Crosswinds Equine Rescue

ARRIVED	August 2009 ; returned in December 2011
ADOPTABILITY	Available, details below
SPONSORSHIP: (Details below)	FEED: SPONSORED! Thank you, Gen/Joe MEDICAL: need a sponsor
BREED/AGE	8-year old (2003 model) registered Belgian gelding (papers lost, reg name unknown), approx 18hh/2200 lbs
Skills/Training "Report Card"
Overall Health: A	Valiant had an injury to his left hind several years ago which has a scar but otherwise no longer bothers Val. Dec. '11: Val returned in good physical condition. He is mildly out of shape but healthy and at a good weight. His hooves are in reasonable condition.
Ground Manners: C+	Val usually has good ground manners. When Val arrived in 2009, he had been mildly pushy, but even though he had been able to dominate his humans he had never been mean or forceful. Val was adopted out in 2010 to a home that did not work out, at no fault of Val's. When Val returned in December 2011, he was mildly pushy but mostly concerned for and looking after his 2 pasture mates who were also surrendered to CWER. He has rapidly settled into his routines here, but as of 12/25/11, can still be occasionally argumentative on a lead.
Basic Riding Skills: NA	No riding/driving training to date that we are aware of. Once he is settled, and his friends have gotten comfortable here so that he is no longer worried about protecting them, we will return to pre-riding training with Val.
Ideal Career	At this time, we cannot be sure what Val's ideal career will be. Based upon his general personality, we anticipate that, once comfortable and understanding what is asked of him, then Valiant will be a fairly quiet and low energy "laid back gentle giant". It is regrettable that Valiant's prior owners were never able to find his registration papers and do not recall his 'real name' (they called him, simply, Sunny). With his papers, this gigantic, gorgeous, blue eyed giant would undoubtedly make an impressive presence in breed specific shows. Regardless, he would certainly generate quite a presence in draft-specific and other open horse shows, should an owner wish to go that direction. His large, solid hooves will make for security for trail work or riding around home, on roads or in most any conditions. It seems unlikely Val will find the energy to enjoy 'energy' jobs like gaming, dressage, endurance.
Stall Manners B+	Immediately upon return, Val has settled comfortably into our feeding routine, putting himself in a stall without needing help, eating calmly, waiting easily to go out and walking like a gentleman to the pasture. He is calm in the stall, and enjoys grooming and visiting with guests. His only concern is for his 2 friends that came to CWER with him, Veil and Ali. If they are nervous or stressed, then his focus is on them. Otherwise, he does VERY well. 12/25/11: Already, Val has settled down and is no longer stressed for Veil and Ali. He comes in to eat with or without them; goes in and out of the barn with or without them by his side, without stress or fuss. If either of them is yelling, he will look for them or answer, but with no more attention than other members of his herd. He would not be ready to go to a stall boarding home without some additional adjustment time to get used to staying in a stall for hours at a time.
Trailering Skills: B	Val loaded well, rode calmly, and unloaded from our draft/warmblood sized slant load trailer VERY well upon his return trip to CWER in Dec '11. While he no longer 'self loads', he took just a few minutes and did not fuss while in the trailer at any point.
Companionship / Pasture Manners A	Val arrived back to CWER in 12/11 as the guardian and alpha of his little band of 3. His friends, Veil and Ali, immediately knew, when out on pasture here, that Val knew the lay of the land, and they remain glued to his side. Initially, Val was very submissive to the rest of our herd -- mostly staying at least 100 yards away - but as his friends are settling into the routine, Val can be seen playing with Serge, visiting with Sasha (who he used to father amazingly well when she was little), encouraging Veil to play with the recovering starvation cases Magic & Twiggy. 12/25/11: Valiant has stepped back and is no longer "stallion" to his little band. The 2 new arabs have settled with the other arabs, and Valiant is slowly gravitating toward joining the gelding group of Serge, Prince and Jack. Valiant is an exceptional member of the herd -- mildly protective if a horse is being a bully to another, but generally simply staying out of the way and acting as a calming force to any upset.
Manageability for Routine and Medical Care C	Val is managable but unhappy and shows fear/nerves with medical care, including needles and farrier work. We will work with Val to regain his trust in the area of proper hoof care. His hooves appear to have received much needed and well done hoof care during the recent weeks prior to his coming to CWER; there are signs of much longer term lack of hoof care which will simply take time to grow and to recover.
Adoption Terms	Valiant's adoption fee is currently set at $2,000, with a $250 discount to an adopter who contracts for him by 1/31/12. As Valiant's training time increases (and his time here), so too will both the costs we've incurred and also his value -- and thus his adoption fees. We do offer payment plans for the right adopter and also we are able to offer transportation at a reasonable price for up to 5 hours travel one way from CWER. visit our adoption QnA page for details on how to adopt.

Overview: Val is a big, healthy, gorgeous belgian gelding who prior to 2009 had an easy, mildly spoiled life. Due to emergency, long running medical issues, his prior owner could no longer care for him and she wanted to ensure he had a safe future, so she donated him to CWER in 2009. In 2010, we found Val an adoptive home in Kansas which seemed a solid match, and we received good reports on his care and performance at his boarding facility throughout the completion of his contract.

We can't comment on exactly what happened after Val was no longer kept at the boarding barn; however, in fall 2011, we were given the opportunity to accept ownership back of Valiant, through a Kansas sherriff's office, along with his 2 pasture companions. The owner had released ownership to the sherriff, after the horses' had apparently been in the sherriff's possession for an extended period of time. All 3 horses had clearly received quality care during that time period, and all 3 were in good overall health upon our accepting ownership and bringing them here to CWER. We cannot say a big enough THANK YOU to the sherriff's office for their concern for these horses, for reaching out to us about them, and giving us the chance to help them find great futures.

Valiant has settled well back at CWER, and is easing back into a pre-riding training regimen.

February 2, 2010: Val is SOUND! We are so excited. We were able to trim all 4 hooves last week, outside of the stocks; his abscess has completely cleared, and he's done his first training session in the round pen. See a brief (low quality, sorry) video of his first round pen work, including the first time we ever asked him to use the circus stand. We've added a longer clip from a few days later as well.

(summer 2010 Valiant was adopted, went to Kansas, and was kept in a boarding facility. His contract ended in 2010. He was moved out of the boarding facility. Fall 2011 we received a call from a Sheriff's office asking us about Valiant. November 2011, we spent approximately $700 in our resources to travel to Kansas to retrieve Valiant, and his 2 arabian friends that had been living with him.

December 2011: Val is HOME, and we are all so very happy to see him. Val is very protective of his 2 friends that he brought back to us here at CWER. For now, we are focusing on getting him comfortable at being home, and helping his friends settle into our routines. Once they are more comfortable, we will gradually work to help Val separate from the 2 arabians again, and find his own place in our herd. We won't ask Val to do any significant work beyond light roundpen work until we have his friends more settled and they are not such a key focus in his mind.

Sponsorship: Val now has a feed sponsor! The feed sponsor donates to cover the cost of his feed monthly; his feed is covered 12/11-05/12.

PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TOWARD THE PICK UP COSTS...We spent approximately $700 on fuel, hotel, overall travel costs to drive to Kansas to recover these 3 horses in need.

If you feel the work we do with horses like Val is important, please consider donating. Even a one-time donation of $5 helps.

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