Early early spring!

I can't believe how early our spring is this year. Last year it was over a month late!!!! Now it's over a month early!!!! All the trees are budding out. My crocuses are flowering, tulips and daffodils are coming up. The lilacs have little tiny new leaves. I'm really worried that we will get a hard freeze and damage the plants for the rest of the year! It's entirely possibly that we'd get some cold weather. The typical highs this time of year are mid-40's. Today, the high high 80. And it was the same yesterday, and upper 70's the several days before that. The immediate forecast is to stay warm, but who knows what the next few weeks will bring!

Pony time

I had a very good friend whom I haven't seen in 2 years visit this past week.  I've been off classes on spring break, and my friend came to do horse things with me!  We had the best weather...60's and 70's (insane for March in WI!!!!).  We trail rode every day (except the 1 day out of 5 that it rained), drank wine and ate goat cheese every night.  It was great and exactly the kind of break I needed!  My friend rode Cody pretty much the whole time, except for when we brought horses into the round pen to mess around with (trying to mount from the ground bareback and cantering bareback).  I rode Catlow the first trail ride, but it quickly became apparent that she needed to rest...she has a cough that I've noticed before.  She had it last winter too, but generally not in the summer time.  I'm unsure what it is...it's some sort of chronic thing.  I will be investigating though it seems like a fairly mild sporadic, cough, unless she is worked really hard. 

We trailered my horses a few miles down the rode to a sandy county road that connects with many trails through a remote oak/pine forested area.  We rode for many hours each day, making sure that we were sore by the time we got back.  We trotted and cantered a ton!  It felt great!  Cody was extremely well behaved for my friend.  Chico was good, but we did discover some holes to work through.  He needs some more work riding at greater speeds keeping his attention on me and not the other horse.  He wanted to be in the lead, so when we were behind, he wanted to catch up and pass.  When we were in front, he was better, but the first day he was very fast and very difficult to get to respond to cues well.  By the last day of our trail riding saga, he was actually doing much much better.  I could let Cody pass us at the trot or canter without Chico even thinking about breaking from the walk.  And we could canter or trot to catch up with control.  I think he needed some reminding about how to listen to me and not his boss mare, Cody.  It was great to ride with a friend and get some training in on my horses at the same time!  And now, my horses get to recover from their week at work too.

I wish I had more photos from the past week, but we were busy riding, plus my camera batteries were low.  But enjoy the few that I have!

We encountered a boggy area and lead the horses through it.  Chico fell in a bit of a hole and splattered me with mud on his way out.

Oh, and here is a photo of goofy Kachina.  I'm not sure how she managed to get herself a hay wig, but it stayed on for quite a while.  She acted as though she was purposefully wearing it.  It didn't bother her at all.  She never shook her head to get rid of it.  It eventually blew off when they came out into a more open area with wind.

Griffin is handsome and the rest of my horses look on.

Kachina comes to the fence to visit.

The rest of the horses came too.  I think that Chico is saying Kachina looks ridiculous in her hay wig.

More trimming

It's been a busy last couple of weeks.  Several exams, including one yesterday and one today, which means that I was pretty busy studying this weekend.  I really dislike studying on the weekends since that is my only time at home with family and animals, but sometimes it has to be done!  Even so, I did trim a couple horses and worked with Griffin a bit.  And I realized that I have not posted many pictures recently so I took some as I walked through the pasture...not super exciting, but better than nothing!  The first picture is Cody, my oldest mare and most dominant horse in my herd.  The picture below is her hooves which are at 6 weeks of growth, meaning she was due for a trim (and got trimmed on Sunday).

Cody is one of those horses that I think have feet that are too small for the size of her body, given that she weighs about 200-400 lbs more than any of my other horses and their feet are the same size as hers.  In fact, Catlow's feet are BIGGER than Cody's and Catlow is definitely about 300lb less than Cody.  She also has chronic thrush that I've never been able to get rid of (but not too sore from it), and has thin soles and has always been ouchy on hard gravel.

I caught Catlow snoozing at one point as I walked through the pasture.  She was so cute.  Her eyes were closed and everything.  She woke up when I walked past, but lay still as I patted her on the head.

Catlow's feet are only a couple weeks out from having been trimmed, so she still looks nice and tight.  Chico's feet are last and he was trimmed at the same time as Catlow.  I love horse feet.

The other horse that was trimmed this weekend was Griffin.  He was long overdue.  My neighbor was kind enough to sharpen my tools for me and then hold Griffin while I trimmed him up over at their place.  He was pretty good, except for not really being excited about standing still to let me trim his hinds.  It took some consistent following him and asking for his hoof back before he stood and relaxed.  It also took some time to get used to letting my neighbor handle him.  Griffin's feet tend to spread out when they get long like platters, and not in a good way...they get too shallow in the sole and he gets significant separation of the white line with the leverage produced by the long hoof wall.  So when I trim them the right length, his soles have very little concavity.  I've made a promise to him and myself that I am going to keep up with him and trim him every 6 weeks or less with the goal of tightening up his white line and building some better sole concavity.  He has thin soles too, although they are not as ouchy as Cody's.

Trimming Kachina

Phew!  This trying to keep balance thing is already getting difficult!  We are now in the thick of our semester and our first round of exams and already getting overloaded!  BUT, last weekend, I still managed to keep up with trimming and did 2 more horses (no time to ride or work with Griffin though).  I did Pumpkin first.  She hadn't been done in about a year.  Her feet just don't grow all that fast, although they were definitely in need of a trim.  Pumpkin was an absolutely perfect angel for her trim.  She stood quietly, didn't try to walk off (like the last time I'd trimmed her) and politely accepted her treat rewards for standing after each hoof...no searching for more like she always does in the pasture.  Since I finished her so quickly due to her cooperativeness, I decided to get Kachina out and try her...if nothing else, I could just trim her fronts, since they were in greater need (fronts always seem to grow faster than their hinds).  I really didnt' think I'd be all that successful at trimming Kachina at the hitching post (since I'd never tied her before and she hadn't been outside the pasture very often), but it was so muddy in the pasture that I decided to try it.  I just didn't have any other good place to try to trim her.  She lead right onto the mat in front of the hitching post with no issues and was quite relaxed, so I looped the rope around the post a couple times without tying her tight.  She was actually really good and I trimmed both her front hooves without too much difficulty.  She stood nicely, knew she was "tied", and was overall very relaxed.  So then I decided to try to do her hinds.  I got her left hind done pretty easily, but she gave me quite a bit of trouble on her right hind.  It took me over an hour on just that one hoof, but I did get it done!  When she became nervous about my insistence on handling that hoof, after already having let me start working on it a little bit, her inexperience with tying came through.  She just wasn't cooperative and would take her foot away and step away from me.  When I tried to ask her to step back onto the mat and get back into position, she would feel a little trapped and try to back up out of the situation.   Since she was tied, she pulled back to the end of the rope, but then just stood and would not move over at all, so I had to take her out in the yard and lunge her a bit and re-teach her what I meant when I asked her to step over with her hinds or her fronts.  She decided to "forget" how to do that on one side and was really huffy and tossing her head when I asked her to move her shoulder away from me.  She would toss her head up and over my hands that I was holding up by her face, and go the opposite direction I was asking.  It took a lot of "discussion" but she did not get away with her evasion and did figure out what I was trying to ask her to do.  And she also remembered how to calmly move her feet away from me when asked and not just leap into lunging mindlessly around me.   After our refresher lesson, I tied her back up and tried to work to her right hind again.  The problem with her right hind was she would step over away from me to evade having to pick it up for me.  Since she was tied, that meant she would move over till her hip was next to the hitching rail.  I would stand with her and ask her to stand still and relax and not pick up her back hoof until she was standing with her weight off it, almost offering it to me.  When asked, she'd pick it up, but as soon as I got settled to do something to it, she would take it away and walk forward, since that was the only way she could go to "get away" from me.  As she walked forward, she'd come to the end of the tie rope, it would pull her head toward the hitching post, which caused her to swing her hip out away from the hitching post...and directly into me.  At first, not wanting to cause her to freak out being tied (or kick me which she's never done), I got out of her way, but I quickly got sick of that and realized it wasn't getting the message across to her what I needed her to do.  So I started to step with her as she walked forward and vigorously bump her side to prevent her from swinging her hip into me. She did end up pulling back a few times rather violently when I did this, but she's a small horse and it was like "a fish fighting at the end of a line" to quote a friend. I just stayed out of her way and she did have enough sense to only fight for a couple of tugs and then quit and come forward and stand nice again.   Pulling back unnerved her...she was breathing more quickly and shallowly but was standing okay.   I ended up having to tied her rope rather short to prevent her from walking forward very far when I was picking her hoof up.  That combined with bumping her side vigorously before she even had a chance to step forward seemed to work!  Once she figured out that pulling back didn't work, walking forward didn't work, and she couldnt' avoid me, she suddenly stood very still and let me work on her hoof!  She stood really really well, didn't take the hoof away, let me completely finish and I chose to set her hoof down when I was done.  And at the end of it, she was calm and relaxed!  It was a struggle, but it ended really well!  I really pushed her asking her to stand and be trimmed while tied, but it is time I quit babying her and expect to act like a real horse.

Balance

I'm trying to have more balance in my life this semester.  Last semester I realized at the end of the year that I hadn't done hardly anything with my horses or my friends...it was all school and family.  Both of those things are definitely priorities, but life does need more balance, so I'm trying to find it this semester.  Plus, I have a goal this year.  I want Griffin to be ridden on the trail this summer.  I've been trying to do something with my horses every weekend, at least once.  Griffin is a priority right now, and if I have additional time, I'm riding the "old" ones.  Kachina is going to have to wait a bit (maybe she'll grow more if I give her more time off :)  Not likely...) 

Last weekend and the next couple of weeks, I'm trying to get the hooves of all 6 trimmed up.  I got Cody at the end of January, Chico and Catlow last weekend.  Next weekend is Pumpkin, then Griffin, then Kachina.  Then start all over again with Cody.  Trimming is frustratingly never ending, but I do like doing it.  I like that part of my relationship with my horses.  I like knowing them inside and out and since their feet are such a big part of them, I get great satisfaction in maintaining them.  I got even more excited about trimming after discussing it with the farrier that works on horses at the vet school.  I really like our farrier.  He is a really friendly guy, likes to explain what he's doing and how the feet and whole horse work together, and he is not "stuck in a rut" as far as farrier work goes.  He learns new techniques, and works closely with the veterinarians in the clinic, analyzing radiographs of hooves to best determine how to help lame horses.  I'm hoping to hang out and learn from him more often.

On Sunday I got Griffin out and saddled him up for the 3rd time.  I saddled him next to the horse trailer rather than in the round pen because to get to the roundpen means carrying my saddle all the way up there (it's a ways and uphill).  I figured that my horse should be carrying my saddle up there for me, so we worked at standing next to the trailer and accepting saddling calmly.  He stands really well for the saddle pad (I toss it on and off repeatedly from both sides), but he generally wants to back up when I approach his side with the saddle.  I just pull him back forward and swing the saddle up and down at his side several times and back away.  Then I do it again, and he stands very well once I start swinging it.  Then I swing it up on his back.  He stands, but I feel that he wants to step away when I swing it up there.  He'll get better.  It's only his 3rd time wearing it!  Once his saddle is on, he stands extremely patiently while I I fiddle with getting the breast collar on and all the buckled just right.  And cinching is smooth. 

After tacking up, I dug out my breeching for him to wear.  For those who don't know, a breeching is a harness that goes around the horse's rump and attaches to the back of the saddle and to the rings on the cinch.  It is worn in mountain riding to prevent the saddle from sliding forward.  I used it with Chico when we packed into the Cascades in Washington, and I like to use it as a training tool to get horses used to things touching them all over when they are moving.  In the round pen, I swung it around Griffin's rump to get him used to it, then tossed it up on top, attached it to the ring on the back of the saddle, and slid the strap around his rump.  He stood calmly, completely unconcerned.  It was cold out, and I had to fiddle with the buckles for quite a while to loosen them enough to enlarge the breeching.  I think the last horse that wore it was Catlow as a 4 year old, and I couldn't believe how much larger I had to make it.  When Chico wore it as a 3 year old, it was even smaller yet!  If Chico wore it now, I'd have to make it even larger than I did for Griffin...he has really matured into a big stout horse.  Anyway, Griffin was great, although on his right side, I had to follow him for a few steps while he circled away from me (that's his most uncomfortable side), but he stopped and then just stood for several minutes while I got the breeching adjusted just right.  When I asked him to move out around me, he did so calmly, paying the breeching no mind, so we did some basic exercises (flexing, yeilding fores and hinds, backing, responding to cues where my leg will be), and then we got out of the round pen (still deep and crusty with snow) and went for a walk.

Back at the trailer after our nice walk, I looped the leadrope through the tie ring and had him practice standing tied while I unsaddled him.  He did well.  I don't want to tie him fast to a trailer that is not attached to a vehicle, when he is not used to being restrained so near one just in case he were to freak out.

As I walked home through the pasture, Kachina asked to be haltered so she could have a treat, so I did halter her.  I lead her through the pasture and on top of the hill.  She was so calm until I tapped her on the withers with the gloves in my hand.  If the gloves has been on my hand, I dont' think she would have reacted, but as it was, the gloves were now foreign and she jumped back and got all huffy and upset.  So I of course had to work with rubbing her and tapping her with my gloves to desensitize her.  She relaxed a tad after a bit, so then I led her down and out the gate into my yard and lunged her in a circle for a bit just to practice changing directions and listening to my body language outside the pasture.  We still have about 4-5 inches of crusty snow, so she had to pick her feet up high as she trotted around me with energy.  Lunging Kachina is an exercise in directing her high energy - she moves easily, I don't have to nag at her, and she doesn't pull on the halter.  She is fun to lunge because of that.  I couldnt' have picked two more opposite horses to work with out of the Sulphur Springs HMA.  She is sensitive, energetic, thin skinned, a flighty.  Griffin is more secure, much less reactive, not flighty at all, and he tends to be a little dull at times with cues.  Lunging him is a nagging feat if I want him to go faster than a trot.  That is something that I have not been working on yet since my round pen footing is not good enough for it yet (with the snow and all, and then the deep sand underneath).  I plan to work on that more before I ever get on his back.  I want him to move more freely.  That stickiness scares me a bit...I find it easier to control a horse that will respond to my cues even if they are fast and flying around, than one that might freeze up and stop responding.  I'd rather they go forward than freeze up!  But I am not that worried about Griffin.  I think things will go quite smoothly when we get there.  I think I could ride him at a walk/trot in the round pen tomorrow without it being a wreck, but I want to be a little more convinced that Griffin knows how to respond to me under any circumstances...I'm not in a hurry.  I have a baby to think about.  :)

Griffin's big adventure

Okay,  sorry it took so long to get this post up!

So, we left off with having just scheduled an appointment to bring Griffin to the vet school on Friday to have a dental workup, which left me only the night before the appointment to get him prepared.  So, I'd been contemplating who to bring as a buddy horse, and after originally having decided on Catlow, I started to feel selfish for wanting to bring her.  I knew she would really not enjoy the trip, even though she'd be fine and well-behaved.  I was already leaning toward bringing Chico when I arrived home in the evening on Thursday.  My wonderful husband already had the truck hooked up to the trailer and the tires/lights checked.  I had less than an hour before it got too dark to really do anything, so I got right to it.  I of course, tried to approach the trailer loading with a relaxed manner and like it didn't really matter if he loaded or not; I just wanted him to get familiar with the trailer and check it out.  He walked right up to the trailer in its new location attached to the truck, and sniffed it from 5 ft away with a bit of suspicion.  With just a little pull on the halter, he stepped up close enough to sniff the open doors and blow the newly laid shavings around on the floor.  I had treats and rewarded him when he stepped forward when I asked.  It didn't take long at all before he stepped up inside with his front feet.  As he stood checking it out, I asked him to back out.  I like to back them out before they get all the way in just to show them that they can.  I asked him to step in again.  He was giving me more resistance than I liked, requiring a firm steady pull on the halter before he would respond and step forward, but just a short time later and he loaded into the trailer with all 4 feet.  He stood calmly, but was a bit uncomfortable, sniffing the windows, chewing his treat.  Then he decided to turn around and hop out.  I let him, not wanting him to feel trapped inside yet.  He loaded back up again, and stood a little better this time, but when I tried to ask him to step forward more, he became uncomfortable and backed straight out.  We loaded again and when he wanted to back out again, I did get him to stop, but when he decided to back up again, he was a bit worried and wasn't going to stop.  Then he became more resistant, just hanging on the halter when I asked him to come forward, and eventually, I couldn't get him to even just step his front feet up in the trailer.  Definitely not how I wanted his first trailer loading session to go.  We had a lot of things I would have changed if I could.  First, it was getting dark, so I had a time constraint.  Then my dad and my husband both had to stop by a few times to see how we were doing.  Both of those things worried Griffin and made him not want to put his head in the trailer and blind himself to the people that were standing outside the trailer.  And I think even though they both left me alone again after awhile, just the fact that they had been there started to get Griffin a little concerned.  He really doesn't like people behind him in his blind spots.  He likes to keep those "predators" square in his sights.

So I was starting to think this was a really bad idea.  I couldn't even get him to load now, much less tie him in and close the divider on him.  But my husband was very supportive and said we were in too deep now, so we continued exploring our options.  First we pulled the trailer down to my husbands cattle barn to see if it would fit against their cattle loading lane.  It did!  The loading lane was just a couple feet wider than my 3 horse slant load trailer, and the floor of the trailer and loading lane were just about perfectly level.  So then I lead both Chico and Griffin down the road to the cattle shed and we left them in the pen attached to the loading lane, planning to get up in the morning to load them right before we left (at 5am - 2 hour drive to the vet school and my class started at 7:45!).  If we had to, we'd chase him into the trailer like a wild horse!

Both horses were uneasy being separated from their herd and being so near the cattle.  They aren't afraid of the cattle, but they are a little unnerved by them...they do smell funny and they moved funny too.  When we returned in the morning after just a brief night's sleep, both horses were in the same state - just a little uneasy.  I caught them easily and then tried to load Griffin first, by leading him in.  The plan was, I'd lead him in, and Todd would close the doors of the trailer behind him.  I had an escape door in the front I could leave through if I had to.  I wanted him to relax in the trailer, then I was going to try to tie him and get the divider closed.  Well, he lead in pretty easily once I had Todd and my dad back out of sight and not stand right behind him, then they swung the doors shut.  Griffin started, but stood as they closed.  I stood next to him reassuring him.  Then I asked him to lead forward and the first thing he did was start backing out.  Now the doors were closed, but they weren't latched and no one back there was expecting him to back out with the doors closed, so when his butt his the doors they flew open and Griffin raced out backward.  NOT how I wanted that to go!  I did not want him to think he could back out through the doors whenever he felt uncomfortable!   I decided not to try loading him again that way, since it was clear he had learned he could back out whenever he wanted!  So instead, I loaded Chico into the first stall; he went in easily.  Griffin wanted to stick close to his buddy, but he did not want to lead into the trailer behind Chico, so we slid a panel into the lane behind him to box him in behind the trailer.  Then I "shoo'd" at him.  He stepped up to the trailer, sniffed it, then turned around and faced us trying to "shoo" him in!  Well, that wasn't working!  So I slipped in with him, and asking him to back up.  He backed right into the trailer without a moment's hesitation.  With him facing out, I left him loose, and closed the doors.  From that point on, he was fine in the trailer.  He wasn't ever stupid or super spooky in the trailer, just leary and didn't want to be trapped.  He does tend to think before he reacts to things, so he is not explosive, and once in the trailer facing backward, looking out at all us "predators", he was fine.  Silly mustang.

So we got on the road, actually 10 minutes ahead of time!  Since when does that ever happen when you are dealing with horses?  You might be wondering how I was planning to get Griffin back on the trailer once I got him unloaded at the vet school.  I wasn't sure how it would work, but I knew the vet school deals with all sorts of animals and would have some sort of gates that could work.  They'd probably even have a ramp.

Once we arrived at the vet school, I opened the doors and Griffin unloaded with just a little coaxing.  Then we unloaded Chico.  The plan was to lead Chico in first and onto the scale, with me leading Griffin right on his heels.  That way, hopefully he'd go on the scale, get an accurate weight, then walk nicely down the hallway following Chico to his stall.  Well, Chico walked right onto the scale (1140lbs! Wow!  I didn't know the runtiest mustang in the yearling pen would grow to be that big!), but Griffin stopped short when he realized he'd be putting himself in a narrow lane with a tech behind him and and a crowd of students just around the corner.  I tried a couple different times to ask him to step onto the scale, turning him around in a few circles and leading Chico back over the scale again, but Griffin wasn't about to go on it.  So we just set off leading Chico and me with Griffin right behind to their stalls.  I lead Griffin into his stall behind Chico, then took Chico out and put him across the aisle in the other stall.  The tech put a "caution" sign on Griffin's stall to let everyone know not to handle him without me there.  Once in, they both settled in rather well, pawing at the shavings, lipping the water and sampling their hay.  Then I had to leave them to go to class!

After class,  I met up with the 4th year students in charge of Griffin and Chico and gave them their history.  Then I held Griffin while one student did his physical exam.  He was leary, but she was sensitive to it and took her time, so he stood well.  She even felt down his back legs and he stood well.  After his exam, Griffin stood near the front of the stall right next to the girl that had examined him...he seemed to have made friends with her.  He watched calmly as she filled out his chart and started prepping for the dental.  Then came the dental parade.  The vet school hierarchy is interesting.  There are 4th year students in the clinics who are there as part of their last year of schooling, residents, who already have a degree (and maybe worked for a while in a private clinic) but came back to an academic institution for a 3 year term to specialize in either large animal surgery or medicine, and then there are the clinicians, who are the experts in their field and are permanent employees of the university, providing instruction to both residents and students.  And then there are wonderful technicians employed full time who are wonderful animals handlers.  Each of my horses had his own 4th year student, resident, and technician.  In addition, there was an extra 4th year student just watching, and one clinician overseeing them.  So, with me and my husband also watching, there were 8 people there!  Needless to say, when they gave Griffin his sedative (with me holding him), he almost didn't look like he'd been given any.  His adrenaline had probably been up since the second I loaded him in the trailer, so he needed an extra large dose to affect him.  Chico meanwhile was hanging his head just a minute after they gave him his.  Chico's oral exam revealed moderate sharp points on both his upper and lower molars, but no ulcerations on his cheeks or tongue.  He just needed a little filing done.  Griffin's oral exam pretty much revealed the same thing; and showed nothing that would explain why he's retaining fine feeds in his cheeks.  He can get the fine feed out by open mouth chewing, and letting it fall out of his mouth, so it was only mild packing, but still not something that should typically happen.  So I guess a blessing that there's nothing wrong with his teeth, but still frustrating to not know why packing is happening.  Also, Griffin did not have any wolf teeth at all, so no tooth pulls, and the resident aged him at between 3.5 and 4.5 years with his current tooth eruption pattern.  That fits.  The BLM says he was born sometime in 2007, so if he was born late summer, that'd put him currently at 4.5 years.  In case you are interested, I did also get to stick my hands in their mouths and feel their teeth, but the 4th year student got to do the filing.  The resident did half of the horse's mouth to demonstate to the student, then the student did the other half, while the clinician oversaw both of them.

After the dental work, Todd and I left to get lunch and let the horses come out of sedation.  When they were sufficiently awake, one of the residents led Chico, while I led Griffin on his heels to the trailer that had been pulled up flush with the door of the clinic.  As we walked down the hallway, there were a lot more people lined up watching than had been present at 7am.  That unnerved Griffin.  As we walked past the first one standing along the wall, Griffin side stepped as far away from her as he could.  The next person he passed was the student that worked on his teeth, and she thought she was going to help me load him by getting behind him and "pushing" him along.  When she dropped behind him, he sped up and was practically dragging me as he tried to get up alongside Chico.  But then we were at the trailer doors.  Chico went in easily, the resident tied him and shut the divider, then I asked Griffin to load.  He considered it, but really did not want to put his head in the trailer with all the people standing around watching.  So I tried backing him in, but they did not have a ramp that would fit under our trailer, and while Griffin tried really hard, he decided that he just couldn't step up that high into the trailer...and really, I'm not sure how he would have gotten his front end in even if he had stepped up with his hinds - what an awkward position.  So, then the technicians closed two gates behind Griffin.  He was nervous, so he kept trying to back up (even though he was backing toward the scary people), but when he bumped the gates, he stepped forward and with a little pull on the halter, he walked right up into the trailer.  I immedately turned him around to face out, so that he wouldnt' be tempted to just back out again.  He was calm, I left him loose, we shut the doors and that was that!  It took about 5 minutes total to get him loaded at the vet school.  I feel like I need to clarify how Griffin acts when he's nervous or worried.  He tends to lock up.  He's not completely locked up, but he is not flighty about it.  I just want to say how much I appreciated the animal handling expertise of most people at the vet school.  And they were very understanding and listened to me when I explained how to best go about things so that we got what we needed accomplished without too much stress.  In particular, I remember one tech holding the trailer door open while I was asking Griffin to step in the first time.  She knew that he'd be nervous about her being that close to him, even though she was on the other side of a gate, so she was standing with her side to him, looking down and away from him, curling her body a bit to be as non-threatening as possible.  And Griffin didn't seem too worried about her presence but there was plenty of other things to worry about!

Both boys were happy to get home.  Kachina was funny when I turned Griffin into the pasture.  She acted like she was mad at him for being gone...like because he was gone, that gave her the right to boss him around now.  She pinned her ears and "drove" him to the round bale, but really, he was just heading there and she was following him with her ears pinned.  If he had wanted to, he would have just pushed her away, but he had food on his mind.

All I can say right now about our adventure was that it ended up being a really good experience for Griffin, although I was worried about it earlier on.  The trailer loading didn't really go how I wanted it to, but he did load, and if I do more foundation work with him before asking him to load again, I think it will get better.  The whole experience really did show me several things.  1) Griffin is obviously still leery of new people and needs some more exposure, 2) He isn't quite where I'd like him to be foundation-wise when I think about riding him, but we have time to get there.  I've only started working more consistently with him recently and he does know some basics...they are just not second-nature to him yet, and 3) Griffin does have a very desirable temperament.  I like that he isn't explosive when he's nervous.

Saturday morning, I got Griffin out and saddled him up for the second time.  We did many exercises in the round pen (which has much less snow now) and then went for a walk.  He was so comfortable with me at home!

Sunday morning, we had hoar frost!  I remember seeing this a lot in northern Idaho.  It's just not as common of an occurrence here, so I was happy to see it.

These are my "original three".  Chico looks like he's a little uncomfortable standing here, it's just the way the picture captured him.  I actually took Chico out for a short bareback ride, and he was great.

Cody looks rather mystical standing among the frosty trees.

And I'm done!  Sorry for the super long post!

To those wondering, I decided to bring Chico (confidence won out!)  All I can say right now is that we made it on time and are here at the vet school and they are both settled safely in their stalls.  I'll elaborate on trailer loading and all the rest later!  It was not "easy" but we got him loaded.  My husband came along.  I need to finish classes and then their dentals will be at 10am.  My biggest concern right now is getting Griffin loaded back in the trailer, but we have all the time in the world to load him for home...not so for getting down here!

Question for my readers who know my horses....

So, I got Griffin in at the vet school TOMORROW!  I know, I wanted to take him in over spring break, but the short story is that the clinician schedule is not set for that time yet, and it is possible that when it comes out, there won't be a clinician on duty who will do horse dentals.  So, with my class and exam schedule, there were very few Fridays that would work to bring Griffin in to the vet school, and one of them is tomorrow!   I go home tonight, show Griffin how awesome trailers are (he's never been in one, except when run into them via chutes with the BLM), and then tomorrow morning very early, load him up with a buddy horse, bring him to the vet school, unload him, go to my two hours of Friday morning class, then handle him for the clinician to do his dental work (and teach me at the same time).

So, my question for you all is:  Which horse should I bring as his buddy?  I want my buddy horse to do two things...1) be an ambassador for the mustang (in aesthetic attractiveness and behavior) and 2) be a steady rock for Griffin to lean on in case he is unsure of all this new stuff we will do.

This is a hard question!  Griffin in himself is pretty secure, but trailering him to the vet school is a pretty big event with a lot of new activities, so he does need a companion to ensure things go over well.

My two choices in horses are Catlow and Chico.  I'll list pros and cons of each, so please help me decide!  Currently, Catlow is registered to come along but I can easily change that.

Catlow:
Pros:  She is absolutely gorgeous with great conformation and flowing flaxen mane and tail.
She is very well behaved, especially when she feels comfortable. 
She is the lead mare, so Griffin will naturally want to follow her.
Cons:  She can get nervous and worried when she is alone.  But with other horses, she is generally very comfortable, but this is a pretty big new situation and even though Griffin will be with her, she might get a little worried since she will be the highest horse (next to me, that is :).  Even if worried, she will still undoubtedly be well behaved, but what if her little bit of insecurity worries Griffin?  That might not even be an issue for Griffin - when ponying him with Cody, I had Cody get nervous about trampled ground under apple trees, but Griffin could have cared less about how Cody was worried.  Griffin is fairly secure.
Catlow loads well, but I know she is uneasy about trailering.  Her eyes get white-rimmed after the trailer starts moving and she has a tendency to press her hindquarters on the wall of the slant load trailer (which after a 3 day trip, results in a mild rub mark).  This trip will be stressful for her and she won't view it as a fun adventure.

Chico:
Pros: Chico is very confident and will most likely not be worried about this new situation In fact, he may view it as an adventure (When he was 3 years old, he had to go to a different clinic to get stitches in his stifle area - he took it extremely calmly, walking right into the stocks without hesitation).
He is pretty well behaved, but can have a mind of his own at times.
He is Griffin's buddy and so they should be quite comfortable together.
Cons:  While I love Chico's conformation, he is very fat, and has an upright build, which others might not find as attractive as Catlow.
Chico loads well, but he paws the crap out of the trailer when it is stopped.  This is annoying to me, and could be disconcerting to another horse.

Of course, it could happen that Catlow is pretty comfortable at the vet school, and it could also happen that it will make Chico uncomfortable, but that's unlikely.  Most people love Catlow and are ho-hum about Chico (he's cute, but not "wow")

So, which horse will be both a good ambassador for the mustang AND be a source of confidence for Griffin? 

Which horse would you bring?

First Saddling

I saddled Griffin for the first time today!  He has worn a surcingle maybe 4 or 5 times before over the course of the last 7 months, and the last 2 times were with a blanket under the surcingle.  He has always accepted the surcingle without any concern and the saddle was the same way.  He acted like he wasn't even wearing it, that's how unconcerned he was.  I know he knew it was up there though because he did bite the right stirrup once.  And the first time I swung it up on his back, he moved a step away as I swung it at him, but it landed on his back and he did not react further.  The next couple of times I swung it up on his back, he was unconcerned.  And he stood nicely while I fiddled with all the straps, got the cinch attached (I always store my saddles with the cinch removed), tightened the cinch, then attached the breast collar.  I lunged him at a walk and briefly at a trot with it on (my roundpen is drifted deep with snow in spots, so I could only use 1/4 of it while I saddled him), then we left the pen for a walk down the road.  The snow is too deep right now to walk through the woods.  The road is a little snowy too, but he walks carefully and isn't spooky, so I figured we'd be okay.  And there are bare spots in places, where I led him at a trot.  He really paid the saddle no mind!  He is so laid back.  I am pretty sure that my difficulty with him will be getting good forward movement from him when ridden.  He's not balky, but I think he'll see no need to go fast.  Let's hope anyway!  I like a nice laid back horse on the trail, but I also don't want to fight with him over increasing speed.  I don't think that will be the case though...all the other horses I've trained are pretty good at responding to cues, so I think I might do an okay job at teaching it.

Doesn't he look handsome in a saddle?

My difficulty today was trying to get a nice picture of him from the side to show off his saddle.  He really just wants to follow me when I back away from him.  I tried lunging him at a walk but my rope was too short to get his whole body in the shot.

This was his prefered position...nose to me.

I finally did get a whole body shot once we got back to the shed.  I had to tie him to do it!

Griffin needs to have his teeth checked.  He has some lumps on the inside of his cheeks that I can feel and I think they are causing him to get food caught up alongside his teeth when he chews...at least that's what happens when I feed him treats.  I think he has ulcers probably from sharp points on his molars.  He may also still have some caps on his molars to shed.  I couldn't feel any wolf teeth, but I was also trying to keep my fingers from accidently getting crunched in his molars, so I might have missed some.  I am planning to try to get him in at the vet school in March so that I can have a teaching session on him.  Floating teeth is definitely something I want to incorporate into my future work.  Griffin will be fine until then.  His teeth aren't causing him enough trouble to prevent him from getting "fluffy" this winter.  :)

Kachina

The following pictures were taken after a light dusting of snow a few days ago, which is totally gone now, with our thawing temps (crazy WI winter!).  I turned my horses out into the big pasture for a couple days because they've been in their little pasture since October.  I like to get them off the pastures before they go dormant then turn them back out only after the snow is deep enough to keep the horses from damaging the dormant plants.  But we haven't had enough snow this year!  So I decided the dusting was enough to protect the really short grass and get them out of their small pasture.  They were in heaven, and I was happy to be able to see them from the sunroom.  Alas, it warmed back up and the snow is gone again, and they are locked back in their small muddy pasture.

The high today was close to 50 and the ground was wet and muddy in places where it had thawed overnight because the low never got below freezing.  My horses were spunky and all spooked and took off as I walked through the pasture carrying a plastic bag that had treats in it.  Griffin and Kachina especially took off and wouldn't come near me.  Having never been formally introduced to plastic bags, they didn't know that they often have treats in them.  The rest of my horses spooked and snorted, but came right back to investigate and get their treat reward for overcoming their fear of the bag.  So I was quite surprised after I'd passed all the way through the pasture to the tack shed, picked up my halter and came back into the pasture that it was Kachina that first met me.  This time I didn't have a bag, just a halter and leadrope, so I guess I wasn't as scary.  She let me halter her with no tossing her head.  I had actually caught her easily with a treat the previous evening to check her front feet as it looked like she was a little off on one side, so she expected to be caught with a treat today.  I had made plans to catch and saddle either Catlow or Chico, but both were standing far away, back through the treacherous slippery mud.  I opted to take Kachina out since she was right there, not yet sure what I'd do with her. 

I filled my pockets with treats and took her to the round pen.  She was snorty and high-headed at first as I led her toward the trailer, then past the scary garden shed up to the round pen, but once in the round pen, she settled pretty quickly as her buddies all lined up to watch just on the other side of the fence.  I did my usual with her; started lunging calmly, but quickly remembered that she was just a tad off on the right front.  She wasn't super lame, just a tad off at the trot only circling to the right.  I didn't want to stress her leg, not being able to determine what was wrong with it.  There was no swelling or heat, and her hoof looked clean.  I imagine maybe she just sprained it a little in the mud.  So instead of lunging, we just did some walking work.  I led her over the drain tile scraps that I had saved to serve as obstacles in the round pen.  She dropped her head to snort at it, then stepped over it with her front feet fairly calmly, and then almost came unglued when her hind foot clipped it and made a noise.  She just about jumped on top of me, but I was expecting her to be a little spooky over it, so I was safe.  We did it again, and she accidentally clipped it again with her hind feet with the same over reaction to it.  Then, the third time, she was more careful with her feet, and the fourth time too.  The fifth time, she got lazy and clipped it again, but it no longer freaked her out.  I did some more desensitizing with the rope and also my stick and string, and then made sure she was soft and would bend her neck laterally with a soft pull on the rope. 

Then, I decided to see how she'd be going for a short walk.  She didn't appear to be off at all at the walk, so I figured it wouldn't hurt her anymore than hanging out the the pasture would.  I wasn't sure how far we'd be able to go, simply due to the muddy conditions and Kachina's reaction.  This would be the first time ever that I'd lead her anywhere except the immediate vicinity of the farmyard and roundpen.  I didn't want to take her far if she wasn't ready for it, which I thought she might not be since she's always been the spookiest, flightiest, most reactive horse.  But, as we started walking, she dropped her head, and walked beside me rather calmly.  She would stop and raise her head to get a better look at something every once in a while, but overall, she was actually very calm.  I was so surprised.  I expected her to get the most uptight when leaving the herd behind.  So we kept walking.  Even when we disappeared behind the hill and could no longer see anything familiar (we were no longer alongside the pasture that she has been in), she didn't change her calm demeanor one bit.  And we walked past all kinds of things that I would have thought would scare her, as spooky as she is about things when I've introduced her to them in the past.  Piles of logs, an electrical box out in the middle of the grass, the cabin, a tarp covering a wood pile, the pond ice, the dogs jumping out of the brush all around us.  Nothing caused her undue alarm.  She noticed them, but we just kept walking past everything and she gave all these things a glance but then just kept up with me.  We also did a lot of "whoa" and back a step as I led her because she's not very good at it yet.  By the end of our walk she was slowing down when I said whoa but still required my stopping and the pull on the halter to stop completely, and she was backing with a much lighter pull on the halter.  She did not spook at a single object, just eye-balled a few things.  And she only had one flighty moment.  I stopped her a few times in an open area and asked her to lunge at a walk around me.  The second time I asked this of her was down by the pond, and I think she was a little nervous inside, even though she wasn't being overly reactive to anything because when I asked her to lunge, she jumped away from me started blindly trotting around me.  When I asked her to stop, she did a screaming turn and took off the other direction.  She wouldnt' stop, but amazingly wasn't trying to pull away from me either.  At one time I got her to face up, but she came into me too fast and was walking her face into me, so I pushed her away, which send her into another frenzied blind trot around me.  I finally got her to stop and she was huffing and puffing and quite worried then, but as we took off walking again with me leading her, she calmed right back down and there were no more instances like that the next time I stopped to ask her to lunge around me.  The next time was not at the pond.  So, aside from that one little frenzied lunging event, she was actually amazing on our walk.  I expected her to be spooky and dangerous and she wasn't at all.  Just goes to show what I know!  I guess I should not jump to any conclusions with her.  And I need to suck it up and just tie her solid to something.  I actually don't think she'll be as bad as I was thinking she would be.  She respects the rope quite well.  So, I need to find the right thing to tie her to...it's too muddy in the pasture and I'm not sure I have anything else stout enough outside the pasture right now.  This summer we will bury a stout post up alongside the roundpen to practice tying too, but we don't have it available yet. 

Kachina is a pretty little mare, but when she drops her head and leads beside me calmly and respectfully, yet still interested in her surroundings, she is even more beautiful.  I shouldn't work with her if I plan to sell her because it reminds me why I got into the mustangs in the first place and then I get attached all over again and want to keep her for myself!  But, I do need to work with her because it will ensure that she gets a chance at having a useful life and being taken on by someone who is worthy of her.

A side note:  Sassy, the pintaloosa mare that we sold last spring, seems to doing well.  I hadn't seen her at all last summer ( I think her new owners had her in training), but now that it is winter, I can see her in the pasture alongside the highway when we go to town.  She is turned out with their beef cattle, a couple donkeys, and another appaloosa horse.  She looks good from the road.  I'd be interested to hear how her new owners like her, but they must since they didn't contact us about giving her back last fall, which had been part of the original deal.