Date of Birth: ~1977

Breed:  From his name you can tell he is an Appaloosa. 

How horse came to Ranger:  He came to Valley Forge from Cornell University in 1997, from a previous home in Houston, Texas.  Ted from Valley Forge tells us that he was a hard worker in his job as a polo pony, and that he acquired the nickname ‘Boris Becker’ after the red-haired temperamental tennis player. Apparently they turned him out in a five acre pasture when they got him, and were unable to catch him for three days. We are impressed that they got him that quickly. 

Interesting characteristics or anecdotes:  A polo pony at the military school he was ending a long career as a high-goal pony who had traveled far and wide. One of the most challenging horses most of us have ever dealt with, at 27 years old, he is virtually blind in one eye and extremely sensitive to movements around him. He has one special volunteer friend who dotes on him and keeps him clean and groomed.  Please see the article written below about Dots.

Special care needs:  With Dots being the sensitive type, he requires lots of patience.

Favorite Ranger Buddies:  Chesley - a Ranger volunteer

Sponsorship:  Dots needs a sponsor

DOTS
by Ranger Volunteer Suzanne

When you think about geriatric retired horses, you tend to think of kindly old codgers with graying muzzles and wise gentle eyes, swayed backs and patient dispositions. The Ranger Foundation has some wonderful examples of this sort of horse. Dots is not one of them.

He is tall and skinny, pink and spotted. He is neurotic, nervous and has gastric issues. He is head-shy, phobic and photo-sensitive. He is an Ichabod Crane of a horse, gangly and knobby and stooped, at least until he moves at liberty, when he is transported to floating creature of eerie grace.

He is an odd fellow.

We were forewarned before his arrival that he was difficult to catch, spooky and strange. What we didn’t know was that he is almost impossible even to touch.

He is blind in one eye and has diminished vision in the other, but those who know him say that his odd psychoses began long before he had issues with eyesight.

The only person who could do anything with Dots when he came to Ranger was Ann’s daughter Thao, whose endless patience, quiet demeanor and utter lack of fear seemed to be just the right combination. In time, Ann was able to do basic things for him such as bring him in, turn him out, and even to take his halter off or put a fly mask on (although rarely without time and persuasion.) Once a lead rope is on the halter, he becomes tractable although never trusting. But I have patiently spent twenty minutes in his stall trying to get that lead rope on, and come away with nothing more for my pains than a perfect dainty Appaloosa-hoof-shaped bruise on my hip.

In the round pen he responds in classic textbook fashion. But the minute he is back in his stall and the lead rope comes off, it is as if the session never happened.

It is fascinating, although baffling.

A marvelous and odd friendship has occurred between Dots and Ranger volunteer Chesley. An unlikely friendship. I expected Chesley to bond firmly with one or two of the Ranger horses, but my money would have been on one of the old mares like sweet-faced Princess or the blatantly seductive Patti.  But Chesley was drawn to strange, neurotic Dots with his suspicious expression and oddly beautiful floating trot, and has spent over a year now working patiently with him and has established such a bond that he can handle Dots almost as if he were normal. When they entered the Grooming and Showmanship Class at the Geriatric Horse Jubilee I thought my heart would burst with pride. I do not believe anyone but Chesley could have persuaded that wacky old horse to enter the show ring with all its unfamiliar terrors and submit to the scrutiny of a judge.

I don’t think we will ever know why Dots is the way he is, or that he will ever become ‘normal’, for lack of a better word. But it is a testament to the Ranger Foundation’s principles that horses who have served humans, even horses who do not fit the mold, are retired, cared for, loved and appreciated in all their eccentricities and vagaries.