 Cover Stories Tide Rip – Mother of Many
By Sue Carver
Twelve years ago my husband Bill and I bought a piece of property 5 miles out of the town of Sequim, WA where we had lived since 1974. We decided to do something that had always been a desire of our hearts and that was to raise the best Quarter Horses and Paints we could. To be honest this was more for me than Bill, but he was all for it! We started with one 12x12 stall and continued to build, not really having a plan. Next I started looking for a couple of Quarter Horse mares to breed. The first few horses didn't really fit into what I was looking for. Then to my delight I found a 10–month-old Quarter Horse Palomino filly. I was so crazy about her I bought Tide Rip, her dam and that was the best thing I could have ever done. Now we needed a name for the property. We live on a beautiful hillside with a full view of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. There are lots of stones on the property so we decided on the name Stoney Hill Ranch. Bill has spent 12 years building barns, (we now have two ), a riding arena, and like all horse people we’re always building fences! To celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, Bill bought me a stallion, AQHA/APHA Coo Obvious. I started out wanting to raise a foal each year and now have an awesome stallion for my breeding program along with Tide Rip who has truly never let me down! The following story is about Tide, my 21 year old broodmare. Tide is a very special horse, as you will see. She has a heart of gold, is intelligent and responsible.
Tide Rip was born in 1983 in Port Angeles, WA. At the age of 5 she developed a severe foot injury, which left her unable to be ridden. This ended her chances of a successful show career and Tide became a broodmare.
The first time I saw Tide was the winter of 1995. I had decided to buy this mare sight unseen because of her 1994 filly, RHR Lilly Bolero, who I had purchased 6 months earlier. Lilly was Tide's 5th foal out of a wonderful AQHA stallion named Ida Skip. I bought Tide with two breedings to Ida Skip with hopes I would get another Palomino filly. The next foal, SHR Prince of Tide, was not my Palomino filly but he was a talented chestnut colt. He started winning his futurity's and continued his show career to qualify for the AQHA Worlds. Tide was again in foal to Ida Skip, and this time I prayed for a Palomino with chrome. When this filly was born I got my Palomino but with so much white I had to register SHR Sequoia Sands as a crop out with APHA. She was very successful as a weanling in the futurity's and continued on. After researching Tide’s other foals from Ida Ship, I was delighted to see how talented they all were. I wanted to see if she could produce as well with another stallion. Her next two foals were out of a Zippo Pine Bar stallion, Zip With Ease. Her first filly did well as a weanling and her second filly, Zips Willow n Sand won several large futurity's and that proved to me that Tide had what it took to be a great broodmare. I again wanted to try another stallion, so at the NW Stallion Service Auction I bought a breeding to a APHA Palomino stallion named Playing With Fire. Tide had never been bred to a Paint, and if she didn't produce color I would not be able to show the foal in the futurity. When the colt was born I named him SHR Burning Desire and he just squeaked by with enough white to qualify as a Paint. Again Tide pulled through for me and the colt won over $6,000 as a weanling and yearling. Tide was bred again but for some unknown reason slipped the foal at 3 months; it was time to give her a rest.
Early the following spring I decided to breed her to a double registered stallion Coo Obvious, but Tide was starting to show her age and it took a few months before she was in foal. The following April she delivered a fancy chestnut filly, and she was a money earner in every futurity she was in as a weanling. I weaned the filly at 3 months because I could see how hard it was getting on Tide. This mare was giving all to her filly. That winter Tide continued to drop weight despite everything I did. By February I was embarrassed to even take her to the breeders and my fear was that we may not be able to get her back in foal but worse than that, I may lose her. When I arrived at Kelly and Julie Shea's who at the time were the owners of Coo Obvious, to try and get Tide back in foal, they too were surprised to see how she looked. We talked about what we could do to put some weight back on this mare and Kelly asked if he could put her on Nutrena Senior feed. I had tried a lot of different feeds but figured it sure wouldn't hurt to try Nutrena. The problem with Tide is that she is a large mare and a picky eater, and never had eaten large mounts of grain. Kelly started Tide out slowly and by the 3rd day she was cleaning up her feed. In about 2 weeks I could see a slight weight gain, but I was still afraid this wasn't going to work. She was bred in February and then again in March but still not able to get in foal. The good news was she was enjoying Nutrena Senior feed and was putting on weight and becoming healthy again. By April she started looking like the mare I knew and she was in foal that month. I believe with all my heart that if Kelly had not recommended this great senior feed product from Nutrena, my mare would not be here now. Words cannot express the deep emotions my family and I have for Tide and she will be with us for as long as possible. With her improved health, due to Nutrena Senior feed, our hope is that we will be blessed with more foals. When Tide's time comes to say good bye we have picked out the spot to lay her to rest. This place is the highest spot on our property between two large cedar trees. This special location has a gorgeous view of the water and will be a wonderful place to visit and remember our beautiful mare.
Tide Rip is an intelligent horse with a gentle kind heart. Following are some stories that show what a wonderful lady she is.
Threes Company Two years ago we had three foals born. At weaning time we weaned two of them but had to wait about 6 weeks before we could wean Tide's filly. The first two foals weaned real easy mainly because they were together, so after a month I decided it would be nice for Tide's filly to get use to the other two foals before I weaned her. All seemed to be fine with having three foals in her pasture with her. After a few days I started seeing, that beside her filly nursing, the other two also were getting a few extra meals. At one time all three were nursing on her. What a mom! She also would break up little pony fights and never seemed to pick favorites.
Trust Me When my daughter Stacey was 5 years old she was a kid with no fear! I had talked to her about maybe starting riding lessons, since she seemed to enjoy the horses on the ranch. Well instead of her waiting for me to line up someone to give her some lessons, she decided to do it herself. One afternoon she went out to the field where Tide was and lured her to the board fence. Stacey climbed to the top rail and got on. Remember this mare had not had anyone on her back since her foot injury 7 years earlier and she was not wearing a halter. After Stacey got on her back, she encouraged Tide to move. Tide slowly walked about stopping to nibble a few blades of grass and then went back to the same. She snuggled up to the fence and Stacy dismounted. I viewed all of this from indoors, in shock, afraid if I went running out to get Stacey, the mare may bolt and my daughter would fall. After all these years I know Tide's kindness, Stacey was in very safe hands.
Mothers Love Tide had foaled a month before and as always everything seem to be going great, but one afternoon, Tide started nickering and pacing the field. At first I ignored it, than after an hour or so I thought I’d better see what she was so upset about. When I got down to the field I realized that the filly had been laying there for quite a while, she was very weak and her little tongue was like leather. Quickly I got the pair into Tide’s stall to take a closer look and Tide stepped over her filly with her milk spraying over her. I knew then that the filly had not eaten for quite awhile. Tide wanted her to nurse so because the filly was too weak to stand for long I got under Tide and helped the filly. It was going to take the vet about an hour to get there, so I stayed with the foal under Tide, helping her nurse. When the vet arrived the foal was a little stronger and the Vet found she had some kind of blockage in her throat. If Tide had not alerted me that her foal was in trouble, we could have lost her. I believe Tide showed me that her filly needed to nurse to dislodge the blockage in her throat.
She's my Horsey My grandson, Donavan loved the horses and was always there to help sweep out the barn and for a three year old I was pretty impressed. One day I asked Donavan if he would like to have Tide as his very own horse, but also made it very clear that the foals she would have would be mine. He was delighted, so with the understanding that he would have to learn about how to groom and feed, the adventure started. He needed a bucket to stand on to pour the grain in her feeder and Grandpa made a special little pitchfork for him. His biggest concern was how he was going to reach high enough to brush – he could barely reach her belly. One day she was laying down in the pasture, and with excitement, Donavan ran out to brush his horse. As she lay there he brushed her neck, down her back and belly to her hip, but then the problem was how to brush her other side. After trying to get her to roll over, Donavan gave up pretty disappointed. A few minutes later while he was sitting beside her, Tide gently rolled over to her other side and closed her eyes. Donavan was able to groom her completely. Both Donavan and I had tears in our eyes as he told me, “Grandma, I taught Tide to roll over and she is all brushed!”
For more information contact: Sue Carver 360-683-7538 Copyright © 2008 The NW Horse Source |