Crosswinds Equine Rescue

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ARRIVED	November 2003
ADOPTABILITY	ADOPTED 11/15/2004
SPONSORED BY	adopted
BREED/AGE	3-year-old (2001 model) paint pony gelding, 13.1 hands

		Merlin

Merlin is a 3-year old (foaled 2001) black and white paint pony gelding.

He is a sweet, well-mannered little fellow who came to us needing his feet trimmed, shots, gelding and handling time.

We are thrilled that Merlin found a forever home in Pennsylvania with a very special young lady and her family!! Merlin went home winter of 2004.

	11/03 UPDATE: Merlin is rapidly proving himself to be a show pony in the making. Merlin is a joy to ride, follows willingly without crowding other horses, walks/trots/canters on command, seldom spooks, and does not fight his rider to go faster. He will fall back, trailing well behind the horses he's following rather than hurry, unless asked by his rider. We're so glad to have Merlin with us and look forward to having him help other young riders get the right start! Notice his sweet, gentle behavior even at a canter showing through in the photo!
	02/04 UPDATE: Merlin received a wonderful gift this week. Heidi Henry of NY donated an adorable blue winter blanket to help him through this unusually bitter winter. Heidi also sent 2 other pony blankets and a broad range of other horsey items to help Merlin and the other Crosswinds charges. THANK YOU HEIDI! Heidi shares that she hadn't seen Merlin's picture when she sent the blanket, but that he looks very much like her beloved Stormie, the pony who crossed the Rainbow Bridge to whom the blanket had belonged. We sincerely hope Merlin's photos give Heidi warm memories of Stormie as much as it will give Merlin warm moments these cold, cold months.
	08/04 UPDATE: Merlin has been showing and doing wonderfully! Here Merlin meets a person in a giant costume of Geoffrey the Toys R Us Giraffe -- and handling it great! Merlin was exposed to parade conditions that day -- including motorcycles, 4wheelers, fire trucks, tractors, crowds, helicopters and more! -- besides meeting Geoffrey, although his rider's nerves lead to them not actually riding in the parade.
	10/04 UPDATE: Merlin placed first in Walk Trot at the Champaign County Fair, and has really bloomed into an adorable little show pony! Merlin has since shown in numerous other shows, placing wonderfully in walk/trot and cantering classes, as well as enjoying learning the basics of gaming classes such as barrels and poles.
	11/04 UPDATE: Merlin goes home! "Horsin' Around Trucking" picked up Merlin at 7AM Sunday morning (11/14/04) to take him to the Angotti's. (left - Merlin's ride; center, Merlin loads at sunrise; right, Merlin meeting his next door neighbor!)
	MEET MERLIN'S BABY! Merlin was actually an immature stallion when he came to us, despite our being told he was gelded and his coggins listing him as gelded. He bred a member's mare, Rosie, who was here for training. See Rosie's and Merlin's baby, Molly in our adoptables area.
	Notes from Merlin's new Home: He's Here!!! Merlin arrived about 7:15 this morning and seems to be doing just fine. He's even cuter in real life! He didn't paw when he ate, just held his foot up in the air. He is in a little paddock right now with four of our gang next to him. The trailer was amazing he sure came in style. :) We will definitely enjoy him and want to thank you again for this amazing gift. I promise that he has a wonderful home and to always keep you updated and send pics, hopefully that will help you miss him a little less. Tell Tory thanks again and she can visit whenever you are in the area. My friend's mare is becoming very loving and maternal towards him. He's seems to be settling into the daily routine very well, and is sure loving the attention. His first night here was like that scene from black beauty when the taxi driver gets him and the whole family gathers around petting and brushing him. Quite the Kodak moment. Just wanted to give you a quick update on Merlin. He is a very well mannered little pony under saddle, when I free lunge him he can be a bit of a goober, but under saddle he is a very good boy. He is fitting into the herd very well and seems to have relaxed much more. I can't believe it has been a whole month since he's been here. The farrier was here last week and he was great for her as well. I think that he may have a future in gaming as he is sooo fast and loves to run. Anyway, not a whole lot more to say except things have been going well and we all love him dearly.
	03/07 update on Merlin: Merlin is doing well! We hope to show him in leadline and gaming this show season depending on what happens. He is also turning into quite the little hunter/jumper. He spends most of his days running around the pasture jumping my cross-country logs. :) He seems to really enjoy it. Unfortunately he can already jump about 2 feet and likes to pull the top boards of the fence down and jump into the other pasture - it is a very fun game! Other than being an escape artist w/typical pony attitude he is doing wonderfully, and we still adore him despite his mischievous ways. :)
06/07 update on Merlin: Hi guys - Thought I send you a little update on Merlin that would give you a good laugh. I believe I've told you about his little game of pulling down fence boards a jumping them; well he has decided to train my 8 yr old palomino/appaloosa to do this as well. Being the little tag team that they now are, they decided that it would be fun to do this trick w/the fence that borders our local golf course. They decided that the perfect time for this would be around dinner time on Sunday evening. So when my mom and brother went to get the gang for dinner - Merlin and Aedan were no where to be found. My brother quickly discovered where they had escaped and mom ran up to the house to get me and call the golf course, state troopers, and a few horsey friends. I ran to the barn grabbed their halters, apologized to my other two horses for postponing their feeding time, and headed off to the 13th hole, with my faithful golden retriever and barn cat in tow. Meanwhile, my brother is going the other way to try to get behind them, yeah right! It was actually a good thing that my appy got out, because at this point it was starting to get a bit dark and without my huge 16.1 hand golden dufus I would've never found that tiny little black pony amongst the trees. Anyway I finally get near them and start heading them towards home. At about hole 16 I managed to get my boy haltered up, Merlin was having to much fun to get caught, and start walking back and wouldn't you know, the bleeping sprinkler system goes off! So Merlin leaves in a panic, Aedan following close behind (with my pic line in I can't really hold on without ripping my arm apart so I let go). After much cursing, my brother laughing at me thinking this is all utterly hilarious, I manage to get them again, this time Merlin willingly being haltered. And we all head back for the barn, our golden leaving us for home long ago, but barn cat still strolling along behind us. We get home without much incident and sponge off the soaking wet horses, wait for them to cool down to eat, and call it a night. But of course that isn't all, the next morning who comes to the house but a state trooper. The golf course is considering pressing charges - trespassing, vandalism (as the hoof prints destroyed three separate greens), and one other ( I forget) - three charges for each horse!!! We have managed to smooth things over, fencing fixed, double enforced, etc... and my little boys will not have rap sheets... but they came awful close. It just goes to show, parents will always bail their kids outta trouble, even if they are the four legged kind! Anyway, hope you enjoyed our adventure, at the time it was not amusing to me... but looking back well... it is pretty funny. And definitely something I'll never forget! So thanks for adopting out the little Houdini to us... if nothing else - with him everyday is an adventure! ~Kathleen