to run we got more and more worried that they would go in full speed and lose it in the corner.  I even started towards the chute to tell Andrew to pull him down for the run to play it safe.  Unfortunately as I got up to tell him, he was called to the arena. So, I returned to my seat and Karen and I crossed our fingers.    Andrew walked Buster into the huge indoor arena, mounted and put Buster on about a 60 foot circle to the right to put him on the proper lead for the run, he looked towards the first barrel and the flag and they were off.  I was relived to see Andrew holding him back!  They made a clean flag pick up, rounded the top barrel where Buster slipped just a little, turned for the next barrel and stuck the flag clean!  He then let Buster go for the run back to the timer beam, breaking the beam for a 10.681 second run.  That was second place for now, with 23 more to run.   When it was all over they held on to 5th place!!  We were ecstatic to say the least!  This run proved to me that both Andrew and Buster can be the fastest in the state at flags, the winning time was 10.18 or so, that would have been an easy time for the two of them to meet as Andrew held Buster down to a much slower run.   Andrew is about as happy as he can be, and for good reason it was quite an accomplishment!   Regards, Steve Kaluf