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.

Spring 2007 – Summer 2007, getting ready and first rides on Chico!

As Chico accepted all these new things, I also did training sessions where I would lead him out into the canyon...just me and him on foot. Sometimes he was saddled, and sometimes he even had 2-liter bottles tied to the saddle. He was very relaxed with me out alone. He never became upset and would go anywhere I asked. I know he trusted me pretty completely. Once, we walked by a washout that someone had thrown a bunch of tin and cinder blocks in (to apparently stop erosion). I was leading him, and as we approached, he saw this "horse trap", and slowed down to eye it warily as we passed it on the narrow trail. As soon as we'd passed it, he reached out and touched my arm with his nose...to reassure himself that I was still there and we'd made it through okay. I was very touched. I've seen horses touch other horses that way when they are uncertain about something, and I took it as a huge compliment from Chico.

I also tried to pony him from Cody, and most of those sessions went okay, but they progressively got worse and worse. For one thing, Cody was not a super well-broke horse, and she knew I was distracted by leading Chico, so she'd try to pull things. The other problem was that I think Chico might have been biting her on the butt sometimes when he was following down a trail, although I never actually caught him doing it. A couple of times, Cody would get angry and start bucking and all I can think is that Chico was annoying her (or I was, because I was trying to ride her one handed, when she hadn't progressed that far yet). We went out ponying Chico several times, and the only time I ever had a spill was when we saw a piece of logging equipment and Cody was uncertain about it. Once we'd passed it, she tried to speed up, and I pulled back with one hand on both reins (because Chico hadn't sped up and the other hand was back trying to pull him along). Cody panicked and bucked, I fell off into the soft mud, then her and Chico ran all the way home. On this ride, Chico was tacked up in full regalia, soda bottles and all. Todd said that he saw those two coming over the hill at a full gallop with soda bottles just a flapping and Chico bucking. That was the only time Chico had ever bucked with the saddle on, and I wasn't around (I was picking myself up from the mud at the time) so that doesn't count. :) After this incident, Cody's disrespectful behavior escalated to the point where she was attempting to buck me off every time I asked her to canter (not just when leading Chico). I caught on after I fell off two more times, and from then on, I was ready for her when she tried. Next time, we were cantering, and she tried her little stunt, I already had my hand slid halfway down the rein, so I quickly pulled her head to my knee. She was caught off-guard so tried a few more buck jumps in her surprise, then quit. She hasn't tried to buck me off since. It only took me stopping her once.

Another activity that I made sure to perfect with Chico was yielding his hindquarters to stirrup pressure (eventually to be leg pressure) back behind the girth. Clinton Anderson emphasizes that controlling the hindquarters is the key to controlling the horse’s movement. I also figured that if he knew to move off one leg pressure, that could at least get us moving the first time I was up on him (so that it didn't turn into a frozen horse that didn't know she was supposed to move with leg pressure, like happened with Cody (because I didn't know what I was doing)). The first time I pushed the side of the stirrup into his belly, he tried to cowkick at it. He didn't know what I wanted, and so was defensive. I just yelled at him and continued with the pressure until he moved away from it, then I stopped, praised him and gave him a treat. He did try to cowkick at the beginning of the second session, and that time I got after him more severely. He didn't try that again, and instead moved away from the stirrup pressure. As he gained a better understanding of that exercise, he did it more and more willingly instead of being kind of annoyed that I was poking him.

By this time it was spring 2007 and Chico had mastered lunging, obeying voice commands, lateral flexion, ground driving, and saddling. He was also desensitized to the stick and string, tossing the rope, stirrup slapping, 2 liter bottles tied to the saddle...by all accounts, he was ready to ride, but I was still not sure he'd take a rider's weight without reacting (even though he'd always calmly accepted everything else). I know I cannot ride a bucking, panicking horse, so I wanted to be REALLY sure he was not going to buck and panic with me on him. So, I had Todd help me tie 2 40-lb bags of wood pellets to his saddle. I figured if he could handle carrying 80 lbs of dead weight, then a rider should hopefully be easy. I managed to get him to walk, trot and canter a few strides in both directions before I had to stop him because the bags had started to slip out of their bindings. He acted like he'd carried those bags his whole life! I was so shocked by how non-reactive his was. At that point, I decided that I had worked up the courage to give him his first ride. He'd proved to me that he was not likely to do anything stupid at all. I just had to remain confident.

That next week, I had a friend come over and work with Chico with me. After watching Clinton Anderson's colt starting video, I agreed that the first ride should be done with a person on the ground directing the horse as they are used to being directed. Then the rider can slowly take over control as the horse accepts the weight and new feelings. I asked Windy to work Chico like I do. First, I demonstrated the voice cues and lunging exercises, then I had her master them with Chico. He listened to her very well; there was no confusion in the change over to another person. She worked him for a long time because we wanted to make sure to get all the spunk out before I tried climbing on him. Once Windy was comfortable, and Chico was respectful, I practiced putting weight in the stirrups, then getting down, then doing it from the other side. He stood patiently. Then, I wanted to have him walk and feel my weight move, but still be able to slide off easily if he panicked, so I stepped up and laid over the saddle, ready to slip off if I needed to. Windy led him around, while I patted his sides and kicked my legs around. He took it fine...he looked at me like I was a little funny in the head, but it didn't worry him. Then I stepped up and sat down into the saddle, then got off right away, then did it from the other side. I mounted and dismounted a few times. I also flexed him with reins that I'd clipped onto his halter. He flexed very lightly. Then, while sitting in the saddle, I had Windy lead us around some more, so that Chico got used to this new feeling and me above his head. He was fine with it, so then I told her I was ready for her to send him out on the lunge line with me as a passenger in the saddle. I had the reins just in case I needed to do an emergency stop. Windy sent him out at a walk around the perimeter of the round pen. Then, when I said I was ready, she asked him to trot. He broke into a trot with no problem, then she asked him to walk and he brought himself back down. We did walk and trot both directions for a while and he was being so good, so I told Windy I was ready to ask him to canter. I just wanted to get it all over with so that I wasn't afraid to do anything with him. With some trepidation, Windy said okay, and off she sent Chico at the trot, then canter. He broke into a fluid canter and did several laps around the pen. Then we did the other direction. Chico was awesome. I could not have asked for a better first ride on any horse. This was Chico's first ride, my first time giving a horse it's first ride, my first time training a horse, and we did it! And this horse was a "wild" mustang. Windy was impressed that he was so good. That first ride gave me a lot of confidence, and the next time I rode Chico, I did it by myself in the round pen. I always wore a helmet, and that next time, I had Todd come out and observe just in case Chico did something stupid and I fell off. But he was great again. Again, we worked up to the canter, and I also worked with him yielding his hindquarters under saddle, and steering with the halter and reins. At this point, I had not changed Chico over to a bridle and bit. I was toying with the idea of going bitless.

About Chico's 4th or 5th ride, I took him down to the neighbor’s indoor arena to ride him in a bigger confined space. He was a bit on edge there, because it was a new place with new horses around, but he did well and listened to me. We did not canter there because he was being a little bit stiff due to nerves, and I didn't want to chance losing control of him. We did lots of walking and trotting. He was definitely pulling on me a lot more in this bigger space and was not as soft in his face. The neighbor commented on how sensible he was for being just a young 3 year old (she raises arabians). She also asked why no bit, and when I said I was thinking of going bitless because I thought it was gentler, she showed me the bit that she likes to start her horses in. It was a double jointed loose ring snaffle with a big lozenge made by Korsteel. I started researching the bits and decided that I'd get one and transition Chico to a bit before I tried riding him out on the trail. You also just have more control with a bit if anything does go wrong, so I felt more comfortable. I ended up getting a JP Korsteel Hunter Dee snaffle with a copper center. It is my favorite bit and I later got one for Cody's bridle and eventually for Catlow as well. It is very gentle (doesn't pinch their tongue or poke the roof of their mouth), and it is very comfortable for them to hold; it just fits the contours of their mouth. Chico transitioned easily into the bit, so it was time to try our first trail ride!

I had it all planned out. I was going to lead him down into the canyon, then mount in the bottom, and ride him up the other side going away from home. I figured this would be the best way to warm him up, and ride him without him feeling like he had to rush to get home. Plus the going up hill part would wear him out and make it less likely that he'd bolt or do anything silly (even though he never showed that he was likely to do that...I was just being very careful). So off we went. I did do a little lunging at home first, but not much. On the way down into the canyon, Chico followed obediently as usual (he does try to snatch grass, but I try to prevent that). We did some lunging in a few open meadow areas. We crossed the creek in the bottom, then I did a bunch more lunging with Chico, practicing his voice cues and changing directions. Then I did a bunch of desensitizing with the rope and slapping the stirrups on the saddle. Chico behaved as usual, so I decided it was time and I mounted up. I did some lateral flexing as well as yielding the hindquarters. Then I straightened him out, pointed him up the hill, and asked him to "walk". He strode out eagerly and with strength, pushing us up the hill. He did break into a trot a few times, but I just sat deep, gave a little jiggle on the reins and said "walk" and he came right back down. He was forward and curious, a good little horse. Once on top of the canyon rim, we rode through the fields. As we came down a grassy hill, he kept wanting to break into a trot, and I'd already felt the ride was a great success, so before it went bad, I dismounted and led him down another trail back into the canyon. Once in the bottom, I lunged him a bit more, then I mounted back up and rode him all the way home. He was great.

These are the pictures I took to document the successful completion of my first trail ride with Chico...Thanks for holding him, Todd!



The next weekend after our first trail ride, I took Chico to a 1 day Horsemanship Clinic at Katie's. At this clinic, we did a morning full of ground work including leading and sending over and around obstacles. In the afternoon, we did mounted exercises, including the passenger lesson around the arena. This was my first chance to canter Chico outside of the round pen. He did really well with picking up the canter and slowing back down as asked, but he wasn't as good at steering. At one point, I was trying to ask him to cut across the center of the arena (to dodge some of the other riders), and he was stiff and pulled against me, then had a little tantrum (not quite a buck, but a tantrum). I caught him right away and bent his head around to my knee, got after him a little bit with my heel (asking him to yield his hindquarters), then we went on as though nothing had happened. Katie's clinic really did wonders for Chico and I...we did have quite a good bond before this, but after this day (spent ALL day together this first time at a new place), he was even better and he'd become less reactive to me lunging him or touching him while lunging with the stick and string. And I was quite proud of him...he was definitely one of the most well-behaved horses there. www.whetzelhorsetraining.com

I did go to a private lesson at Katie's one more time early that year with Chico. We worked at the canter doing the cloverleaf pattern to teach Chico to follow his nose a little better.

A few weeks after I'd started riding him regularily on the trails, Chico found a porcupine in his pasture (described on a previous post), and ended up developing a huge infection and high fever at the injection site of the anesthetic on his neck. I took this next picture on my way out to the pasture to catch him and ride him the day I discovered the infection (if you look closely you can see a lump on the underside of his neck).

Here you can clearly see the lump in his neck, although I hadn't noticed it yet.

When I caught him and tied him in the barn to groom him, I noticed that he just wasn't acting like himself. Instead of being curious about everything, he was kind of subdued. As I brushed under his belly, I could feel the heat radiating from his body. Then I noticed the huge lump in his neck where the infection was. We had the vet out and he had to be on antibiotics the next few weeks. He recovered quickly and I started riding him again a week later.

After that, I spent the rest of the summer riding him all over on the canyon trails. I did more training on Chico, and also on Cody that summer. Both of them learned to side-pass, and do shoulder yields while walking. They also learned some vertical flexion.

Continuation of training with Cody and Catlow that summer in next post….

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…

Chico's scrape

Here is Chico's nose scrape. It does look deeper than I expected based on how my mom described it, but I don't think it's a big deal. We'll just keep watching it and if it gets puffy, we'll treat him.

Catlow is waiting in the background. They are waiting for my mom to feed them their couple mouthfuls of oats each. She told me the other day that she's afraid of them a little (she's never really been a horsey person; she likes them, but she's not completely comfortable around them). When she goes to give them their oats, they all come crowding around the gate, so she has to stand there and say "Back! Back!", and they do back up a couple of steps so she can come in, but of course they follow her very closely, and Chico chases Catlow away, so my mom is a little intimidated. Now, she gives them hay first, and while they are distracted with that, she runs in with their oats.

News from home

First, I'd like to mention that I updated my post (Rest of WI trip) with pictures. I finally got the CD of pics in the mail from my mom.

Well, my mom tells me today that Chico has a scratch on his nose (just a tiny superficial one). I'm not worried about it, but I cannot believe how accident prone this horse is!

Let me list his accidents:
1) Last year, I go out to his pasture and find that his fetlock on one front leg was FULL of porcupine quills! The girls just had a quill or two in their noses, but Chico had to paw the poor thing. We had the vet out on a SUNDAY to knock him out and pull them all. I think there were about 32 of them. And they had been there for more than a day, according to the fact that there were puss pockets around the quills (and no one else had noticed).
2) A few weeks after the quills, he came down with an infection at the injection site of the anesthetic for the quills in his neck. This showed up after he went off the antibiotics for the porcupine quills. He had a major fever and was very depressed. He had to be on antibiotics for another couple weeks.
3) That fall, his lower hind legs swelled up for a day, for no discernable reason. But he wasn't lame and the swelling went down by the next morning.
4) Later that fall, his knee swelled up huge, although he showed no lameness on it. It looks like he must have knocked it really hard on something. The joint itself wasn't affected (but was initially filled with a bit of fluid), but he had a huge knob, seemed like a thickened mass of either muscle or tendon just above the knee joint on his front leg. It felt soft when his leg was straightened, but if you picked up his foot and bent the knee, the knob became hard as a rock. But, again, it didn't bother him, but it took about 5 months before it totally disappeared. We didnt' treat it, because there was nothing to be done.
5) In March, he ran into the barn and slipped on a pallet (apparently) and gashed his hind leg open right near the stifle joint...a 6inch wide gash that also cut into the muscle a bit. He was stitched up, but stitches didn't hold, so he had this gaping wound that took 3 months to close up. Thank goodness there were no flies about while it was gaping open. He was initially lame on that, but recovered quickly, although I didn't ride him until June, to be sure the muscle tear really was healed up.
6) In early October, we were riding through the woods on a tiny deer trail, he was distracted from his path by worrying about why the other horses had left him (we went off on our own), and walked right into a stick that stuck him just below the stifle joint. The next day he was really lame, but the vet said it was not a deep puncture and there was no wood in it. He healed up fine and showed no further lameness
7) 2 months later (a couple weeks ago), an abcess forms at that exact spot, so there probably WAS wood in it, and now his body is trying to get rid of it.
8) Now he has a scrape on his nose, but this one doesn't really count. It's too minor. But really, why is it always him? The girls never have these kind of problems. Is it because he's a male? Geldings play more and get into more trouble?

Life without horses?

Well, I've been back for 4 days now. It hasn't quite hit me yet that my horses are not here. That would primarily be because I usually only go out and see them on the weekends, plus I'm pretty busy at work. When this weekend comes, I will feel it though. Although it will actually be nice to have a weekend around the house.

Well, since I will no longer have new things to talk about with my horses (except for the occasional photos and updates from my parents), I will be adding more frequent posts about the last couple years with training the mustangs. So keep watching!

For now, I just want to show pictures of our happy, 2 year old, Ms. Turkey. She thrived on the journey to WI, and she is quite happy about her plush, new abode. In her old home, she lived in a pen outside with a shelter made out of straw bales. It worked great, but she had no company, and her pen got rather muddy and snowy in the fall, winter and spring. NOW, Ms. Turkey lives in a very sheltered garden shed with windows, and a cushy hay floor. She'll live here over the winter, then when spring comes, we'll move her to an outdoor pen where she'll have more stimuli.

She can't move around well at all (a bit like a very obese old woman with bad knees - she grew too fast when she was a chick because she is a meat turkey and we fed her and her brothers (who became Thanksgiving dinner a couple years ago) too much. Now we just keep her comfortable and she's quite happy. She can get around to the things she needs, but she definitely doesn't need lots of room to run. She just needs some mental stimuli.

Her favorite time of the day is feeding time. She clucks and chirrups to us. My parents have cracked corn for the chickens, and when we gave that to Ms. Turkey for the first time, she thought she'd died and gone to turkey heaven! She chirruped so loudly!

Ms. Turkey became a pet because of her interactions with us. Unlike her brothers, who became puffy males interested only in displaying, Ms. Turkey would come over to visit and see if we had anything for her whenever we approached the pen. The way she looked at things offered in our hands before she'd go ahead an sample them was very endearing. So, Ms. Turkey earned her pardon from Thanksgiving dinner.

I just wish that she hadn't become so large. We ration her now, so that she stays at a reasonable weight. One night while I was home in WI, I had a dream that Ms. Turkey magically became a young normal weight turkey and she was jumping up and down on a bench (it is currently impossible for Ms. Turkey to leave the ground). It was a good dream, but alas, was only a dream.

The rest of my WI break

Well, I am back in ID. I just got in last night. This break went so fast. I did get to ride my horses, but not as often as I had planned. The cold weather and that darn manuscript that I had to work on prevented that. Because I’ve been rather busy, I haven’t written in a while, so I’ll catch you up now. I have lots of pics to add to this post, but the disk my mom burned for me of her pics will not open right now. I'll update this post when I get the pictures from my mom.

This shows the view standing on my parent's porch, looking down toward my grandma's house. The horses are right behind her house (you can see the shed where Ms. Turkey lives). Their pasture encompasses both treed hills. You can kinda see the orange panels through the trees to the right of Grandma's house.


All last weekend and week, I let the horses out for a little longer each day and then brought them in each evening (bribed with oats). Thursday night (Nov. 27th) was the first night that we left them out overnight. I figured they’d been transitioned onto their grass pasture at that point, and had eaten down the best spots. Surprisingly, they came in for their evening little bit of oats, I also gave them hay, and they showed no interest in going back out to graze! And they were still in the paddock the next morning, even though I left it open. I guess they were used to the routine, and the green grass has lost a bit of its novelty. But I was surprised that they chose to eat the hay (which was a bit dusty with mold – some of the hay was rained on a bit as they were baling it up - I’ve been giving the bales that are moldy too to let them pick through it themselves) rather than go back out and graze on pasture. The hay bales in our barn are about 5% slightly moldy grass hay, 60% grass and some grass/clover mixed, and about 35% clover. We also have large round bales that are grass with a bit of clover mixed in. The horses LOVE the clover hay. They eat it like it is candy. My parents are going to give them a feeding of clover every few days, for variety. For now, they’ll just give them two feedings of hay a day, with the option of grazing on pasture. After snow covers the ground and it gets really cold, my dad will drop a round bale out so that they can free-graze that as needed.

Chico’s abscess is not quite healed up. It still is breaking open and oozing serum/pus. Chico himself is actually keeping it open. I think it must bother him when a scab forms over it and prevents drainage, then he bites at it and reopens it. He’s still not lame on it, and it is not worse, just still slowly draining. I rode Chico out and around our property first. We went through the woods and then down by the pond. Then I rode him up the road to our neighbors place and rode around the cranberry marsh. Cranberry marshes are fun to ride on because each long rectangular “bed” is surrounded by a raised sand/dirt road (sand and clay are the two predominant soil types in our immediate area). These long straight sandy roads are great for trotting and cantering down. Back when I had the thoroughbred (Taz), I took him down these roads a couple of times and let him gallop. He was a race horse in is younger years and he sure did remember how to run! Cantering down these roads with the mustangs and Cody was really fun. On our ride, Chico was pretty confident, but also very cautious, and there definitely were a few things that worried him. He’d go anywhere I asked, but while softly blowing through his nose at the strange sites (large shed, snowmobiles stored in a row, neighbors cows). The one thing that he did not blink an eye at that surprised me was the huge fertilizer/pesticide boom extending off a large truck. I think it looked too much like panels and stuff that he’s used to. I expected him to at least look at it funny but he didn’t.

I took Catlow on a long ride the next time I rode. Catlow was awful. Well, she was mostly just awful while we were still on my parent’s property. Once we got further away, she settled down. On the property though, she was in a different world and she was very nervous. When I took her up to the house to saddle her, all she could do was pace and get huffy because she could kinda see where the other horses were in the pasture across the road, but not really. She was very upset, and overreacted to a lot of things. She felt that she should not be up there all by herself and needed to be down with the other horses. I saddled her up, and worked her from the ground in the field, but it made her more upset, so I took her down to the others to lunge her a bit more. I wanted her to calm down before I mounted up. She did calm down, but after I mounted something spooked the others (or they just felt good) while we were there and they took off running to the other side of the pasture and Catlow went ballistic trying to follow after them. I just sat calmly with her head pulled around to my knee and waited for her to stop circling. Then I decided we were going to get out and ride. My grandma came around the corner of her house (Our barn is right behind my grandma’s house, just down the road from our house) with a red wheelbarrow, and Catlow wouldn’t go near that thing. She even refused to go around it (because that was going the opposite direction of where the other horses were). She wasn’t just being stubborn; she was scared. I had to dismount (she was shaking), and walk up and touch it. Then she immediately approached it to sniff it, then as soon as she was okay with it, she was heads up looking for the other horses and the next thing that might be out there to eat her. I rode her down on the marsh. She could still kinda see back toward home, so she was looking back and was definitely on alert, but I did some trotting, flexing and some cantering on her. By the time we got to the other end of the marsh and out on the road still riding away from home, she was much calmer. Definitely on alert, but more relaxed. So I rode her out a long ways and did a big loop (probably ended up being a 6 mile ride). She really did relax quite a bit, but then, just before went got back home, I think she became aware of the fact, and so became hyped up again (walking really fast and trying to keep breaking into a trotting while looking for the other horses). I took her back up to the house to unsaddle her and she was just as bad as she was before the ride. Pawing while tied, pacing, high headed and trying to look down to see the other horses. My dad walked up and was talking to her and scratching her on the chin and she was getting irritated and nipping at his hand. He was surprised because he’d never seen her like this before (I have though, when I used to take her out for walks when I first started working with her). I know she will get better (she did before), but she needs time to settle in and get used to this new environment. When I get back in March, I’ll start working a lot with her and get her riding out relaxed again. It just takes lots of one on one work to get her to trust me more to feel safe with me when we are out alone. She is the sweetest calmest horse when she feels comfortable, but right now, like I said, she is wrapped up in her own little stressed out horsey world and humans don’t have much of a place in it when she is there.

Then on my next ride, I took Cody out. She was very good. Alert and cautious, but much more relaxed about the strange equipment than Chico was (Cody grew up on a cluttered farm). I also took her down the cranberry marsh road. She was quite good. After we came out of the woods onto the road, she became more nervous and thought there was something scary back through the woods (I think she was seeing the snow on the side of the sand hill through the trees where we had just come from and she couldn’t tell what that big swath of white was). She became a little hyped up and so I took her off the road into a meadow and we trotted little circles in both directions for about 5 minutes. By then she forgot what she had been worried about, so when we were finished, she walked on out rather calmly like she hadn’t been worried before.

My dad rode with me on Thanksgiving Day morning. The kids were at the house, and of course wanted to sit on a horse, so we got them both up before we went. They are just tickled to sit on the horses. Hopefully it lasts until I can get my horses relaxed and obedient enough to where I can take them out double with the kids. I think it will though. Partly because we are not dragging them down to the barn and pushing them to do things with the horses. Instead, they are only allowed to just sit on them, then Grandpa and Aunt Kara go off and ride them (and Grandpa and Aunt Kara are their favorite people, so by default, riding horses is just really cool).

We just rode around our property. My dad was on Cody and I was on Chico.

It was rather uneventful. They were together so were pretty much completely relaxed (meanwhile, Catlow was screaming for them back in the corral). We we got back from the ride, my dad wanted to see if Cody would follow him up onto the deck. She did.


Remember, the 9-day deer/gun season in WI is a holiday and the woods are PACKED with people. It is required that hunter's wear blaze orange for safety, and it is essential that anyone in the woods for whatever reason, wear blaze orange.

The evening of Thanksgiving, after we got back from my sister’s house, my dad and I trimmed up all three. I wanted to get that done before I left so that my Dad wouldn’t have to worry about it while I was gone. And if he does have to do it, then he’ll have seen how I like to trim them and so would stick to my program. My dad’s mom’s brother is a farrier and my dad spent a lot of time with him, so he learned to trim horses from him. But he did it the old way where you cut out a bunch of sole every time you trim instead of letting it callous up and exfoliate on its own. I explained what I’m trying to do with these horses and he completely understands the barefoot trimming and thinks it’s great, so I know my horses are in good hands.

Pulling burs from Chico's mane (where are they finding these things!)


Rasping Chico's hooves. He didn't need much done since I'd done him most recently.


On the barefoot topic, I’m sure each of you (if you do the barefoot thing) have run into or know people who are rather traditional and will not ride a horse off their property unless it is shod on all four feet. I know a few, and one of their strongest reasons for not being open-minded about the barefoot thing is that they’ve never seen a working ranch that does their horses barefoot. Because of that, they think barefoot riding is only for pasture pets and those phoofy new age horse people (which I apparently am!). Well, I gotta tell you that I have seen a working ranch that keeps their horses barefoot - my friend’s husbands family who lives in SE Montana! They are very open-minded educated cattle ranchers, and they know people who are proponents of keeping horses barefoot. They told me that their horses do really well. Granted, they do not use horses to do EVERYTHING on the ranch – often they use trucks when they can – but there are times of the year and places where horses are the only way to access and move cattle, so they are for sure using horses as work animals. And I know they’d shoe their horses if they couldn’t handle it. I just thought you’d all be interested.

Exploring their new pasture.

We hooked up the hotwire and let them loose this morning. They were so boring; all they wanted to do was eat, so I chased them around a bit until they finally got the hint to move around! Then, Catlow got separated from the other two (they chose opposite directions), so then there was a panic fest while all three ran round and round the hill trying to find each other. It was hilarious! Finally, at the end, they caught back up.


There are just too many great photos to try to upload them to blogger, so I wanted to share this album with you...I also tell the story photo by photo...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46346&l=ef0f7&id=530084218

And here is the video of their last loop around the hill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP1_D6Zy7B8

Another chilly day

Guess I should stop complaining about it, since winter is just getting started, but seriously! It is 8 degrees F right now and the high is going to be 28 today! I really want to get out and ride, but add this cold onto the horses' nervousness, and that doesn't equal a pleasant ride. It is supposed to warm up a little this weekend with a high on Sunday of 41, so hopefully I'll get some riding in then.

Off to connect hotwire and get horse pictures!

News from the BLM and pasture time!

Today we strung the wire and I tied strips of fabric on the wire to make it more visible while they are learning the boundaries. We didn't get the electric hooked up yet, but I was itching to let them explore their new pasture, so I haltered Cody (lead mare), and opened the panels, hoping the other two would just follow as I led her along the fence line. Well, for the most part they followed, but they also took off and galloped around and around the hills before I even had a chance to take them to the other side. They saw the fence right off, but I was still worried they might jump it in their excitement (althouth they've never jumped a fence before). They didn't jump the fence. Cody didn't appreciate them leaving her to zoom to the other side of the pasture, but I made her behave (it's good for her). When I completed the circle with Cody, I caught Chico and did the same thing (even though he'd been all over, I still thought he might not have had a chance to get in the corners). Meanwhile, Cody and Catlow continued to zoom all around. Catlow was really digging in and galloping. It was so fun to watch. Then I took Catlow around, but this time, Cody and Chico felt they had explored enough and it was time to eat, so Catlow leaving didn't faze them a bit (although it bothered Catlow...poor horse at the bottom of the pecking order). Then I let them all loose to graze for a bit.

This weekend is the opening of the 9 day deer/gun season in Wisconsin. It is only 9 days long, so this weekend will be PACKED with hunters which means I need to wear orange even if I stay on our own land. It also means that people are target shooting right now, just down the road from us. The gunshots didn't bother them when they were in the paddock area, but out in this new area, it would cause them to gallop to a new spot to graze everytime they heard one.

Then I gave them each a little scoop of grain in buckets in the paddock area and went out to bribe them in. They came eagerly, but after their grain was gone, Cody went to pacing the perimeter where I had closed the panels back up. They had enough fun (and grazing) for today. They can have a bit more tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll take my camera and get some video/pics of them zooming around!

Oh, and here's the burdock bouquet, as promised. Somehow, Cody found one I'd missed (of course) in her exploring escapades, so I had to pull a few from her tail. I've never seen burdocks in northern ID. They grow where it's wetter, so perhaps it's too dry out there. They are an infestation in old pastures here...



Chico's abcess really seems to be healing up. It's not draining anymore, the hole has scabbed over, and there is still no heat, so I think it is time to let it heal up.


I heard back from the BLM about Catlow and Chico's dams. They said they were rounded up already weaned so they didn't have mares assigned to them, therefore, there is no way of knowing who Chico and Catlow mother's were...makes me sad. I feel like they are orphans. Knowing what I do about horse bands and when foals are naturally weaned of their mothers, I highly doubt that they were "already weaned" when they came in (they were rounded up in August!). What that means really is that the BLM decided they were old enough to be weaned and it also meant less record keeping for them, so they separated out all the foals from the mares upon roundup. What an awful time that must have been for those mares and foals! To be rounded up by helicopters, then separated and thrown into pens, when all they had ever known previously was freedom and security in the herd. I sound really sappy, and usually I am very scientific about these things, but when I let myself really think about how each of those animals felt, it really makes me sad...although most of them seen to get over it and I know it is a necessity in today's world. And I do appreciate the opportunity to work with these animals. I have a new perspective on Catlow's fear of new places though...