PMU Norwegian Fjord

My Norwegian Fjord was a PMU foal and made the trip to New Mexico from Canada when she was 5 months old. PMU is Pregnant Mare Urine where urine is collected for the estrogen content for making Premarin. There are groups of people who save many of these foals by making them available for adoption. In 2003 Jay posted a picture of one of these foals. I felt I just had to save one. My husband was really against getting another horse. We already had too many and didn’t really have facilities for more. Very true. I decided I would at least sponsor one of these foals, with the option of keeping it. Pictures were posted on the Internet where you could pick out your foal. Since this would likely be the last horse I would get, I decided to go with my roots and get a Scandinavian horse. Okay, I’m not Norwegian, I’m Danish, but close enough. In 2003 they still had Fjords available. I think that farm went out of business and Fjords may not be available through the PMU program any longer.

So I paid my money and when the long awaited day came and the foals arrived in Los Lunas, we drove down there from the Jemez Mountains, WITHOUT a trailer. My husband came along to keep me out of trouble. We wandered among the bewildered foals that were herding together and trying to avoid the humans. They had arrived during the night from their long trip from Canada and looked pretty tired. We met some of the other people who were there to pick up their foals. After awhile my husband come up to me and said “I hope it’s not one of those blond ones.” I said “Yes it is.” He said “Oh oh, we’re in trouble”. It was love at first sight. Then we went home and the next day drove from the Jemez to Los Lunas again WITH the trailer. Nancy and Jay helped us load my baby into the trailer. They worked so hard to get all the foals loaded. Several people got together and herded the foal to the trailer and eventually the foal decided the trailer was better that all these people. My foal tried to make a run for it and knocked me down. I was probably the smallest person there. But we got her back and finally she got in. When we got home we backed the trailer up to the paddock and let her out. She seemed relieved to see other horses. This was a big event for our other horses and they were all milling around to see the new arrival.

The PMU foals are like wild horses. They haven’t been handled except by the brave FoalQuest volunteers who suffer bruises and other bodily injury to get the foals haltered and blood drawn for a Coggins test. I had gotten some John Lyons training books right about this time and he recommended the way to approach shy or wild horses is to approach as close as you can before the horse moves. Then go away. By repeating this you can get closer and closer to the horse. Before long I could stand right next to her but she was still shy about being touched and would skitter away if I tried. I found she was less worried about being touched by the back of my hand rather than the palm. Before long I could handle her all over and hug her. After all, I was the one who brought her food. That is a GOOD THING for Fjords. My husband said we had to name her Freya. Freya or Freyja is the Nordic goddess of love and beauty. Since he was so good natured about all this, I let him decide. Freya is the love of my life.

Fjords are known for being very good natured, friendly and forgiving. That is entirely true. However, they are also known for being willful and stubborn. That is also true. But with kind, firm training, they are wonderful. I followed the advice of knowledgeable people and waited until she was 3 years old before riding her. Fjords mature slowly. Even then I didn’t try to train her very much. We went on some trail rides that went quite nicely except for one bucking gallop. She is so curious about everything out in the forest and loves to go out. She will be 4 soon and I’m working on a little more control now than we had last fall. I’m hoping to take her down to Katy’s for some training one of these days. She was there for the saddle fitting clinic recently where I was happy to find I had a saddle that is wide enough. I’m doing some clicker training with her which involves lots of hand feeding of treats. At first I avoided giving her treats by hand since Fjords can be mouthy, but I haven’t found that the clicker training treats have made her any worse and she is becoming a great companion.

A link for adoptions is: http://www.thetackbox.com/pmu.htm.