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.

January 30th, 2008

The next "Post from the Past"

Yesterday I outlined problems that I’d like to work on with Catlow. Today I’d like to outline approaches to deal with those problems. So, there are two ways of thinking that I have with dealing with Catlow. Sometimes I think that maybe I’m just not being firm enough with her (I know that’s a problem with Cody), and so she really doesn’t want to do what I ask and is really good at making me think I’m doing harm with her so I don’t push her as hard. The other times, I think that I am being too firm and that Catlow is too sensitive to work with the same way that I did Chico. When I ask too much of her, she shuts down, so that would make me think I need to make her more comfortable so that she wants to be with me. Too much for Catlow is often not very much. It might just consist of me asking her to do something…usually when I want her to move. Probably because she’s just reacting when I ask her to move instead of thinking…I need to work more to get her thinking instead of reacting. Maybe keeping her busier and changing directions and activities lots would help…but I have to remember to stick with an activity until she gets it. Maybe I’ve just not been consistent enough with her training. I think that with Catlow I need to start from the beginning. I’ve obviously skipped some steps in her training. I want to try to take both approaches…be more firm, and also pay more attention to when I’m overexposing her.

I think I’ll start with round penning to build the base. Because I’ve been having such an issue getting her to canter, my first instinct is to just ignore cantering right now, and work on getting her to respond to my cues in a relaxed manner. I know there’s controversy over using treats, but it worked so well with Chico that I want to try it again with Catlow. They seem to be great incentive. So, the initial round pen session will focus on getting Catlow to trot in consistent directions and turn to the inside consistently when asked. Eventually, when she relaxes with this, I will put her on a long line and do the same exercises and help her to respond to voice cues of walk, trot-trot, and whoa. I want her to be relaxed and obey immediately when I ask. I will start each round pen session with desensitizing exercises and I will finish each one with desensitizing exercises. These exercises will consist of tossing the rope all around her until she looks relaxed, tossing the string all around her until she looks relaxed, and then jumping all around her. I will also work on asking her to flex from side to side and work up to flexing and staying soft under pressure (i.e. I flap my elbows or arms or jump up and down).

So, in round penning sessions I will follow these lessons and work up to more difficult things as Catlow progresses: (in the first lesson, I will ask her to canter, just to check her attitude with it.
1). A) Desensitize to rubbing and touching all over on lead line
B) Desensitize to stick and string
C) Desensitize to rope, start on rump and legs (first session, just do legs, gradually work up to head and neck)
D) Remove lead line and ask her to move off at a trot with word cue and signal
E) Work on getting consistent relaxed trotting with turning to the inside.
F) Desensitize to rope at the end.
2). Do the same exercises as the first sessions, but add lead-line work and voice cues and also add in yielding hindquarters and forequarters and backing up.
3). I will teach her the sending exercises and navigating obstacles. Particularly, I like the jumps, backing through L’s, side-passing, and the cowboy curtain, although I’m not sure how I’ll do that one here.
4). I will then work up to cantering when she’s trusting me, and keep her cantering until she relaxes. For desensitizing I will slowly work up to doing everything with a saddle on and bit in mouth, and flexing to the bit. I will tie pop bottles to the saddle to simulate legs flopping.
5). I will eventually add the breeching and breast collar and maybe ask to use the pack saddle to desensitize her to the weight and shifty movement.
6). Through all this I will take Catlow for walks out into the countryside on weekends during the day when it is still light outside. On these walks I will keep her occupied instead of letting her get distracted.
7). I will also continue to pony Catlow off other horses, but I think I need to work on my other horses before I do that.

The farrier is coming this weekend to trim up everyone (all their feet are severely unbalanced in the front). After the trim, I will work Catlow in the round pen for the first time. I will continue on Sunday, then pick two days next week when I will come out to the farm and continue working…so I will spend most days on the weekend out there. If I can’t spend those two days working horses, then I will substitute one or two other days during the week. I need to spend 3-4 days a week working the horses. So, next week, my two days will be Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hope this works!!!!

Merry Mustang Christmas!!!

Another picture from my mom

It looks like the three were standing there getting fed treats. That's good. They need positive attention. They probably get more attention now than they ever have, with the exception of when I myself worked with them. I hope Catlow is settling in and getting braver. Looks like she's still separate from every one though...

January 29, 2008 (really late at night…actually I think technically it’s morning)

Entry #1

Today I decided that I need to get organized and make some goals for training my horses this spring. I want to focus on Catlow, since she’s four now and has never really been ridden. She also needs the most work out of the three…she is more fearful and suspicious of humans and being alone than the other horses.

So, step one, I decided, is to write down the problems that I’ve had with her in the past (problems that have persisted primarily because I didn’t have the time to continue work with her on a regular basis), and then write a plan of action as to how I want to approach “fixing” them. Then, I will make a schedule of days to work with Catlow and stick to that schedule. I will keep a regular journal of the approaches and activities I try and how Catlow responds to them. Right now, it is really late at night, so I am just going to list the “problems” that I’d like to overcome with Catlow and some goals.

Major goal: Ride Catlow on the trail alone by summer (mid-May)

Major issue to overcome before that goal can be reached:
Catlow is suspicious of me. I can catch, handle, do anything with her, except that if I move too fast, she still startles. If I move too fast toward her in the pasture before she’s caught, it will take me a long time to catch her. I think part of that stems from her being lower on the totem pole than the other horses, and when most horses move toward her, she gets out of their way. So she’s kinda doing that with me, but I think she’s also just avoiding me, cuz being with me is stressful for her.

Manifestations of Catlow’s lack of trust:
1) If I move too fast when catching her, or act too intent on catching her, she will move away from me and avoid me. She’ll often get other horses between us, and if I keep pursuing her, she’ll run away from the “herd”. I currently deal with this by acting very nonchalant when I walk up to her…I be sure to not walk straight up to her and face her head on. I sort of walk toward her, then let her approach me. This works always…unless I trip over horse poop on the way to her and then she thinks that I’m chasing her, so she runs.
2) Desensitizing exercises never seem to stick with her. She ALWAYS reacts when I toss a rope, string, my hand, saddle blanket, anything, over her back or neck. Her reactions vary from running away and circling me on the lead rope, taking a long time before she stands still and “accepts” it to not running and standing still, but even when she is “accepting” the exercise, she has a look on her face that says she doesn’t like it or trust it (wrinkle under her eye, stiff neck and lips, head held high). Maybe I don’t do the exercises long enough, but I think I’d have to do them all day, everyday to get her bored with them. She does seem to be okay with me tossing a rope around her legs and toward her rump. She gets more upset the closer to her head I get.
3) She doesn’t like to move out in the round pen. I can get her to go at a steady trot, but if I’d like her to canter, I have to keep on her and keep on her. She’ll canter, but kind of in a scooting forward manner, tail clamped, and she wants to keep shutting down and quitting on me. I feel bad really getting after her to go because I feel like the chasing thing is one reason that she doesn’t trust me. She works really well at the trot in the round pen and on the lunge line, but cantering is harder…maybe it’s just because there’s not much room to canter and she’s unbalanced. I ponied her off my other horse several times. The first time I tried to get her to canter following us, she just trotted faster and faster and faster…never breaking into a canter. The next time, I timed asking her to break into a canter with a downhill slope, and really urged my horse to pick up the pace and that worked. She finally broke into a canter and kept it up. I really haven’t worked with her since then, but I feel like trying alternative options to get her to enjoy moving out might be worthwhile rather than chasing her around the round pen. Then again, maybe I just need to get more firm and stop feeling like I’m chasing her…maybe I’m looking at it all wrong.
4) She’ll often get really worried when I lead her out by herself (without other horses). She does well if we are on a single-track trail in the woods and ask her to follow behind me. But when we are in the open, she’ll sometimes get distracted (usually she sees the neighbor’s horses) and get really flustered. She almost forgets that I’m there with her. When this happens, I’ve been jerk, jerk, jerking on the halter to ask her to back up and get out of my space (she tends to crowd me when she’s worried). This seems to work pretty well, but it doesn’t prevent her from getting worried in the first place. Maybe I just need to give her more things to do and keep her more occupied when I lead her out. I do think that might help. It helps Cody keep focused on me instead of trying to veer home all the time.
5) So, maybe her crowding me when she’s worried is a problem in itself that needs to be better addressed.

These are all the things I can think of right now as far as problems go. For the most part, Catlow is very well behaved and she’s really good with her feet. I can even trim her myself unaided. Most of her issues seem to stem from lack of trust or respect (or maybe both), but I do think that she respects me…she just doesn’t trust that I’m not trying to eat her or do something unpleasant. So in that sense, maybe she doesn’t trust or respect me enough to be her leader, but she does respect me enough to fear me (sometimes) and want to avoid stressful situations with me. I don’t know…part of the reason I’m writing this journal is to evaluate how I am approaching her training and to figure out how I need to change it to be more effective at getting her to trust and respect me enough to be her leader so that she doesn’t have to fear me or situations that we get ourselves into (namely, trail riding alone).

Wintertime ponies

Winter in WI

Cody and Chico - Most of my mom's pictures of Chico have his face in the frame of the camera. He really likes to see what the people are up to. Silly mustang.

My horses munching their round bale.

I apologize that my most recent posts from the past seem rather scattered. When I started writing them, I wasn’t thinking in a very organized fashion; I just wanted to catch up to late winter 2008 so that I could start posting my training journal for Catlow. I was going to try to talk about each horse separately, but it didn’t seem to make sense that way and so I ended up throwing bits in about each one and it didn’t turn out to be in chronological order. Sorry. From now on it will be better.

That late winter and spring 2008, I decided it was time to really start working with Catlow. Cody and Chico were rideable and going well. Catlow would be 4 years old and if I didn’t get her going, I was worried that we never would. I already knew that Catlow would be a challenge to work with, so I decided that I was going to keep a training journal. The format of the rest of my “posts from the past” will be entries from that journal. I’ll post the date of the journal entry in the title, and then paste the entry in. I’ll tell you now that we made great progress and I hope you enjoy reading them!

Wish I could have a snow day!!

I am LOVING the snow! And it has definitely felt warmer here the last couple days after our frigid single digit highs. I am so jealous that everyone has been getting snow days and playing in the snow. Unfortunately I work at the university and they don't generally officially call off work.

Plus we have two researchers here that I've been working very hard with so that they can finish up. They both leave early next week and want to get their projects finished up. I've taken the boys (my dogs) out to a couple nearby parks, but not since we got the new snow. I hope to maybe snowshoe this weekend.

I was going to get "puppies in the snow" pics, but my camera is broken! I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I think the problem began when it tried to activate the zoom lens with a low battery, and now that the battery is charged, it still won't open. I'm sad. It's not that old. Maybe I can get it replaced.

So, yesterday, I awoke to the smell of somthing burning in my apartment. I have 3 electric heaters that are set into the walls that heat my apartment. 1 heater quit blowing hot air a while ago, but I just turned it down and ignored it. I still had 2! But yesterday morning, the fan went out on the 2nd heater and the heating element was still turning on, so it was overheating! I'm so glad I was home to discover it and call the electrician. It's so strange though...the day before, as I was going into work, I had this awful thought that what if my heaters malfunctioned and my apartment burned down with my beloved dogs and cats in it! By the time someone saw it was burning, it probably would be too late to save the critters! I think this thought crossed my mind due to the news of the recent barn fire that killed 15 horses (thankfully I don't lock my horses in barns, so that's not an issue). Anyway, I think it was a psychic premonition. All is well now. The electrician fixed the one that was overheating, and is replacing the other. So now I'll have 3 working heaters again!

Fall 2007, Pack trip to the Cascades

I was supposed to finish my research and defend my M.S thesis by the end of summer 2007, so I had planned a big trip to celebrate finishing. Unfortunately, I did not finish that summer, and had to reschedule my defense for the end of November 2007. However, since I already had planned this big trip, and I was so looking forward to it, we went anyway. In the beginning of September, we took a week long pack trip to the Cascades near Mt. Rainier. A very good friend of mine came along, and Todd’s mom and her brother came along as well. I’d never been on a pack trip before, ever, so Todd’s mom and her brother planned the trip out. They tried to go on a trip every year, so they had all the gear already.

My friend flew in from Texas and I picked her up from the airport on the way to the Cascades. Unfortunately, the airline lost her luggage, so we didn’t arrive until a day later. Todd’s mom and her brother had gone ahead with the truck and trailer and met us at the campsite. We borrowed a horse for my friend (a big roan quarter horse named Pepper), Todd’s mom rode her mare, Jasmine, her bother rode Pepsi, and I brought along Cody and Chico. Chico was to be my riding horse, and Cody would be our pack horse when we packed in for a few days.

The first day, we just did a trail ride up the Pacific Crest trail and saw some great views. This was Chico's first time wearing a riding breeching. I love this picture of him checking it out. He was fine with it though, once he had a chance to get used to it.

All of these photos are courtesy of my friend. I didn't own a digital camera at this time, so didn't even bring one along. Here's a great shot of Mt. Rainier.

Here we are resting at the top before heading back down.

We had a great first day ride, unfortunately, the trail was also home to ground bees that were disturbed when 5 horses rode over them. On the way back down, we got into a particularly bad nest. I lost a hold of Cody while we were getting out of there, and Todd’s mom lost a hold of Pepsi while Jasmine bucked to get rid of the bees (her brother stayed behind on this ride, so we led the two mares). Together, Cody and Pepsi decided that they were getting the heck off the mountain, and so took off down the trail. This was a very bad thing, because if they made it all the way to the bottom, they’d have to cross a major highway (frequented by huge speeding logging trucks) to get back to our campsite. Once they had their horses under control, Todd’s mom and my friend took off after Cody and Pepsi. I followed too, but did not feel comfortable galloping Chico down the mountain trail, so I kept him slower and got left behind. Todd’s mom did catch up eventually and caught Pepsi. I got caught back up and got Cody and all was well. My friend and Todd’s mom were exhilarated from their wild chase of the two down the hill and said that was one of the best parts of their trip.

The next day, we moved to a new campsite, closer to an area where we’d pack in and set up camp for a few days. That afternoon, we did a half day ride to Shoe Lake.

This is my friend and I taking a break with our horses.

Heading back down from Shoe Lake. What a great view.

The next day, we packed up all our gear, loaded Cody up with the pack saddle, and took off for our new campsite in the mountains.

The horses all packed up and ready to go.


Here is Cody starting to get antsy because Pepsi is being led away to get a drink of water, and Cody is still tied up. Chico could care less as he scratches his nose on his leg.

Our camp was in the middle of this beautiful valley.

The next day, we did a day ride out toward Elk pass and got great views of Mt. Rainier.

We had a great time on our trip. Chico did awesome on his first mountain pack trip.

Cody did good on her first time as a pack horse. Unfortunately, she had the same problem as she did on the trail ride in Ellensburg. She attached her safety to Pepsi, so if Pepsi was not in her immediate vicinity, she would be come worried, pace and scream for Pepsi to come back. This was particularly annoying when we were camped in the valley and Todd’s mom would lead her horses down to the creek for a drink, and I’d lead Cody and Chico, with Cody only concerned about where Pepsi went. I did lots of ground work and lunging with her to get her to pay attention to me. It worked, but it was a constant battle with her and she never felt good without Pepsi. Todd’s mom and my friend were amused with all the trouble and frustration I had with Cody. Amazingly, Cody was actually better behaved when I rode her than when I just led her.

My friend eating dinner in camp.

When we weren’t out riding, we were letting the horses hang out grazing in the valley where we camped. If I led Cody away from the other horses, she was anxious and concerned about where they went. If I hopped on her bareback and rode her away, she was much more tuned in to my cues and didn’t get as anxious. Strange, eh? Chico was completely relaxed unless all 4 off the other horses left him alone tied to a tree. Then he’d pace and whinny. We let the horses loose to graze in the field, but we’d never let Pepsi and Cody loose together. One of them always had to be under control, to avoid them deciding to head down off the mountain again and take the entire herd with them. We weren’t taking any chances with getting left up there without any horses. I also couldn’t let Chico loose to graze in the field with the roan gelding, Pepper, because he would try to chase Pepper away from “his”mares. Pepper was borrowed from one of Todd’s mom’s friends, so he was not part of the herd. Chico reminded him of it whenever he got a chance.

The first time we discovered that it would not be possible to let Chico and Pepper loose together, it was interesting to watch. Pepper just gave in and got out of Chico’s way, meanwhile, Chico was strutting, arching his neck, and just floating across the ground as he tried to keep Pepper away from his mares. He was beautiful. I’d have liked to watch more, but poor Pepper was in no condition to be chased. His owner said he did not need shoes, so we took Pepper up the mountain completely barefoot. After just the second day, his feet were so sore that he refused to walk down the center of the trail where it was hard packed, and would instead walk on the soft crumbly edge (which if gave away, would have sent them sliding down the mountain side). His feet were probably not helped by the first day where my friend rode him at a gallop down the trail to catch our run away mares. My friend eventually switched to riding Cody, and we pony’d Pepper, when we went out on our day rides. She did ride him back to the trailer on the way out, though, because she weighs less than the pack did.

A picture of my friend and I at the end of our trip. She's riding Pepper, I'm riding Chico, and Cody is our pack horse. Note poor Pepper's sour face. He was not happy about being made to stand in the rocks for a picture. But that's one happy dog in the background (my dog, Jasper).

It was a great trip, but was my last relaxing time until the end of the year. After that, I really buckled down and got my thesis project done. I only rode my horses a few times that Fall 2007. The most time I spent with them was when Cody colicked and needed doctoring and emergency vet care. Other than that, they were on their own. I graduated in December 2007, and then went home for 3 weeks to spend Christmas with my family in Wisconsin. When I came back in January 2008, I started working full-time for my advisor in the genetics lab. I’ve been doing that ever since (but am now moving onto something new).

Spring – Summer 2007, Catlow’s walks

Earlier this year, before I had ridden Chico yet, Catlow had a very bad training experience. Prior to this event, I had not worked with her very much at all. I think that it definitely did not help what I was trying to accomplish with her, and may have made it take longer to get her trust, although it was her nature to be suspicious and closed off before this. This event probably made her worse, but I hadn’t worked with her much before this. Ultimately it did not ruin her (thankfully). I’ve really debated posting this on the internet for the world to see, but I really doubt that the people involved will ever read my blog so I don’t think posting this is going to cause any conflicts, so here goes.

Like I’d mentioned previously, I was sometimes working with getting Catlow to lead better, and also halter easily, but not very often (I was busy with Chico). I had gotten Chico to the point where I was ponying him from Cody all tacked up. On this particular day, I was going riding with 3 other people (won’t mention names). I was on Cody, leading Chico. As we left the barn and were headed down the driveway, Catlow was standing with her head over the gate watching us. Jokingly, I said “Oh look, Catlow wants to come with us!” Person 1 said, “That’s a great idea!” And proceeded to jump off her horse, run in the barn and get a leadrope on Catlow. I sat watching, not really knowing what to do, but I didn’t think it was a very good idea because Catlow did not lead very well, so why would it be a good idea to “lead” her off the property, which she’d never done before? But Person 1 is very opinionated and does things her way, and I didn’t feel comfortable telling her so. Person 1 got back on her horse and started down the driveway “leading” Catlow. Catlow set back, so Person 1 wrapped the leadrope around her saddle horn to pull Catlow. So Catlow led up, but still didn’t know what was expected of her, so she sped up and now was “leading” Person 1 on her horse. Person 1 tried to pull Catlow back to a following position, but Catlow just had her head up and kept pulling through her. Person 1 kept circling her horse around trying to get Catlow back behind her, but as soon as she did, Catlow would speed up and be pulling her again. Person 1 was jerking and pulling as hard and she could, and was losing her temper. We were still in front of the barn having not been able to make it anywhere. I said (in my timid voice), “I don’t think she’s ready to take out with us”. Person 1 said, “Well, we can’t let her win now! We have to finish what we started!” Person 1 ran into the barn and grabbed a chain and put it on Catlow’s halter. Now, Person 1 was on her horse, trying to get Catlow to back up, WHILE they were IN the barn standing in front of the panels. Person 1 JERKED as hard as she could on the chain across Catlow’s nose. Catlow reared up striking and hit the panels with her front feet. Person 1 JERKED again, Catlow reared striking again. And again. Meanwhile, I’m kind of dumbstruck, and very upset. There wasn’t much I could do, since I was holding 2 horses (Cody and Chico), but I ran down to the house, leading them and pounded on the door until Todd came out. I said, “Todd, you have to come get your horse!” I knew he would not agree with what was happening. He came running out to get her. By this time Person 1 had gotten Catlow out of the barn and was “leading” her down the driveway past the house…looked the same as before, except that with the chain across Catlow’s nose, she had more leverage to pull her back. As soon as Person 1 saw Todd, she lost her temper, yelling at him…I can’t remember what she said exactly, something about cursing the mustang and blaming her on Todd, but Todd was upset, so turned away and stormed back into the house, leaving his horse still in the hands of Person 1. By this point, Catlow was kind of leading up, but hesitantly and still pulling and getting jerked back every time she pulled. Person 1, along with the others we were riding with headed out the driveway with Catlow. I followed on Cody, leading Chico. We got to the middle of the CRP field across the road from the property, when suddenly, Catlow caught Person 1 off guard and pulled away from her. Now we had a mustang, who didn’t readily let people approach her even in the pasture, loose in the CRP field next to the canyon. I got off Cody and stood holding her and Chico, while Person 1 and 2 tried to chase Catlow down. Person 2 was going to try to rope her. Catlow was avoiding them and at one point ran to Cody and Chico and stood next to them. I tried to slowly approach her and get a hold on her lead rope, but she sidled away. Then Person 1 and 2 came and Catlow was off again galloping across the field. Meanwhile, Person 3 was having trouble with his ill-behaved horse with all these other horses racing around the field. I stayed where I was holding Chico and Cody hoping that she’d come back to them. After about 20 minutes of chasing her, they finally roped Catlow. Then we headed back to the barn. Amazingly, Catlow led pretty well with the rope around her neck. They got her back in the pasture without further incident. It still makes me very upset to think about this (I’m currently shivering and sweating at the same time). I was so mad, but I couldn’t say anything to Person 1; she’d already made her opinion perfectly clear. I thought that as soon as she discovered that Catlow wasn’t going to lead up easily, we needed to step back and readjust our goals. Catlow didn’t lead well anyway, so simply getting her to lead around, then putting her back in the pasture would have been sufficient. Why did that big goal of taking her out ponying off other horses on a trail ride have to be accomplished in order to “win” the battle with her? We didn’t end up “winning” anything. Catlow wasn’t being stubborn and fighting with them; she didn’t understand what was happening, and when Person 1 jerked her face with a chain, she just defended herself the best she knew how, by rearing and striking. Person 1 is very lucky that Catlow didn’t accidentally knock her off her horse when she was jerking on the leadrope. So, this was Catlow’s big negative training event.

A few weeks after that, I decided that I should start working with getting her to lead better. I started in the round pen, then I started taking her out for walks. This was in Spring 2007, Chico had already been out on many walks and was very comfortable with me. The first time I took Catlow out, Todd and I just took Catlow and Chico for a walk across the nearby CRP field. As soon as we got out the driveway, Catlow was on edge. She was no longer on familiar turf, and was NOT comfortable, even though she was with Chico. She was stiff and would not bend, and was walking VERY fast and getting ahead of first Todd, then me when I took over (kind of like what she did to Person 1 when she was trying to pony her). When she’d get in front, I just turned and made her walk a circle until she was behind me again, then we’d continue straight again. She was very stiff, so her turns were more like pivots and she almost stepped on me a few times as I tried to circle her. We got to a pond, and some ducks flew up and she came unglued. She spooked and jumped back, and after that, she was even more nervous. We headed home after that and as soon as we got back on the property, she was calm and relaxed.

The next time I took her out, I led her alone. She was nervous through the field, but once we got to the woods, she was much better. She wasn’t calm, but I think that she wasn’t overwhelmed with trying to look EVERYWHERE, because she could only see around her immediate self and so was better. I was pleased with how she did in the woods. We went down some very steep hills and cut across country off trails and she was very surefooted.

I took her out several more times with friends leading either Cody, or Chico or both Cody and Chico. When Cody was around, Catlow was much more relaxed. When I took all three out as a herd, Catlow was the best behaved horse of the three. She did not try to snatch grass as much as Cody and Chico did, and if you pulled on her halter, she’d immediately respond to the pressure. Whereas Cody and Chico knew they could push it and if they had their face buried in grass, when you pulled, they pulled back to try to snatch those last few mouthfuls. I actually had my least experienced (with horses) friend lead Catlow because she had become frustrated with Cody eating constantly. When I took over Cody, I got after her firmly and neither Chico nor Cody would eat while I led them.

In these leading lessons, Catlow did become somewhat familiar with the canyon. I could lead her down this way and she was quite relaxed, but if I led her down the road through open fields that went by the neighbor’s horses, she would become high-headed, alert, and forget I was there leading her. Once again though, after we passed that stretch and got into the woods on a single track trail, she’d follow behind me with her head down rather relaxed. That’s about as far as I got with Catlow that summer.

Let it snow!

Today is the first day that I've been really excited about the season and winter. It just doesn't feel like winter without a good snow! And it doesn't feel like Christmas without a good snow, either. I drove out to Idler's rest today to take my dogs for a good long walk through the new fallen snow. They love snow and I love watching them run around in it. I love packing snow down with my boots. I love eating it (only fresh snow, please)! I even love the challenge of driving in it (there's really nothing to it as long as you don't go too fast). To celebrate the snow, here are a few pictures of my horses in Wisconsin in the snow they just last weekend. My mom took these early in the morning.