Notorious
Sensation, a 2006 APHA gelding, found himself in a rather ominous situation at
the beginning of his life. In 2007, the then yearling caught his right front leg
between a barbed wire fence and wound up losing a large chunk out of his hoof.
Coincidentally, a year before the colt’s birth, his owner, Lynn Simons, was in a
car crash and he was tragically killed. “I just wasn’t on top of taking care of that
many animals during that time,” Andrea Simons, wife of the late Lynn, told
GoHorseShow. “He was such a nice colt, but it was an awful accident, but he
really wanted to work.”
The
horse’s hoof was repaired and he was stall rested until he was a three year-old, putting
a real delay to his training. Ray Topper, from Niles Michigan, was
looking for an APHA horse for one of his youth clients, Emily
Hausman. Searching for an offspring of the stallion Zippos Sensation, Topper
came across “Big” on YouTube. He visited the gelding at the Simons’ and then sent
the video of the 4 year-old to Emily and explained to her how great the horse would
be.
“My parents went to Texas with Ray to look at Big, while I stayed in
Michigan. They loved him, but told me about the foot problem,” explained
Emily. “I just thought to myself that no one is going to want this horse. No
one will want to take the patience and time and then what would happen to him?
Where would he go? I decided I wanted him and I didn’t know what made me decide
that, but I wanted him. I wanted him to have a home. I wanted to take the
risk.” Andrea was hesitant, but because Emily wanted Big badly, she made an exception.
After
purchasing the gelding in 2010, the duo had a successful show year in 2011.
They accumulated 174 APHA points and were Reserve Champions in Zone Eight for
overall youth performance. However, a successful year soon took a downward turn
when the gelding began having issues with his scarred hoof. Even with intensive work by farrier Matthew Horrall, the hoof became worse. The horse had developed a small case of laminitis which is basically
inflammation of the lower hoof. He was put on stall rest for three months and was
taken to an expert who specialized in shoeing horses with this disease. Emily would occasionally doubt her decision.
“There were times where I got super frustrated and would think
about giving him away to a person who would leave him in a pasture and let him
be a horse,” Emily said. “But then I would go into his stall, look deep into
his eyes and I could tell he wanted to try so hard. I just don’t know what I
would do without him”
At the end
of three months of stall rest and hand walking, Big was sent to Ann Arbor to
meet with Dr. Thaler. The hoof began to improve and by March 2012, he seemed
fully sound. Then, as misfortunes usually follow one another, Big spooked and
pulled a ligament in his left hind leg. More stall rest followed but then, the
team was back to show by April.
“He’ll never be perfect on the hoof, so we have to be really careful and
take precautions like wrapping his legs and such,” the now 16 year old exhibitor told
GoHorseShow. The year 2012 was good to the young
team, but prospects for 2013 seem to be brighter. “We have the whole winter to
prepare and our first show will be in April.”
“He’s really been a nice horse for them and it worked out,” says Andrea.
Emily and
Notorious Sensation have big dreams for 2013, including possibly showing at the
Paint World Show in the Youth All-Around events. Nothing can keep Emily and Big
down from succeeding and completing their dreams, not even a series of
misfortunes that were hurled toward them. GoHorseShow wishes Notorious Sensation
and Emily Hausman great and healthy show season in 2013 and for the many years
afterwards.
Photo © Impulsive Concept Design
