Doing good for having a week off!

It's been almost a week since I've worked with Griffin and Kachina, but I think they remembered their previous lessons...and they might have even missed me! They both seemed fairly eager to approach me when I went down to work with them today.

I was able to halter Kachina with the lead rope attached, without having to toss the big rope coil onto her to get her to stand. I just had to be patient and keep approaching her with it, then eventually rubbing her face, then sliding the halter on. She took it like a pro today! Once haltered, I rubbed her all over, and put fly spray on (she only ran just a bit in the beginning, but then let me spray her whole body on both sides). Then I brushed her mane and forelock out with hair lotion.

Next, I decided to get her used to me scratching her with my training stick with string attached. I'd like to work to feeling comfortable handling her back end, and I decided that using the stick to reach her for now would be the way to go. I know she'll be less comfortable with objects than with me, so if I get her used to the objects touching her back there, then she should accept me pretty well. She took the stick pretty well, but did tuck her butt the first time I rubbed her there. She also did pick up one foot a couple times and kick out halfheartedly with it, but she quit when I just kept at it. She didn't necessarily like the stick touching her back legs, but she tolerated it. She did tense up at first when I started touching her with the new stick, but she got over it fast, and she didn't run!

Then I tossed the string over her back repeatedly to desensitize her to having something thrown at her. She did think about running around me, but actually took this surprisingly well, considering her reaction to me throwing the big rope at her. Perhaps the big rope didn't scare her as much as I'd thought! I basically kept at the tossing at her until she licked her lips and relaxed. She was a little tense at first, but I was able to do her whole topline, and around her back and front legs, and she just stood. She really did relax after a while and didn't even flinch when I missed with the rope and hit her in the side instead of getting it over her back!

After that, I spent more time rubbing her with my hands over her hips and under her belly. I'm too chicken to go down her back legs yet. I'll work them with a rope first before we get there. She's not completely comfortable with me toward her butt yet. Then I rubbed down her front legs and asked her to pick up a foot when I pulled on her fetlock hair. I just got her to pick up the foot so far. I'm not asking her to let me hold it. She's getting better at that...she does take a little bit of time with me waiting while I pull on her hair before she'll pick up her foot. I sure do like mustang's fetlock hair...it makes a great handle for hoof handling!

She's leading pretty well now, too.

It's hard to get pictures of a horse that won't stand where you leave them and keeps following you around! I think Kachina has gained quite a bit of weight now that she's not putting so much energy into fighting an illness!







After that, I called it a night with Kachina and moved to Griffin.

I was pleased that Griffin seemed to want to approach me.



His abscess is all healed up and the swelling is gone.


He sniffed me pretty comfortably, but when I went to scratch his neck and face, he moved off, so I got him moving and then got the rope on him again.


Once I had the rope on, I was able to apply fly spray with the spray bottle! He did get worried at first, but I just kept at it and rewarded him the second he thought about standing still. And in just a couple attempts, he stood still and I applied it to his whole body!

He is definitely only tolerating me being with him. I think I might be overwhelming him...he is almost shutting off when I back away from him to give him a break. Instead of relaxing and licking his lips, he often starts blinking his eyes like he's falling asleep, but what he's really doing is blocking me out, I think. So a couple of times, I just did a really fast jump to startle him back to the world, and that caused him to freak for a second, then lick his lips. So, I think I must be pushing him to hard when he's got the rope on - he can't escape from me, so he's almost shutting off, but not quite. I'm going to have to do some more thinking about how to approach that. I don't think I'm moving to fast because he's taking things well, but something about when I have the rope on him...I must just not be giving him enough complete breaks where I back completely off and ignore him. I think I'm just backing up and staring at him, so he's still in the "hot-seat". I'll have to change that...

However, we did progress to him letting me rub his face with two hands and also with the halter (that's first!). Prior to this, I'd never even attempted to touch him with the halter. I was also able to rub his neck with it. He seemed pretty relaxed about me rubbing his face and breathing into his nose by the end. I left it at that. I was able to pull the rope off his head over his ears with my hand without causing him to move away too!

Griffin is very uncomfortable with me anywhere but up by his head, so I'll work with that, and get him comfortable letting me halter him, and we'll slowly move back. I really, really want to get him gelded soon. Perhaps as soon as I get him handled up front, I can get the vet out and we can work out a squeeze chute to administer the anesthetic.

Griffin is progressing - both with his wound and me!

So, I've had an eventful weekend with the horses! I was able to scratch Griffin on the face, neck and chest with my hand. I had to use the pole in the beginning of each session to get him more comfortable with me being close to him (he really likes the pole), but by yesterday evening, I was able to set the pole down, and walk up to him and begin scratching his neck, and he stayed put and seemed to enjoy it! I have to "warn" him though, by moving my arm in a scratching motion before I touch him. If I just reach for him, he gets worried and moves away. I was even able to apply with my fingers a poultice made of epsom salts and aspirin to his abscess to help it drain. Now that it is draining, his leg is not swollen and he seems to feel a lot better. He was trotting around his pen yesterday. The previous day, I was even able to put fly spray on him, by wiping him with a wetted rag wrapped around the pole! I think he's progressing very nicely!

I'll post about Kachina's work later this evening.

A good workout with both wild ones

I gave the mustangs a day off yesterday (picking berries again, yum), but I worked with both of them the previous couple days and then today.

Now, I actually sat down and watched some horse training shows - RFD-TV is showing Clinton Anderson's working with mustangs series again, and I was able to catch the the first episode (of 6). He and his apprentices work with 3 mustangs and one is quite fearful, but they all calm down and are touched and rubbed within 3 hours. Now, I don't always like how forceful and rather aggressive he can be with training, but I do appreciate the opportunity to watch and take away what I can from each thing I see. I decided that if those horses can handle that level of pressure, and they've been around people less than mine have, then perhaps what Kachina actually needs is for me to step up the amount of pressure that she's been exposed to. She seems to be getting jumpier and jumpier, and I really am not pushing her and just asking her to do mini-roundpenning and sorta sniff my hand. I was all concerned that the pole episode freaked her out, and I think that it did, but my mistake was to not show it to her again. She thinks that by running forever and ever, she was keeping herself safe, and in the end, that pole went away. She didn't learn a thing from that episode...well, she thinks she learned that she needs to be on guard to keep herself safe and run from new scary things.

So a few days ago, I was thinking that I'd like to soon here get a rope on her and try that out. I started by entering her pen with a lead rope in my hand, then just tossing it onto the ground so that she could investigate it.

Kachina is worried about something. What could it be?

Oh! An evil rope!



She was very worried, and approached it snorting, but she did get over it and came into the barn to watch while I worked with Griffin that day. Later, I picked up the rope and just started walking around with it, and she of course became very nervous and ran around me. I started swinging the rope, and she really took off. So, I kept swinging it, and every time she stopped searching the corners and stood and looked at me (head high, nostrils super flared), I stopped swinging the rope and backed away from her. This whole time, my body was very passive, and for the most part I was trying to ignore her. She did get hyped up, but toward the end of that lesson, she was standing and looking at me more often than running around. Progress! Then I got rid of the rope and she relaxed quite a bit, I asked her to sniff my hand, then I left her.

So, after thinking about what I've been doing with her, I decided to try the bamboo pole again, but this time, I would introduce her to it more slowly. The next day, I threw the pole onto the ground in her pen for a couple of hours before I commenced working with her. She snorted at it, but she did investigate it and seemed not too worried by it later. Then I entered her pen, and picked up the pole and she immediately started searching corners looking for a way out. I tried to hold the pole out toward her so that she could acknowledge and investigate it. She of course kept trying to evade me, so I kept cutting her off until she stood and looked at me, then I basically made her acknowledge and sniff it. She did and seemed to calm down just a little. I repeatedly retreated and then advanced again to ask her to just stand and check the pole out until she was not looking to take off every time I advanced (remember this fear is primarily pole related because she lets me walk even closer than I was standing without showing any concern). I then progressed to passing it alongside her body as I was moving it toward her to ask her to sniff it. As she give in, I decided it was time to set it on her withers. As I did, she made to move off. She began trotting around me, but she didn't seem too concerned at first. I let her go for a little bit, then stepped in front of her drive line to ask her to stop...she started to stop, but then freaked that the pole was still touching her and at that point, she started to get more and more worked up the longer she trotted. I kept trying to get her to stop, but all I ended up doing was causing her to turn into the fence. Every turn seemed to get her more hyped up. I decided to wait a little bit and let her trot it out and see if she might start to relax with time, but it became clear that it was going to become just like the last time with the pole unless I did something different.

So, I threw the pole on the ground, opened up the gate that I shut when I work with her so that she can't hide in the barn, and let her run into there. She seeks that out because she thinks she is safe in there. I shut the gate behind her, and approached with the pole. By this time she was dripping sweat and out of breath. I let her air up a minute then I started "force touching" her with the pole. I figured that I had to break that cycle of her thinking that she needs to run when the pole touches her. So, I stood on the opposite side of the gate, and stuck the pole through and made her acknowledge and sniff it. When I started touching her on the withers in that narrow space, she was very very worried, and searched corners in there to get out (I was a little concerned about trapping her in that space - worried that she'd try to jump, so I was watching her carefully for pushing her too far). She didn't try to jump, and when she finally stopped and looked at me, I took the pole off and just walked away from the gate with it. I kept reaching in and touching her and when she would stand and look at me (or the pole), I turned and walked away with it. When the pole would approach her body, she would tense up so severely that her whole body would arc into a 'C' around the pole. I kept touching her until she wasn't tensing up like that. I rubbed her with the pole too. If she saw it over her back with her opposite eye, she kicked out a few times as a self-protective reaction, but I just ignored her and kept touching her. I ended that session on a good note with her standing and not tensing when I reached to touch her with the pole, then I left her. When I opened the gate, she got the heck out of the barn!!! Now the barn wasn't so safe!!! Poor Kachina's world was rocked! I wasn't sure that lesson stuck with her or if I'd perhaps pushed her too far, or "ruined" her in some way, until I worked with her today.

Today, I decided to go with the pole again, but I'd try to touch her outside of the barn first, with the plan that if she got to running again, I'd do the same thing with letting her retreat to the barn, then "force" touch her in there. So I started off by throwing the pole in her pen and letting her just check it out. Then I went and got my berries and soda and sat in her hay tub to slowly enjoy them, while I ignored her. She sniffed me twice, but took awhile to do it, although she remained relaxed through it all. Then I began work with the pole. I went in and picked it up, I asked her to just sniff it. I did that several times, and she really did seem a little less scared of it. She was touching it more firmly with her nose than she had ever before. I gave her lots of breaks and let her just take in the fact that the pole was not out to get her. She did make to move away a few times in the beginning, but I just cut her off until she got the picture that I wanted her to just stand and sniff that pole. After I felt like she'd checked it out well, I reached to her withers with it, she immediately tensed and started to take off, so I touched her firmly, then pulled the pole off immediately and stepped in front of her to cut her off. When she stopped immediately, I praised her and walked away. I did that again, and again, until she stopped trying to take off when I reached out with the pole. The key was to take it away before she got into that mindset where she needed to run and escape the pressure. Soon, she was standing still, but still tensing when I reached out toward her (arcing her body as the pole approached), but with the same consistent method (not making her endure the touching for very long before I walking away with the pole), soon she was not tensing at all! At this point, she suddenly looked very relaxed and I began to scratch her with the pole. Now, she had not been allowed to run at all during this lesson - I had not even done any mini-roundpenning without the pole, and the difference was very obvious. I think that Kachina gets into a mindless self protective state when she is running around the pen. With this no-running method, she was soon letting me scratch her all along her topline, on her chest, and a little ways down her butt. If I went too far down her butt, her reaction was to kick, so I only spent a little time there until she quit kicking and I didn't want to push that issue because that was not what our lesson was about today - the lesson was the pole is not going to kill you. A couple of times, she did actually manage to move away and started to think about mindlessly running around, but since she'd not gotten hyped up previously, I was able to get her stopped while the pole was still on her back. She was so relaxed by the end, that after I put the pole away, I spent time approaching her head and asking her to sniff my hand, and I was able to bump her nose with my hand and brush my hand down the lower bridge of her nose without causing her to move away! What a successful lesson!

Griffin's lesson went pretty much as well as they have been all along, except today he was much more comfortable with sniffing my hand and letting me briefly run my hand down his nose. At one point, he reached out to investigate my arm and my hand and he actually started to lip at my hand, but not in an aggressive way - more in a male horse investigative way. And he was so into the pole rubbing that for a while he was searching for something to return the grooming favor and he started to nibble on the pole too. His favorite place to be rubbed is his belly and his boy parts - you gotta love those male horses and their itchy parts (females too I guess). It's a sure way to win their affections because you are the only one who can itch those particular places! I also did not move Griffin around today before I worked with him and he was much more comfortable with me. I think I can hold off on the asking them to move away from me until they are much more comfortable...after all, I probably don't need to get respect when they are still actually afraid of me. I had also been moving him with the hopes that it would bring the swelling down in his leg (and it did - but it always returned a few hours later).

Griffin's chest is quite huge still, but it has changed shape. I think it is going to abscess really soon. Yesterday the hair started to fall out of a patch in the center of his bulging chest, and then today, the hairless patch is much larger and the bulge is starting to gain definition - it looks like he has a softball under his skin. He's been on antibiotics for 3 days now and his leg is less swollen, although I'm not sure if that is due to the antibiotics or if it is just the natural progression of this abscess. I predict the swelling will break open tomorrow.

The vet called!

Wow! What relief I feel! I just got off the phone with my vet (who was not on vacation - she was at a llama conference). She said that it doesn't sound like bastard strangles, but sounds like he could have been kicked, but then I told her that he was alone, and she said it could even be some damage incurred while he was in the chutes with the BLM...then I remembered the panel incident. Now I'm pretty much convinced that this abscess that is growing in his chest is a result of damage incurred when he ran full speed into the panel back at the end of May. At the time, he seemed to not have had any injuries from the incident, but now I really, really think that's what his swollen chest is. What a relief that it's not something contagious!!!

The vet said we need to start him on oral antibiotics if it is affecting his leg, so I'll be off to get something to make my horse feel better! Now, I just hope that he doesn't start to feel so much better that all the work I've done with him just gets recessed back into some dusty little corner of his wild brain.

Griffin pole session and Kachina rope session

Well, I really shouldn't be writing this right now because I have a job application with a looming deadline, but I just want to!

So, I decided that I needed to work with Griffin very intensively because if he gets more sick, we'll need to be able to restrain him somehow and the more work he has, the better he'll take it, right? So, my plan was to try the bamboo pole on him. I was definitely apprehensive about it, but like I said before, he can be a thinker if not pushed to hard, especially since he doesn't really want to move too much right now anyway.

I started by earlier in the day, tying a panel across the barn entrance so that he could get used to the fact that he can't retreat into the barn (I didn't want a replay of the panel incident). Then I laid my pole against his panels so that it stuck over the top near where his hay was. Through all this, he was unconcerned and continued to eat hay, seeming to not notice the pole.

A couple of hours later, I returned and entered his pen, just me, no pole. First, I picked a big handful of grass, approached and knelt down holding the grasss out to him. He stepped over very slowly and pulled the long grass out of my hand. Then, I spent time asking him to move, then stop and look at me. This was actually the most time that I've spent really pushing him to move away from me, and he did snort at me a couple of times when I had to really push him (just with my body language, no stick or rope or anything). He wasn't so keen on moving, and I think part of it is that he is pretty stiff in his shoulders, and the other part is that he is getting sticky feet because I don't move him around that much. He has a particular corner that he likes to back himself into and stand with his left side facing me. That's the side that he'd prefer I be on, so I had to spend a lot of time trying to get him to turn and move around with me on his right side. Getting him to stop and hold still with me on his right side was difficult to because he would stop, then turn and back himself into his corner with me on his left side.

He was very nonagressive through all this. At one point, he did swing his butt out toward me and I'm not sure if he was actually thinking of kicking at me, or if he was contemplating turning into the fence, but he actually stopped all on his one and turned around to face me. He wants to face me and feels very uncomfortable when his butt is toward me (which I like). He actually was pretty interested and engaged in this process the whole time. He didn't seem to shut off, and I gave him lots of space when he did actually stop and look at me, so he had plenty of soak time.

His leg was quite swollen in the beginning, after I'd been asking him to move around for about a half hour (almost all of this moving was at the walk - only occasionally did he spurt into a couple of trot strides when I was having difficulty getting him to turn on his right side), his swollen leg was almost back to normal. I was hoping that the movement would help push the fluid out, and it did. His chest is huge still though, and nothing has abscessed yet.

So, since I thought he was doing pretty well with me moving him, I decided to introduce the pole into the picture. First, I just pulled it in and laid it on the ground near his favorite corner. He snorted, and moved a little, but then approached it directly to sniff at it. Then I asked him to move around, just like we'd been doing before, with the pole laying on the ground. He seemed only a tad concerned about it, so I moved him until he'd checked it out a couple of times and lost his concern. Then I picked it up and laid it down in a new place, and moved him around then. He was generally unconcerned about it. So then, I picked it up and offer the end to him to sniff while he was stopped and standing still watching me. He calmly sniffed the end of it really well, so I backed off and pulled the pole up and let him have a break. Then I did it again...I kept letting him sniff it, then I'd pull it away.



He started to let me bump it on his nose, so then as I pulled it away, I moved it back toward his body without touching him with it. He watched it, but seemed unworried, so I moved the pole around him a few times without touching him, then I just went ahead and set it against his withers. He did a half flinch, but didn't move. I rubbed him across his back and then stopped and let him sniff it again and then backed off. I approached and retreated like this for a while, then I just settled in and began rubbing his whole body with the pole. Through all this, he stood still watching me or the pole with calm interest. He let me touch him EVERYWHERE! The first time I went his butt, he did tuck it and get worried for a second, but I just stopped and did it again, and then he was fine with it. I was even able to touch him on his belly, between his back legs, and down all four legs. He especially enjoyed it when I rubbed the underside of his neck and across his swollen chest. His chest is hard as a rock - I could feel it with the pole. And it itches. When I'd rub across it, he'd sort of just slightly tilt his nose out.

So after I got the one side, I wanted to do his right side. It look quite a bit of time to get him to stop and stand with my on the right so that I could repeat the whole process on that side, but we did it!



And it ended on a GREAT note! He stood still, I walked away and opened his panel to the barn and climbed out. He stood and watched me the whole time, and then just calmly walked over to his hay to start eating.





I should have started things this slowly with Kachina, but regardless, she is much flightier. Any new thing that is introduced into her pen causes a mild panic, with snorting. I took a leadrope into there yesterday and then left it on the ground so that she'd have to confront it, and she did but she pranced and snorted and ran around a bit first. After Griffin, I ended up working with her with that rope. I just carried it around and ignored her while I swung it, making sure that my body lanquage was very passive. Everytime she'd stop running and look at me, I would stop swinging for a bit. Toward the end of our session, she was spending more time standing and watching me and less time running, but she was hyped up and nervous. I feel like I have a hard time ending my sessions with her on a good note. I think we did end it fairly well, with hanging the rope on her panels (to leave there so she has to get used to it), and me walking up to her to let her sniff my hand.

It's interesting though that before I picked up the rope, I went into her pen, and she immediately wanted to follow me around. She does this when I walk past the outside of her panels too, she follows me what length she can. There's not much space to follow though so we just turn tight circles and she eventually stops in the middle with me walking around the outside of her as she pivots to keep facing me. If I just walk around and make no move to really drive her or extend my arm, she can be so relaxed in my presence. I can stand next to her and she seems glad for my company. But I can't even make a move to touch her or she's off.

Griffin - still getting bigger

Griffin's chest is just huge now. And the the fluid from that chest swelling is filling up his left leg and between his legs. He's stiff and walks very carefully. I talked to the vet yesterday (but one that doesn't actually see many horses, because the two local equine vets are BOTH on vacation!!!), and seeing how we can't handle him, they didn't think an exam would do much good, and he didn't want to give antibiotics if we don't know what the problem is. He said that if it seems localized right now (just in his chest) that we should just wait and see. If it seems to go systemic and he gets really depressed and loses interest in eating, then he said call, and we'll get some antibiotics into him somehow. Maybe if he actually gets that sick, we can work up a chute with some panels and he won't put up as big of a fight. I hope it doesn't come to that. I don't know what else to do for him. I really am sick of dealing with sick horses that I can't even get close to. I am going to try the pole with him. I think that this situation calls for some now gentling, and maybe he's slowed down enough to think through it. He does seem like a thinker if not pushed to hard. I cleaned out his pen yesterday and he was just fine with me swinging the pitchfork around. I even "trapped" him in the barn and was cleaning in the front part. As I would leave with a pile to dump outside the pen, he would advance, as I would come back, he'd back a couple steps, and we did that dance for a good half hour. He was letting me come pretty close in that confined area by the end, but then again, I was just ignoring him (talking to him once in a while - telling him he needs to quit peeing in his hay in the barn cuz it gets stinky).

Poor Griffin

Unfortunately Griffin's chest looks even puffier today with a larger swelling between his front legs. It's so large at this point, that it almost looks like his chest was supposed to be that way, and it's really not as jiggly. I suppose that means it might start draining soon. The vets have not called me back yet about it. Kachina is looking pretty good. She's definitely gained weight since we've had her, but unfortunately, now she looks a little flea-bitten. She so sensitive to the flies, and I think she has rather thin skin, so the itching that she does wears the hair off her hide. I've been doing mini-roundpenning with her daily, and she's getting pretty good at reading me, not over-reacting, and even on both sides. I can ask her to go out, come in and face me, and change directions. She'll also stand still as I walk around her, although she sometimes gets confused about this, and makes to move off when I just want her to stand still and chill out. I can also walk around toward her hip and she will pivot and continue facing me. I'd like her to relax a little more though, and make more of a move to sniff my hand when offered, but she is really standoffish. It takes many offers, and then she will sort of sniff in the general direction of my hand, but no closer than 6inches to a foot. She used to sniff me closer, and I'm not sure if it's worse now just because she feels better, or maybe it's because I "poled" her, or perhaps it's just because I'm working with her in general. It might help if I did the round penning for longer. I need to step up what I'm doing if I want to be able to touch her. I really really wish I had a rope on her right now, and next, I may try work her with a rope. I'm just worried about freaking her out more and losing that little bit of trust.

Griffin is sick again

The other day I noticed that Griffin had a small fluidy looking swelling hanging between his front legs. Then it was about the size of a baseball, a little smaller even. A few days later, and it was much larger! It jiggles when he walks. I also think that the chest area is puffy and inflamed, and the jiggly fluid filled sack is probably what is draining from his chest. It's hard to really see how it affects his locomotion, since he catwalks around me anyway, but I do think he is moving more stiffly.

Everything I know about diseases tells me that this sounds like pigeon fever, but in all my research online, it doesn't appear to occur in the midwest. It seems to be a western states thing. Pigeon fever, also called dryland strangles, is caused by the introduction of a bacteria called Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis usually by flies and their bites. It can be very contagious and also spread to other horses by flies or poor sanitation practices. How Griffin might have come down with this, I'm not sure, although the bacteria does occur naturally in the soil in some regions.

But I could be way off. We also have Lyme disease here, but I don't think that would cause a reaction like I'm seeing.