Griffin's big day

Every morning that I have arranged to have my mom come and watch Wren, as I'm getting Wren to nap, I am usually daydreaming about what I'm going to do with my horses, which horse I'll bring out....today I daydreamed about working with Griffin and potentially getting Cody out and teaching him to pony in the round pen.  Well, often my daydreams are not what I end up doing, either because something with the horses dictates differently, or I just come up with other ideas as I go.  What I ended up doing was getting Griffin up in the round pen.  On the way there, he was a little leary about things in the yard, but he just looked at them and continued on with me.  I let him sniff around and become familiar with this new place before I did anything with him.

He was pretty calm about the whole thing, slowly exploring.  Then I got my stick out and "round penned" him loose, asking him to stay a constant direction until asked and when asked turn to the inside to change direction.  He was a little snorty at first with me asking him to move, but he was hooked onto me immediately.  I made him keep it up until he wasn't snorty anymore, then I asked him to face up and keep facing me as I walked back and forth in front of him.  He was really good, remembering pretty much everything we'd done with our "mini-roundpenning" in the tiny mustang pen.  We didn't spend much time in the round pen because it is so boggy (I'm deciding I don't like the sand - we may need to find something to add to it to firm it up).  Since he settled down so quickly and became very comfortable with me, and is respecting the leadrope so well, I took him back down to the barn and tied him to the hitching post for the first time.  I don't like to tie horses to this post if I think they may pull back because it is not set in the ground very deep (Cody has already pulled it crooked when she pulled back once and Sassy, the mare we had over the winter, pulled it even more crooked).  So me tying him to the hitching post shows my confidence in him!  I spraying him with fly spray, then decided to take him for a walk in the woods on the trails! 

My dogs came along with me and were crashing around in the brush, but Griffin paid them no mind.  After the round penning, he was very comfortable with me and was not leary hardly at all.  He was interested, but it was a mild interest in the new places we went.  He put complete confidence in me!  I love that feeling.  The only thing that really worked him up was the noise of my dogs splashing into the pond.  The picture below shows him watching them run down to the pond from pretty far away still.

He got over being worried about that noise pretty quick though.  We just went down and stood at the waters edge and watched the dogs go in and out.  I led him back and forth and around and just asked him to check out the water, which he did.  As we watched the dogs, I took a picture of his injured eye.  You can see the cloudiness is receding, but the spot where the lesion was has become very opaque and white.  But it is so low, that even if it doesn't go away, it's not going to be a hindrance to him.

Griffin shows off how over this he is.  By the time we left the pond, the dogs were running into the water right at his feet and it didn't phase him.  He did not volunteer stepping into the pond though, and I didn't want to make him go in right now because that was not the goal of this walk.  Plus I was wearing my boots and didn't want to get them wet!

After the pond, we walked through my parent's yard, past the chickens and the orange tractor (walking through a narrow area with chickens underfoot without a  moment's hesitation), then we came back through the wooded trails and ventured onto my neighbor's trails.  We walked past their barn filled with horses, came out by their house, went down the driveway and past my husband's cattle farm.  Griffin had a bit of difficulty with crossing a narrow washout, but with persistance and picking an easier spot, he crossed.  He watched my husband's herd of 30 heifers running away with a bit of alarm (but who wouldn't be alarmed watching a mass of dark cattle kick up dust as they foolishly stampeded from the sight of a wild horse).  His alarm was just watching them with a high head and side-stepping a bit. Then we walked down along the road and through the yard of my husband's business, complete with large scary machinery and racks of pipe.

Griffin is curious, but not alarmed by any of this.

We even went along the road, and watched 3 cars pass by, including a big silver tanker type-truck.  Griffin was totally unconcerned by any of it (it helps to have your pasture border a road that semi's drive on regularily).  When we got back, we stood tied for another couple minutes for a thorough grooming session before being turned back into the pasture.

Griffin was absolutely awesome on our walk.  I couldn't have daydreamed a better outcome for my horsey-time!  I was so proud of him and so pleased with his temperament.  This horse has so much potential.  I hope I have the time to bring it out in him!  I don't think it is going to take much work.

Taking a young horse for a walk alone in the woods is the best thing for them.  They have to rely on your leadership.  If I were to pony Griffin, he would have assigned that leadership to the horse I was riding and not me.  Now I know he trusts me pretty completely, and my trust in him has been pretty firmly established.

Riding Chico and using the new round pen

I exercised Chico in the spot where the new round pen will go, but all that is there right now is the flattened base and stakes to mark the edges. Despite the fact that the location does not have any fill/footing yet, it was so wonderful to lunge a horse on a flat spot! I've been doing it for the last couple years in the yard which is sloped. I really wanted to evaluate him to see if he's stiff, or if it might be the saddle that made him reluctant to canter last time. He's never been reluctant to canter before. He's always had a lot of go, but he is older now (7 years), and a bit overweight. Well, I saddled him up with the new saddle, but a different saddle pad (one I usually use with him). When I lunged him at the trot and canter, he was quite full of himself, arching his neck and really floating at the trot, and then at the canter he was still arched but sort of jumping...not really a buck, but not a nice fluid canter either. He did that last time I lunged him too (actually, he often does this almost buck thing when lunged at the canter when being warmed up), but I just wondered if he was doing it out of discomfort or out of freshness. Well, he did the jumping canter for several rounds and through several changes of direction, and then suddenly he switched to a relaxed 3-beat canter. So, I know he can do it. I'm still uncertain about the cause of it, but I suspect it is freshness.

Even so, I do think that he is a little stiff. The leg that he was cut on is his right hind, and he toes in a little on his left front (always has). Being a little stiff on that hind might make his diagnonal front compensate a bit more which might make him even more asymmetrical than the simple toe-in when he moves. Last time I rode with this saddle, he has a dry spot on the left side of his wither. While out on the trail after we warmed up, I noticed that my saddle kept feeling like it was crooked. I kept straightening it, then realized it was centered on his withers, but the rear of the saddle kept tipping off to the right. So, I think his left wither has a little more muscling which is pushing the saddle crooked and also giving him that dry spot. It's interesting, but I never noticed it in the old saddle that I always used on him. Chico didn't seem as reluctant to canter today on the trail either. He did seem to tire quickly, but I think he's overweight, and he's always been good at looking out for himself. When he's tired going up a hill, he has no problem stopping to rest. I stayed on my parent's land for my ride today because my dogs came along. We stopped at the pond so they could swim. Chico walked right in too and set to pawing the water.

I'm happy to report that he didn't really have a dry spot today after our ride using the different saddle pad with the new saddle.

Chico really has wide, round withers. And I've said this before, but sitting on him bareback is like sitting on a recliner. He is so comfortable. He might be a bit more round nowadays and more difficult to stay centered on though!

I wish I had more time to work with Chico, because it seems that he might need some work with getting the two sides of his body to match in flexibility and strength. He was a very good boy today. I took a pocket full of treats along with me when I lunged him, and then also had them out on the trail. It's amazing what a little treat will do for Chico's willingness. Not that he's bad without them, but his try is so much more obvious when he knows a treat might be in the future. And after I turned him back out in the pasture, he hung around the gate, waiting to see if I perhaps had a few more treats, even though all the others were grazing in the big pasture out of sight.

I am so excited about finally having a round pen to work horses in. Now, I feel like I can actually progress with the two wild ones. I'll have a large safe place to do exercises and introduce them to new things. And it will be big enough that they can actually move out! I used to work with them in their little BLM approved pens. I've messed around with Griffin out in the pasture on a lead line before, but he was confused about lunging because I never really do it with him - I've always been more about getting him to come to me than getting him to move away from me. My time with them is so sporadic and when I do work with them, it is totally unstructured, but I guess every little bit helps. Now, with a round pen available, I feel like I will be able to make more of a schedule to work with them...wait, except that I'm heading back to school in a few weeks. Oh man!

So, a bit more about the round pen.

A year and a half ago, in spring, I went researching prices for 50' round pens. I was specifically looking for 6 ft high panels to use with working wild ones, and I wanted extra heavy duty panels...nothing lightweight that would bend easily if they were bumped into. I found some but the cost was so prohibitive! Finally, I found a company, Chubby Baird Gates, that makes and sells the heavy duty round pen panels for much much cheaper. The panels are not fancy, but they are completely functional. And we actually got them cheaper than listed on their website because the dealer we went through gave us a bit of a deal. My husband was actually so impressed with them, that they purchased a ton more this year to use with their cattle.

And I've called a couple places about getting fill in for footing. The limestone gravel screenings will pack too hard, and crushed granite is just too cost prohibitive, especially since we aren't even sure how well it will work, so we've decided to use sand for now. If the sand is too cushy, we will find something to add to it to firm it up.

Round pens

We are finally getting to preparing a site to set up the round pen that we bought 1.5 years ago. We are just busy and it wasn't high on the priority list until recently. I'll post pictures later of our work. Right now, the base grade is done and the surrounding dirt leveled off and smoothed. Now, I need to get the fill in. I can't decide what I want to use for fill, so I thought I'd throw it out there and ask what others have used in their arenas/roundpens. The previous round pen that I used when I lived in Idaho had basalt gravel screenings (very small diameter gravel). I loved that base because it had give and cushion, but also a lot of support without being hard, and it wasn't as cushy as sand. I think that sand can be a little hard on their tendons if it is deep sand. But I don't have access to basalt gravel screenings and the gravel that we have here (limestone gravel) will most likely shed dust as it is used and eventually pack firm (much like the gravel roads around here do). So I've entertained the thought of mixing limestone gravel screenings and pea gravel (which will not pack)...or perhaps looking into granite gravel. I'm concerned about cost, of course, but I also don't want to have to redo the footing. Sand would be free (we can get it from our neighbor's sand pit if we haul it ourselves), but I'm concerned about it being too soft and too much stress on tendons. We plan to put 6 inches deep...probably if it wasn't so deep it wouldn't be as cushy. I just don't want my horses to be bogged down when I work with them. My neighbor has sand in his round pen and it is not too cushy, but I think it also isn't super deep. I don't know. Coming up with the right footing is stressful though!

February 24th 2008

"Post from the Past"

February 24th 2008

Today when I went out to the field, Chico was the first to greet me, so I took him out. We went straight out the driveway for a walk. He was weaving all over the road for a while. He also wanted to pass me, or stop and eat grass, or chase the dogs…in general, he was real full of himself and wasn’t used to being respectful or paying attention to me. He wasn’t that bad, but more cantankerous than usual, also a little bit unsure in some places. The dogs found their deer bone again. Dogs laying down chewing on bones really unnerves horses for some reason (both Chico and Cody today!). I found a hub cap on the side of the road, and I used it to kick around and desensitize him with. He of course freaked at first, but got really curious about it after.

Almost halfway to the turnaround spot on our walk, I had to stop and lunge him for a while, as he was getting really antsy. He started to pay more attention to me after that. Then we continued walking and I worked on getting him to stop and back when I stop and back. At first, when I stopped, he just kept walking, so I pulled really hard to spin him around. We did that several times, then he started to catch on and pay more attention. Once he was paying attention, then it was easy to get him to back as I backed.

We turned around at the red barn on Dry Creek Road. On the way back, I asked him to trot, then whoa and back. Same thing over again, he wanted to just keep trotting when I stopped, so I had to pull him around really hard, then make him back up. He caught on after a couple of stops. Once, I asked him to back and he did nothing, so I gave him a horse kick in the chest…then he dropped his head and back when I asked him. He was just testing me a little bit, and he’s used to being one of the top horses in the pasture, so he’s not used to obeying someone else’s every whim. About half way back, he dropped back into his old self, where he was paying attention to me really well…not until then would I have ridden him. I think I’ll bring my saddle next weekend and ride him on Sunday.

After Chico, I caught Cody and took her in the round pen. She was quite a bit better today with manners than she was last week. Only once did she try to go over to the hay pile while I was closing the gate, and I made her back away from it. Then she was very mannerly. We went into the round pen and I right away got the plastic bag on the stick. She’s not afraid of it at all, but I made sure and desensitized her first, then I lunged her using the bag to create a bit more energy. It is still working great, and today, she showed no signs of insolence like last time (the bucking). She did everything I asked and paid close attention to me.

I bridled her at the jeep with my new bridle, and used Todd’s truck to climb up on her bareback. Off we went down the driveway at a good walking clip. Today, she didn’t seem nearly as ouchy on gravel, but we also stayed on roads that were softer (last time the road was still frozen in spots). We went down to the end of the loop where it meets up with Little Bear Ridge Road, then back. I think it was probably over 3 miles, but under 4. We did some trotting and cantering (I love cantering on a bareback horse up a gentle incline…it’s the neatest feeling in the world!). I really tried to work on getting her to side-pass. As we were walking down the left side of the road, I’d put my left leg back and push and at the same time, pull the left rein to my hip to swing her hindquarters out. We had to do that a few times, just so that she would get it. Then when she was swinging out perpendicular to the edge of the road, facing the ditch, I’d also apply right rein pressure and move my leg more toward the left middle, to push her over. She really wasn’t getting it very well, and I suppose it didn’t help that home was over the bank, so she’d sometimes step into the snowbank. The other direction, she wanted to just back up when I applied the second rein pressure. After a while, I started to think that maybe I was keeping her head tilted too far to the left (she was supposed to side-pass right). Then I tried stopping her in the road, then asking her to step side-ways with my leg, while blocking her forward movement with the reins….and she side-passed! Only one step or two, but we’ll practice that. I’d like to eventually be able to ask her to side-pass over a log. Cody is so smart that sometimes I think she’s playing dumb just because she doesn’t want to listen to me when I ask her to do something.

After we returned, Catlow was standing at the gate, so I took her out too. I didn’t really feel like taking her for a walk, and to be honest, I kind of have been avoiding her because I felt like all the work that I’d done so far had done nothing for her. So I took her in the round pen and decided to do a lesson with the plastic bag. I turned her loose, and then just started walking around waving the bag violently. She of course took off, running around the pen. I ignored her and when ever I inadvertently cut her off, she’d quick change direction and run the other way, but very quickly after only a few circles, she stopped and faced me. I stopped waving the bag when she did that to give her a reward and a break, then continued waving the bag. She ran another circle, then stopped and faced me again, so this time I walked up to her, let her sniff the bag, then set it on her withers and rubbed her with it. She stood there really well, so I slapped it up and down her body, and she stood there!!! Without a lead rope! Then we switched sides and did the same thing and she stood again. I was a bit floored because my impression of her after taking her for a walk had gone way way back to before I started working with her. It was nice to see that working with her in the round pen really had stuck with her.

Then I decided to push her and I ran around with the violently flapping bag. This of course set her off and she took off round the pen, but she faced up again! After I was positive that she was not afraid of the bag, I decided to use it as an aid to get forward movement when I lunged her free (no lead rope…I guess you could call this roundpenning). I hadn’t done this with her in a long time, so I was unsure what to expect. But she moved off really well, and the bag definitely created more forward movement. But she wasn’t panicked, I could get a slow trot out of her, and a canter. I only worked with her very briefly with several changes of direction. I tried to make my body language very consistent (point to go faster, and only shake the bag when she ignored me). And when I asked her to stop, I said whoa and walked up to her with the plastic bag and gave her a treat. This was also way different from when I first started working her in the round pen. She used to want to take off again when I approached her, as though the whole round pen experience was beyond her comprehension…she didn’t know why I was chasing her or what I expected of her. And I haven’t been lunging or round penning her since then. She is so much better now! This is all a sign that she definitely trusts me more than she used to, even though it didn’t seem like it after our walk.

I’m really glad that I worked her today because it has given me more hope. I will continue to work with her with the goal of riding her out of the round pen. It might have to be with Cody, but that doesn’t matter right now. I think that this week, I’ll saddle her up and do some more exercises, then I’ll start riding her around the round pen. Then by this weekend, I’ll be ready to take her for a walk saddled. And maybe I can convince Doni to come out, and we can take Catlow for a walk with another horse, too.

February 3nd, 2008, 2:30pm

February 3nd, 2008, 2:30pm

Yesterday, the farrier came out and trimmed everyone’s hooves. Cody’s weren’t so bad, but she does have unbalanced front hooves. The hairline on her right hoof is much less angled than the hairline on her left hoof. The left hoof looks okay…the hairline angle is about 30degrees like it should be, but the right hoof looks about midway between 0 degrees (or parallel to the ground) and 30 degrees…so I guess about 20 degree’s maybe. Catlow’s front feet are just really short. They are wearing much faster than they are growing. Chico’s are also wearing fast, and unevenly. Could it be the snow? He has always worn unevenly at the toe and right now, the inside wall is much shorter than the outside wall on both front feet. They are also quite short, so not much can be done about it right now, but hopefully we’ll have lot of grass this spring and their hooves will grow out fast.

After the farrier left, I wormed Chico and Catlow. I worked with Chico a bit out in the pasture. Just a little bit of lungeing and turning and yielding hindquarters. He loved it, and really remembers all his exercises. I love that Chico likes to be messed with. He gets a really beautiful look in his eyes, and he’s very respectful.

I also worked with Catlow. I didn’t quite follow my outline because I sort of didn’t feel like working with her (it’s hard to start something that you haven’t gotten into yet when you are not sure how to succeed or how successful you will be).

I started by round penning her. She actually did quite well. She doesn’t want to come off the fence and face me when she is going around to the left. I’ll have to be sure to focus on that side more than the other. It was obvious that a couple of times she was just plain disrespecting me…ignoring me when I asked her to move faster. And so I did reach out with my rope and smacked her on the butt. I noticed that she is definitely afraid of me, but she also will push into me with her shoulder (being defensive, I guess). So I think I need to focus on the draw more than the drive…even though she does also need the drive. So, my compromise will be to in future lessons, desensitize before and after the round penning exercise. I think that is key. I did not do that this time. I half heartedly started the round penning lesson so I didn’t do that before. I also need to make sure that I have a clear goal in mind when I am working with her, because if I don’t, she feels it and will be confused. It’s very obvious…when I start thinking about asking her to turn in and change directions, but waiting for a different spot in the round pen to do it (I notice that I tend to pick the same spots over and over, so am making an effort to change), there must be a change (lessening of drive) in my body language because she will often try to stop before I ask her. So, I need to be very clear and consistent…this horse is going to teach me that, I think.

Another thing that I noticed is that I need to work her longer in the round pen. In the past, I think I did not work her long enough and I didn’t change directions often enough, so she wasn’t getting the message that I was asking her to read me. I worked her until she sweated up and was breathing hard…lots of direction changes. I need to pick a cue (cluck and kiss, or trot-trot and canter). I think I’ll stick with voice because I feel it is less forceful and I’ll be able to stick with it better. After she was looking for rest, I asked her to stop while facing me, and I approached her by walking back and forth in front of her and asked her to face me while I walked around to her side. It took some repetition. At first, if I directed a little energy to her hindquarters, she wanted to just leave, so I cut her off and tried again, or more forcefully asked her to leave and then face up and start over. Eventually, she did start pivoting her hindquarters and facing up when I directed energy at them. It doesn’t take a lot of energy to get her to move.

When round penning, I need to make sure that exercise is more stressful than being with me. I was occasionally getting the feeling that she’d rather run around the pen than come in and be with me. I think the key to “fixing” that is to be sure to do lots of direction changes when I am round penning instead of letting her run zombie-like around and around.

So, after I asked her to come in and started touching her and tossing the rope at her, she was scared to death of me tossing the rope. She also jumped anytime there was a loud noise and when other horses ran past the opening of the barn. Anytime anything touched her, she jumped. I think this will become less of an issue (her being scared after I round pen her) if I keep consistent with her when working at the round pen and do lot of desensitizing before and after. She just doesn’t yet understand what I want her to do. I continued to work with her and asked her to yield her hindquarters and her forequarters. I also tossed the rope and purposefully tried to spook her by jumping, and even dancing like a crazy person. At first she freaked out, but I kept doing it and she eventually stopped and stood, although with her head raised high. By the time we were done working, she was no longer jumping when I tried to spook her. I think I just need to keep that up. I did notice though, that she gets that wrinkle under her eye when I ask her to yield her forequarters to the right (I’m on her left side), but she’s much calmer and more obliging when I ask her to move to the left. I need to work with her more from her left side…her wall on her left side is much thicker than the wall on her right side. Not sure why this is since most horses seem to be better from their left side.

I was overall very pleased by the time we were done working. So, I need to desensitize before, then round pen, then after. I need to be consistent and do it for so long that she gets bored. She’ll eventually see that it’s easier to not react, and that she doesn’t have to react.

So, I am going to go out and work her this afternoon too. I will try to stick to my plan this time.

Winter/Spring 2007 - Summer 2007 - working with Cody and Catlow

When I started working with Chico in Fall 2006, I also started working with Catlow. I never worked with her as often as I did with Chico, primarily because Chico was mine, Catlow was Todd’s, and Chico needed quite a bit of work too. But Todd didn’t have any interest in working with the mustangs, so I kind of took over. Catlow was taking haltering better than Chico, although she still had touchy spots around her ears, and she never led quite as well as Chico. She was much more hesitant when being led, and if I tried to lead her somewhere she didn’t want to go, she would become very stubborn and once she pulled away from me and ran back to the other horses (thankfully we were still in the pasture).

My work with Catlow also began in the round pen. I did some “round penning” with her, but she was not as forward as Chico so required me to drive her more, which seemed to cause her to shut down, so I didn’t work much with round penning. I did try to teach her to lead up real free in the round pen, get used to me touching around her head, and yielding her hindquarters. I also put the circingle and saddle on her, but I wasn’t nearly so methodical when working with her because I was busy being very thorough with Chico. I knew I wasn’t going to ride Catlow yet, so I just wasn’t consistent with her.

Spring on the ranch came in 2007, and the mustangs were 3 years old. Neither of them had ever had their feet trimmed and they were getting long. They weren’t horrible or unbalanced, just a bit long. I was trying to get them ready to have their hooves worked with, but I was just a bit too much of a chicken to make a lot of progress with their feet. And both of them had some reservations about having their feet handled. Chico was pretty good with his fronts, but I was afraid of his back feet…just a fear based on my inexperience with handling a “wild” horse and not knowing if I was teaching him about foot handling in just the right way. Catlow was quite defensive about her feet. When I’d run my hand down her front leg, she’d immediately pull her leg away from me…I wasn’t asking her to pick it up, but as soon as I reached her knee, she was picking her leg up and stepping away. So I worked a lot with trying to rub down her leg and take my hand away before she moved. I worked up to being able to pick her front feet up and hold them a little while, but she was still defensive about it. Many times she’d nip at my butt (not actually bite me, but pretend) when I was asking her to pick up her feet. That was the only time she showed that kind of behavior. I’d elbow her head away, but not get after her too much because I was afraid that if I did, I’d confirm why she was being defensive in the first place.

In March 2007, the vet came out and floated everyone’s teeth. The two mustangs had some points rasped, and caps and wolf teeth pulled. Chico took the whole process like a champ. I think he likes the feeling up euphoria induced by the xylazine. He acted like he was quite happy and in La La Land. He was completely relaxed during the whole process. Catlow took more xylazine than Chico. I watching as the vet walked toward her with the jaw apparatus, and she tried to run away from him (stumble in a stupor), so he gave her more drugs. I felt bad for her that she was so uncomfortable about the situation but couldn’t really do anything about it. After the tooth floating, we mentioned to the vet that we’d never trimmed their feet. He said he could do it while they were still under the effects of the xylazine. He waited until they were coming out a bit so that they could stand on three legs without falling over, and he trimmed each foot. They were aware enough that they did try to pull their feet away, but he held on like he would have with a horse that was comfortable with the whole process, and released them when they held still. He was able to easily trim every foot. I know that people say the horses don’t learn anything when you drug them and trim feet, but the next day, I picked up each foot on both of them, and they were extremely good about it. Catlow gave me her feet without trying to sidestep away. I worked on them every time I was around them after that to make sure they’d stayed comfortable with their feet. It’s possible that it gave me confidence seeing that they did not try to kick the vets head off when he picked up their back feet, and that transferred to how I handled them, but I also think that they did realize they didn’t need to be so defensive about their feet during the whole teeth floating and trimming process while they were drugged. From that moment on, I’ve had no problem handling their feet at all, and I was even able to trim Catlow’s feet all by myself later that summer.

While the vet was there in March 2007, I got a health check for Cody so that I could take her on a trail ride in Ellensburg, WA with Todd’s mom and her friends. Todd’s mom and a young man that worked with her had been getting one of Todd’s mom’s horses ready to ride in an endurance race in Ellensburg. They had a trail ride in conjunction with the race. If I remember right, I think the race had multiple lengths. 50 miles was the long race, but they had signed Valentine (the horse) up for the 30 mile race. It was her first endurance race, and they’d spent the previous few months getting her in condition. Valentine was 8 years old, and had been trained as a 3 year old, but sat in the pasture and hadn’t been worked with since. They were primarily trying to build her resume so that they could sell her. She’s a nice looking mare, but she’d sat in the pasture too long and was a bit fearful (she was spooky).

Here is Valentine before the race.

This was Valentine’s rider’s first endurance race too…can you tell? He's the helmetless male, with a plaid shirt wearing blue jeans. What a contrast to the other riders!

Valentine did quite well in the race. They came in 3rd place! Her rider said he could have been second, but the 2nd place rider had helped him get through the train tunnel part of the race (they rode through together, otherwise Valentine wouldn’t have gone alone), so he let her get in front of him…plus she did races a lot so it meant a lot to her, and this was just their first race.

Here is Valentine after the race. She was tired, but she did well.

While the race was being run, we got ready for our trail ride, which went along part of the race’s path on an old railroad bed. This trail ride was the first time I had ever trailered Cody away from Todd’s mom’s place. We rode in the canyon every day the previous summer, but she had become familiar with it so it felt like home to her. Here in Ellensburg, Cody was away from home and became a total FREAK! She was worried about this new place, so attached her safety onto Todd’s mom’s mare, Pepsi. Pepsi was a quiet, fat quarter horse who’d been shown a bit, so she’d seen a lot of the world. Cody attached herself to Pepsi’s confidence, so when Pepsi was around, Cody was fine. If Pepsi was led away, Cody went berserk! Todd’s mom wanted to warm Pepsi up before the trail ride to make sure she’d behave for the girl that was going to ride her (Todd’s mom had to stay behind and help cool of Valentine when she came in for the checkpoints). She hopped on Pepsi and took off. Meanwhile, I was trying to saddle Cody. As soon as Pepsi started leaving, Cody started pacing, while tied to the trailer. She completely lost her cool and almost ran me over while I was standing next to her. It was clear she was not going to stand still so I could saddle her, so I untied her and led her out to an open area so I could lunge her and try to get her attention back on me. She only had eyes for the direction in which Pepsi had disappeared and as I led her (opposite direction Pepsi went), she was fighting me, and actually reared up in her frustration. I was shocked! She’d never done that before, so I got after her and got her moving around me on the lunge line. She was just pissed, and she kicked out at me as I pushed her to keep moving. Again, I was shocked! She’d never acted like this before! I just kept lunging her and changing directions with her until she started to at least look at me for what I was going to make her do next. Then I took her over and saddled her up. She didn’t stand perfectly, but she didn’t try to run me over either. Then I took her back out and lunged her again. By this time, Todd’s mom had come back with Pepsi, so Cody was happy and calmed down and wasn’t a crazy horse anymore. During the trail ride, Cody was on edge, but since we were with Pepsi, she was okay. We did some trotting and cantering too. The ride went well and I thought she was actually calming down. We were almost back to the trailer from the ride. The race route was marked by 3 ft high plastic stakes with a bit of flagging tied on them. As we passed one of these posts, Cody reached her nose out toward it to check it out and poked herself with it. It shocked her so much, and she was already keyed up, that she lept sideways so fast that I was left standing next to her on the ground. She jumped right out from under me and I landed on my feet! All I could really do was laugh and shake my head in amazement and get back on her. Silly horse. The rest of the ride was uneventful.

Here is Cody relaxing with Pepsi after we got back from the ride. She looks completely relaxed...you'd never know that just 2 hours earlier she was rearing and kicking.



Needless to say, I was quite disappointed with how Cody had behaved on our first trail ride away from home. I decided that I needed to either send her back to the trainer, or I needed to take her and get some lessons with how to deal with her when she got that way. I just didn’t know how to deal with her freaky behavior away from home…since she was so good AT home. I figured, she’d probably be freaky if I took her to a trainer for lessons too. Todd’s mom told me about Katie, so I set up a lesson and we went over there. When we arrived at Katie’s facility, I unloaded Cody. I’d already explained to Katie about Cody’s awful behavior at the trail ride. She told me to saddle her up. As Katie watched, I tied her to the hitching post and attempted to saddle her. She was trying to look at everything and not paying any attention to me. I was just swinging the saddle up on her back when she swung her body into me and almost knocked me over. Katie interrupted my saddling attempts and told me to bring the saddle and the horse into the arena. She said do some lunging with her. So I put the saddle down then started lunging Cody around me. Katie watched for a bit, then asked if that was always how I lunged her. She took Cody and began lunging her, explaining that I was not being nearly firm enough with her. I needed to make Cody work so that she was so busy moving and wondering what I was going to ask her to do next, that she wouldn’t take her eyes off me. As Katie lunged her, Cody lept to attention and really responded. With me, she’d been kind of plodding and looking all over the place and not really taking me seriously. As I watched, tears started streaming down my face. I think Katie thought the tears were because she was smacking my horse with the stick and string (because she started telling me a story about one of her lesson girl’s horses), but really, the tears were kind of from embarrassment, or rather, humility. I knew that I didn’t know how to deal with Cody, and the stress of having someone actually tell you that you aren’t doing it right, caused tears. Only initially though. After Katie showed me how, then she had me step in and take over and coached me on lunging her. After the lunging lesson, Cody did not move a muscle while I saddled her. I had also told Katie about Cody’s little bucking issue when we cantered sometimes, so this first riding lesson consisted of practicing the one rein stop at all three gaits. I’d never really practiced it before and become comfortable with it at the canter, so this definitely helped. I said in one of my previous posted, that Cody tried bucking with me once and this time I was ready for her, did the one rein stop, and she’s never tried it again. Well, I think that was thanks to this lesson, and me stepping up and being more firm with her and not letting her push me around. I let her get away with stuff because most of the time she was just a sweet domestic horse. With Chico I was very strict because I respected him more. After these lessons, I became stricter with Cody and she stopped trying to get away with stuff. I think I took about 4-5 lessons on Cody at Katie’s house. The lessons were spread out over the summer. Toward the end we were practicing collection and round corners.

So, this year, I was pretty busy with working with Chico and Cody, so I didn’t spend much time on Catlow. I had gotten her better at leading, picking up her feet, had done some lunging with her, tried some desensitizing exercises but she never seemed to accept them, and I’d also saddled her and even sat in the saddle. Although I think that was a really stupid thing to do because I had not prepared her much and she still had the tendency to get nervous – I just decided to do it one day and the only reason I thought it was okay was Catlow tends to not be flighty…she’s quite still when I work with her, but still means closed off, so not really accepting things. It was stupid to sit on her this year when I hadn’t worked with her much. Luckily nothing happened.

Fall 2006 - Spring 2007, getting Chico ready to ride

In the last installment of working with the mustangs "Mustangs 2 year old year 2006", I described how by leaving Chico be, he decided that maybe he'd like to be with people after all. By that fall, I could approach him and he'd follow me all over the place, but he wasn't quite easily haltered.

I'd spent that previous summer ignoring the mustangs and riding my 3 year old quarter horse who had been with a trainer for 30 days in the spring. By that fall, I was wondering what we were going to do with the mustangs. People had told me that no one would train mustangs because they were "crazy" or "wild" or whatever they used to describe it. These people who told me these things don't especially like mustangs. Now, I'm sure that if I had asked around, I could have found a trainer, but at the time, I was also concerned about how much it would cost to send them to a trainer, so I decided that I was going to do it myself.

I had never trained a horse before, ever, so I started by reading some books, and I researched some videos. I had a few older books that talked about exercises to prepare a young horse for the saddle, but I didn't have anything that described behaviors to watch for or how to continue if a horse presented a certain behavior as a response to something you did. I understood basic horse behavior, but on a subconscious level. I could ride well and my horses were fairly sensitive and soft in the mouth, but I didn't necessarily know how to teach them further things. I'd only ever worked with or ridden horses that were already broke. While I had taught Chico to lead using pressure and release, I didn't completely understand that to teach a more complex activity, you have to break it into simple steps with pressure and release concepts. That is why I had difficulty with getting Cody to walk with me on her back in the round pen. I hadn't gone through the prior steps to teach to to move in response to cues. I know horses are likely to explode when they are balky like that under the first ride, and I know that I will fall off it they start bucking. I also had great respect for the power of horses and I honestly was a bit intimidated with the thought of working with the mustangs and especially riding them. I knew I had a lot to learn. Looking back, I know that concept of breaking an activity into smaller steps was what was missing in my understanding, that I've since learned and been very successful at applying it to work with the mustangs.

I also knew that I wanted to use treats as rewards for desired behaviors, primarily because it was through treats that Chico became interested in working with me. I didn't want to destroy that interest in me...it had taken all summer before he, by his own choice, decided that I didn't always just have annoying things to do to him. I thought treats would be a great incentive to do what I asked. One of the first books that I got (shopping on half.com) was called "New Sensations for Horse and Rider: Introducing Voice Training" by Tanya Larrigan. This book introduced me to the vast capability of horses to learn voice cues. The author also used treats as reward for behaviors, and it worked well. Then I received an early Christmas present from Todd "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Tom Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. In this book, they discuss the concept of feel and working with horses so that they understand. One of the first exercises that I used in this book with all three of the horses was leading up real free and dropping the head to halter pressure. I think the dropping the head exercise is a great one for teaching a person the concepts of pressure and release. This book was great, but still didn't quite give me the step by step "how to get a horse ready to ride then ride him" that I was hoping for. My parents knew I wanted horse training books, so for Christmas from them, I got Clinton Anderson's "Downunder Horsemanship". This book has many exercises that I applied right away (ground work ones), but again, still didn't have that "How to Start a Horse" section. Then I discovered horse training videos on Ebay. My friend's trainer had recommended that she see Clinton Anderson's groundwork videos to really learn how to deal with her huge, dominant, fearful horse, so I focused my search on his video's. The first ones I got were "Roundpenning" and "Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground, series 1". Then I got "Starting Under Saddle". With that repertoire of information, I was able to get Chico from wild to willing (to steal a phrase from Kitty Lauman).

First off, I needed to get him to accept the leadrope and haltering. Late summer, he was still not excited about getting caught, although he'd willingly approach me. He had a halter on all the time, and with treats I was able to clip his leadrope on. But I wanted to be able to easily catch and halter him if he didn't have on one. So, I got a bag of horse treats, stuck a bunch in my pocket, then, I brought him into the round pen in the barn to work with him. I took his halter off, then practiced sliding it back on over his nose. He really fought that (he still isn't 100% with letting people just touch his face), but I started with just rubbing the halter on the side of his face, and on his neck. And I tried to touch him all over with my hands, and when he stood still (instead of pulling back away from me) he'd get a big "good boy!" and a treat. He wasn't too thrilled with me pulling the halter over his nose, he really tried to pull away, but I bribed him with a treat (or rather, dangled the incentive in front of his nose) So there I am, standing next to his head, holding the halter just right with a treat on my hand so he'd have to stick his nose into the halter to take the treat. Chico stood there indecisive reaching then pulling up, then reaching again, and finally, he decided he wanted that treat more than he hated that halter touching his face, and he reached in and took it! While he chewed, I buckled it behind his ears. Then I slid it off and we did it again. This time, he didn't hesitate at all. We practiced a few times until I knew he understood it. After that session, I took his halter off and he has not worn it while in the pasture since. It was easy to halter him, once he understood that he got a treat reward for letting me halter him. He very quickly got to where he'd approach me, and stand with his head just right and his nose tucked in so I could slide the halter on. Then as soon as I had buckled it (or later, tied it), he was bobbing his head waiting for his deserved treat. Chico's previous difficulty with letting us catch and halter him probably had a lot to do with a lack of respect. I don't think he really feared people at that point, but he did dislike all the things we did and he chose not to let us get near enough to do them.

Next, I started working Chico in the round pen. I just want to clarify that all my training and working with him was done in the confines of the round pen, unless I was leading him out on the trails. I wasn't always "round penning". In fact, I didn't "round pen" much at all, only in the begining. When I did, I used the methods taught in the Clinton Anderson videos (keep a consistent direction, turn to the inside, stop and face up). I never had to be aggressive to urge Chico forward, he's a naturally forward horse, and he's very sensitive. With the round penning exercises, he responded beautifully. He became very in tuned to my body language, and because I rewarded him when I asked him to whoa and come into me (treat), he was always looking for the next way to earn his reward. All I can say is that he was very willing. I then started combining the round penning with teaching him voice cues. For this, I kept him on the lunge line. When I was first teaching the cues to him, I had to use my body language to cause him to speed up, if that was what I was asking, or slow down. Sometimes I had to pull-release on the lunge line to remind him to listen to me when I asked him to slow down. It was very easy to teach him the voice cues and within a matter of weeks (a few sessions each week), he was obeying my words the instant I spoke them. My cues were "walk", "trot-trot" (said very staccato), and "can-ter" (said fluidly with an upturn in tone and a clear "t" on the -ter), and of course "whoa". To ask him to slow down from a canter, I said "easy trot" in a very drawn out voice. Because "whoa" was the command after which he generally got a treat, he learned that cue VERY well. (I have to be careful when I ride him, because when we are cantering, I tend to talk to him quite a bit, and if he hears a world that sounds like "whoa", he'll come to a sliding stop. It's nice that he's that in tune to my voice). I started with just "walk" and "whoa" and when he was really good at hearing those cues, I sped it up to "trot-trot" and eventually to "can-ter". I like the voice cues, and I've taught them to all my horses. The best part is when we are out trail riding and I can feel them get ready to pick up the trot, all I have to do is catch it before they do it, and say "walk" firmly and they'll come back down, without me having to tug on their mouths.

Once he was getting the voice cues pretty well, I introduced him to the circingle. He was pretty relaxed when I first introduced it to him (although I wasn't sure what to expect from him). When I slung it over his back and he stood still, I gave him a reward. When I buckled it, just barely snug, and he stood still, he got a reward. When I asked him to walk out and also trot and canter with it, he completely ignored it! I think, because he was busy cueing in on me for the next thing to get him a reward). I rewarded him everytime he did a desired behavior when I introduced something to him for the first time. In no time at all, he was walk, trot, and cantering with with a completely tightened circingle without batting an eye at it.

Chico was a little obese this late fall. Todd's mom had gotten pelleted feed in addition to hay and was often giving it to her horses free choice (mine were pastured with hers). I think the feed was alfalfa pellets so everyone scarfed it down and became quite fat that year. Look at Chico's rolls!


These pictures are pretty bad quality. They are the only pics I have of working with Chico because I did everything myself and did not carry a camera with me then. I had a friend along this session, so he took some pics.


During these times, I also got Chico flexing laterally, then progressed to ground-driving him with long lines through the circingle rings. He did great. Chico was always looking to do what I was asking. He never even bucked when I saddled him for the first time! The very first time I brought the saddle out, he wasn't sure about me swinging it up on his back, but I did it all in steps with throwing the saddle pad over his back a million times, then throwing the saddle over, and then taking it back off. Chico is generally wary about new objects the first time they are introduced to him...not scared, but wary. He has to investigate the new object, and if you try to force it on him before he has a chance to check it out, he will run away, and refuse it. But if you step back and let him check it out, he will calmly accept whatever you want to do with it. With the saddle on, I repeated laterally flexing to halter pressure and did the ground driving exercises (with the longlines through the stirrups). I also did a bunch of desensitizing exercises with the saddle. I slapped the stirrups on the saddle skirt repeatedly, until he calmly accepted it (first time I did it, he freaked). I also practiced putting weight in both stirrups without actually getting in the saddle. I'd half mount up, hang there, then get down while he was standing still and give him a reward. Because I wanted to desensitize him to everything he'd experience with a rider in the saddle, I filled 2 liter bottles with water and hung one on each side of the saddle, rigged just right so that they'd hang and bump him where my calves would if I was riding (the very first time, the 2 liter bottles were empty so that he didn't completely freak out). He accepted the bottles with no problem and never a sideways look. Like I said, he was always very focused on me in the center of the round pen.

The three that winter. Cody on left, Catlow in middle, Chico right.

Cute picture of Cody napping and Chico standing watch over her


Check the next post as the continuation of this post…

Round pen session - Catlow

This is a video clip from Catlow's first round pen session. In contrast to Chico's, this starts with the beginning of working Catlow (this is how my mom chose to edit the video when she was burning it onto a DVD with other things...she thought watching horses go round and round was boring, so she shortened them). Todd begins working with her, and you can see how reluctant he is to touch Catlow with the whip, instead he pops it to move her around the pen. Catlow starts out looking relaxed, but then starts to get confused and doesn't know what to do...her answer is escape, but she can't. She does face up with Todd's mom a couple of times, but is too scared to let her approach. We ended up stopping to remove her leadrope (not on video), but she slipped out of the panel and got away from us, so we worked with her more in the round pen, then tried again later and were successful. I don't believe we were able to touch her unless she was restrained that day, but she did get better over time. When I took over her training, I changed my tactics with her (much slower) and she really responded well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K6K8pgjqNM

Interestingly, when I was working Catlow this spring, she was very one-sided. Her left side was much more resistant and self-protective (tossing a rope around on that side caused a high head and wrinkle under the eye...even to this day), but the other side (right side), was soft and more relaxed from the beginning (no wrinkle, accepted things with a lower head). She is most relaxed when she can see me with both eyes. I noticed that we worked her in the round pen primarily counter clockwise (her left side). I wonder if it is just coincidence, or if it has something to do with how we worked with her (that her left side is more resistant, and that's the side she experienced the round pen session from).

Chico round pen session - video

I found the video that I made of the mustangs the first year we had them. My mom had made it into a DVD for me (it was recorded with an old VHS tape), and I figured out how to get clips off that DVD. I uploaded Chico's clip to youtube. It's not the best quality because I had to save it in a low quality format to make it a usable size.

If you are interested, here's the link. The is not the whole video I has recorded. This is a 7-8min long section, taken from the end of the video when we were getting to the point of touching him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khOLTzuEhRE

I do have video of Catlow, and I'll post that soon, as soon as I get it uploaded (takes a long time!).

Yesterday, the vet came out to draw blood on the three. They were so good. The vet had never been around mustangs before and was pleasantly surprised by how nice they looked and how well behaved they were. He had to poke Chico about 7 times in the neck because he couldn't hit the vein right away. Chico just stood there completely relaxed and let this stranger poke him in the neck. He said he heard some mustangs turn out really well, but that some are very difficult to work with. I was glad I could show him his first mustangs as well-trained/behaved!

Roundpenning the mustangs

Sometime in the summer of 2005 (I think it was probably in late June), we began working with the mustangs. It was time they learned to be touched, and led; time to become integrated into the herd. At this point, I really still felt like I wasn't the right person to work with them because I didn't know anything about training horses. So Todd's mom stepped in to show us how to "round pen" the babies as a training tool so that they'd get over their fear of us and allow themselves to be handled. I'm not really sure how much she had actually done with this. I remember her saying that they had an older mustang when the kids were young, and they ended up not being able to do anything with him (I won't mention what they did to get rid of the horse). I think she had watched some round-penning demos, but I don't think she had done all that much actual "round penning" with her horses, and I know she had never worked a mustang in one. Nonetheless, she has a lot of horse experience and has trained many horses.

They have a round pen built into the corner of their large arena/barn. We worked with Chico first. I video taped the session. By this time, Chico has caught his leadrope in something and ripped it off, but he still had his halter on. Todd's mom stood in the center of the round pen with a long lunge whip and drove him around the pen at a trot/canter. She waited for signs that he was paying attention to her (cocked ear), and then watched for submissive behavior (dropping the head, licking and chewing). When he did that, she'd step out in front of him so that he'd stop, then she would stand with her side to him (not head on), and sidle up to his shoulder. If he took off, she'd drive him around again, then stop him and start over. She did get closer and closer to him, until eventually she had her arm extended out (with her fist closed) toward his shoulder. He took off a couple times, she drove him around more, then eventually was able to scratch his shoulder and his neck, and pull on his halter. For Chico, this method seemed to work pretty well, although if I could go back and do it myself, after learning all I know now, I would not have been nearly so aggressive as Todd's mom was. She was very agressive, and smacking him with the whip (which I've decided I think is the last thing you should do with a fearful horse) to get him moving around the pen. At one point, he was trying to avoid her so intently that he got his leg caught in the round pen panel for a second (thankfully he wasn't hurt at all). So that ended our several hours session with Chico (who was dripping wet by the time we were done). It was too late that night to work with Catlow, so we did her the next morning.

Todd wanted to try to work with Catlow (he thought his mom was a bit agressive too). Todd stood in the center with a shorter lunge whip that you could crack and make a loud "pop". Todd was very passive and stood with his huge frame hunched and rounded. He made certain not to look directly at Catlow, and he tried to drive her around the pen with the pop of the whip. Catlow has a very different personality than Chico (very evident now that I know her so well and I can easily see where we went wrong in the round penning exercise). She also still had her leadrope attached to her halter. Catlow didn't show the same submissive signs that Chico showed, and she also was having difficulty maintaining direction around the pen. She tried to get out of the pen at the gate and repeatedly changed directions while Todd was trying to drive her forward. She also kept stepping on her leadrope and jerking her head down, to which her response was to jerk it back up. Todd was very passive about drving her around and trying to keep her maintaining the circle at one direction. His mom got irritated with him for being so passive about it, so she jumped into the pen and took over. She stepped right up to her aggressive posture with swinging the whip to smack her when she changed directions. Nothing that either Todd nor his mom did seemed to cause Catlow to want to figure out a way to work with us (which is supposedly what the purpose of the round penning is...mimic the herd boss, drive the horse out until they search for a way to want to come back in, or "join up"). Well, Catlow was having none of this join up thing, although when Todd's mom would stop driving her forward, she would spin and face up with her (head high, eyes wide, very stiff posture). If Todd's mom tried to approach her, she'd take off again. After a while, we decided her stepping on her leadrope repeatedly was causing a problem, but we couldn't get close to her, so chased her into a small pen and made a "squeeze chute" with panels to be able to reach her and take her rope off. Even after than, she still did not show any obvious signs of submission when begin driven around the pen. We decided that maybe her ducking her head was the way she showed that submission, but we did not have nearly as successful a session as with Chico.

Looking back, I know we were pushing Catlow too fast. She is a horse that is extremely fearful of people and if you push her too much, she shuts off and retreats inside herself. When she is there, you can do nothing that will get through to her and pull her back out of herself. She is in survival mode. While the round penning did eventually allow us to touch her, she was only barely tolerating it. She had shut off and wasn't going to learn that she had nothing to fear that way.

The mustangs did eventually lose their dire fear of us (they were still fearful, but not necessarily of us...only if we moved to fast!). We did not round pen them very much. Primarily we just slowly approached them in an enclosed area. Chico lost his fear much faster than Catlow did. Once he lost that fear though, he decided that people were not fun, and really wanted nothing to do with us. He just wanted to be a horse. Catlow more slowly lost her fear and really enjoyed being scratched, so we could approach her in the pasture and scratch her body, but never her face.

Here I am showing off my gentled mustang, Chico.

Here are the mustangs integrated into the herd of quarter horses (numbered about 25 - 30 head at that time I think).

Even though they were integrated into the herd, the two mustangs and Cody hung out together quite a bit. Here, Chico peaks over Cody's back.

I have to include this picture of Cody (the not-mustang) because she is a very important member of my herd. So far, none of the Cody pictures have shown her head (she's kind of a piggy about eating), so here is a nice side-view of her.

Pretty Catlow...

They are so cute. I think Chico must have scraped his face on the round bale feeder.

The end of 2005 saw somewhat gentled mustangs that we could handle and lead a bit, but they were nowhere near easily handled. Both wore their halters all the time. To catch them, we'd approach them, scratch on their body, then sneak the leadrope clip onto the halter. They'd startle and kind of freak when they heard that, but at that point, you had them caught and they would lead and tie (I know, you aren't supposed to sneak, but I didn't know any better!). I think the startling when we tried to clip the leadrope on was a combination of truly being startled at the noise, but also disliking getting caught.

Todd did remove Catlow's halter at the end of summer that year. At this point, he could take her halter on and off, although she wouldn't let you touch behind her ears.

Look how much she's grown in just a summer! By the way, Todd and I built the rail pen you can see behind them in this picture. This was to give the mustangs a pen to stay in where they could go outside, but by the time we had it finished, they already knew what fences were and were running around with the herd.