Bucky arrived and fit in well with our little backyard herd. "Flash" who we had borrowed to keep our old mare company went home and we were left with a 30 year old Morab and Bucky, our 3 year old mutt pony. Bucky got a makeover when he arrived. His parrot mouth was quite severe and required multiple floatings to get him chewing hay normally, he got a bath and deworming as well.
This is Bucky his first week home, definitely not the poster child for good confirmation.I started thinking . . . hmm will he grow? Will his back even out? Will he ever be big enough to ride? What had we gotten ourselves in to? With low expectations I resolved to train him the best I could so whatever he grew into he could be a useful horse for someone.
His teeth also continued to be a concern, after consulting with a few of my veterinary colleagues, I decided to try reducing the upper incisors and regularly removing the upper premolar hooks to see if we could get a better occlusion. I won't bore you with the details, but you can see Bucky's dental photos on the VT NH Vet Clinic website. It worked well and although he'll never have a pefect smile, after a few floatings Bucky was chewing normally and gaining weight!
So now to continue his training, I had lots of horse experience and had even started a few horses under saddle, but had no formal training in training.
I don't know who looks more worried, me or Bucky . . . who's training who here? 
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