OCTAVIUS | 27 YEAR OLD TRAKEHNER | MONTGOMERY,TX
Octavius, Tavi, is a 27 year old Trakehner Gelding owned by myself, Karinda. He was bred by Renee and John Grove and is out of Wildfeur and by Odessa.
Tavi. Tavi. He is has a special place in my heart. He is my old guy. He has quite the attitude and thinks he is a fancy dressage horse. He loves to go out in the pasture and show off his extended trot and how he can flip those toes out and fly even though with the numerous injuries he has has the past few years, he shouldn’t even be able to move.
Tavi is quite the ladies man. He loves his girls, and has always lived with his mares. Lucy, my mare, is his woman, and he doesn’t take her leaving him lightly. I have story after story about his antics when Lucy left him, even if it was just her going to the barn or to the arena to be ridden. My favorite story happened right after we moved to a new barn when I was in High School. I didn’t realize the barn had doors on the back of the stalls and I put him in his stall not realizing he could push the stall open at the back, before I knew it he had gotten loose and was floating around running like his crazy self looking for his girlfriend Lucy. Tail in the air, toes flipping out, and he had no intention of stopping. I lucked out and he ran into his pasture, I quickly ran up and grabbed the hot tape gate (not realizing I didn’t grab the plastic handle) and after the crazy episode of chasing the horse left myself with a nice little hand that was buzzing for quite a while from the shock of the fence.
I have owned Tavi since he was 14, he came all the way to Texas from Illinois. We actually watched a video (and if I recall correctly, it was a VHS..you know the good old kind that you had to manually rewind) that was sent down to us, and fell in love with this then spunky boy. Who am I kidding, he is still spunky at 27. My parent’s purchased him and had him shipped down. I will never forget the feeling watching him step off of the trailer. I will especially never forget riding him for the first time. My trainer at the time hopped on him and rode him around first, then it was my turn. Well, I quickly found out that he has quite the hop, skip, and jump when it came time to canter and I went flying off of him, just barely missing the wall of the indoor arena.
Tavi taught me so much with his big silly attitude, I think he just liked to prove to everyone that he was big and bad and could play no matter how old he was. I remember one time convincing my parents to let me go ride with a trainer whom I admired, and having the trainer get on him after seeing his hop, skip, and jump in the canter…and then promptly jump off after he did with the trainer on him. I was so proud in that very moment that I could ride this “crazy” horse. I eventually came to terms with the fact that, that was just Tavi, and there was no breaking his habit so the only option I had was just to learn to love him for what he was and just ride him through it. It really was one of the best things for my riding, because I learned to just sit up and go on, and not let it bother me.
Sitting here writing a blog for my own horse is so incredibly different than writing a blog post for someone else’s horse. So many memories keep flooding back into my head. This one is particularly funny looking back, because I am always truly amazed how the world works and how things come full circle. Growing up I had always attended the Windy Knoll Shows, and knew who Fran was. I had grown up watching her ride and show and always remembered her quirky and ever so friendly personality when we would attend her shows. I ended up hauling to Fran’s to ride in a Tom Poulin Clinic and it just so happened to be one of those days where everything went wrong. From locking my keys in the horse trailer tack room, and having to break into the trailer, to having to get off about 10 minutes into my ride because of terrible weather and tornado warnings. We went back in the barn let him stand in a stall, and then after the weather passed, I got back on. Well, as luck would have it I went to pick up the canter, in true Tavi fashion he decided to show off and have an extra big hop, skip, and jump…well at that very moment someone drove past on the Gator and Tavi little antics turned into a huge explosion..resulting in me flipping over his head and doing a 360 degree flip in the air. All I could do was laugh, because I just knew that was typical Tavi showing off for everyone. He just stared at me like, umm, Mom, what are you doing down there…
Fast forward to my college years, and I ended up as a working student for Fran and everything came full circle. Isn’t it really crazy how the world works?! I am always constantly in awe of how things end up, and the pieces always fall into place perfectly.
Back in the day when I used to show Tavi, he was always so funny. He would be so perfectly behaved…until the bell would ring…he knew the bell ringing meant it was time to perform and he would puff himself up and turn into Mr. Fancypants.
I started riding when I was in 6th grade. Thanks to meeting Melanie in my 6th grade reading class. Melanie started dragging me to the barn with her, and soon enough I started begging for lessons. We were making chore lists with prices so that we could make enough money to buy me a horse because of course my parents said no at first, they finally caved and said “you can get your feet wet..” I think we all see how well that worked out. I started out doing Hunters with my first horse Obsidian, aka Rocky, he ended up having colic surgery and had to take time off. My parent’s ended up buying a 4 year old off the track Thoroughbred next, her name was Devils Time Zone, which we quickly changed to Breeze on Bye..about this time I switched over to Dressage. After realizing that a 4 year old may not have been the best choice they found Tavi so that I could get a good foundation in Dressage.
It really is truly amazing how meeting one person in 6th grade could change my life so much, I can not even imagine how different my life would be if I would have never met Melanie in reading class and if she would have never taken me to the barn to meet Valentino. Tino, was her first horse and the horse that really did make me fall in love.
My biggest tips and tricks for grooming your horse for pictures would be to not be afraid of shine. Baby Oil, Show Sheen, Peppi’s Shine Spray area all your best friends to get that shiny look for pictures, but there is a delicate balance because you don’t want their hair to look greasy or wet and matted down. Also, make sure and use Baby Powder to help get those white stockings perfectly white.
People always ask about taking pictures of their older horses, they always worry they will look skinny or dingy…well I can promise you something, Tavi isn’t the most plump or good looking 27 year old. We struggle to keep weight on him, and his ribs and hip bones stick out, I have put off taking his pictures so many times waiting for him to look better, to shed his winter coat, to put more weight on, and finally I had to force myself to just do it. You never know how long the old guys will be with you, and it is so important to seize the moment and capture portraits while you still can. If you have a senior horse and you have been thinking about having their portraits done, just do it! The seniors have a special place in my heart and I promise we will make them look like a superstar even in their golden years.
I am so incredibly lucky Tavi has hung in there this long, we have had a rough past few years with him. He has almost sawed off his foot in a fence and still bears a nice scar from that one. He had an incredibly bad colic episode that led to me meeting an every so amazing vet, Dr. Megan Petty for the first time. This was one of the most stressful evenings of my life, and little did I know that Dr. Petty would save Tavi’s life because she believed in this stubborn boy…from thinking one minute that we were going to have to put him down to Dr. Petty checking again and making the call to haul him to the clinic. I have always had the opinion that professionals should treat you and your animals like they are their own, and when I asked her that question, “If he was your’s tell me what you would do,” she did just that. I can honesty say that finding a vet that will truly do that, is worth more than I can ever explain. I 100% believe that Dr. Petty was a God send that night. Dr. Petty and the whole team at Collier Equine are responsible for giving me so many more years with Tavi…and because of it he had quite the reputation, every time I was at the clinic, even when Tavi wasn’t there, they would ask about the old man. Just when we thought we were in the clear from his bad colic incident, he decided to go through a fence once again, and that was a rough few weeks turned into what felt like an eternity of wrapping legs…but I always knew that he was in good hands and appreciated my daily texts checking in to update me on how he was doing.
Do something today, go out and thank your Veterinarians. They work so hard, and pour their heart and soul into what they do. Send them a note, tell them you appreciate them.
Thank you Dr. Petty, the team of Veterinarians at Collier Equine including Dr. Randall & Dr. Collier, and Dr. Guardia with Guardia Equine Sports Medicine, and every other vet that has ever been a part of any of my ponies & puppies lives <3 We love y’all and appreciate everything you do!!
