Slowing for the winter while keeping horses dry

Not a lot has been going on in the horse training arena because of the weather and we have been very busy. 
I installed box feeders in both stalls, we got the pasture areas tilled and seeded. We have a lot more fencing to do before the spring when we will be getting 3 calves to roam the pastures. 

Last week we had some very strong winds along with cold weather and rain, Lots of rain! We have been putting horses in their stalls at night and during very bad weather but last week we had a small issue with the rain and wind.  I thought if I opened a stall door and blocked the wind from the South and closed the North door on Megan's stall, it would block some of the rain and wind from coming inside the stall and keep her warm.  Well, that plan kind of backfired on me.  By the time I saw that there was a problem, Megan was shivering to the bone, she was so wet and cold from the driving rains she looked miserable. 

Why was she standing in the rain?  #1 the stall door opening changed, she does not like change very much and the second problem, there was water running through her stall and she did not want to cross the flooding waters. 

I immediately put the doors back to their normal positions and shored up the water from coming further into the stall.  Megan came inside out of the bad weather and watched from the comfort of her mostly dry stall.  I felt bad for her but I also felt, "You stupid horse" but I still fed her some grain and hay to get her body heat up a little and convince her to stay out of the rain. 

Since that incident, I have been working on closing her in the stall and holding the door for a few minutes at a time.  I need to train her that the stall is a safe place and a place to rest and let her know the corral is a place to work and not a place to just hang out.  That will be another post in the future but for now we are just keeping the horses active and feeding them to keep them healthy through the winter.

Happy Holidays everyone!

And the future holds....

I got a call yesterday from our horse trainer/neighbors Eric and Cheri, she said they might have a great deal for us, well, you might say that if you like horses. :-)

They have a friend that lives down by Eugene that has been hit by extremely hard times and has to get rid of 13 out of his 15 horses. Some of the horses were given or sold to him by Cheri and a few were pregnant and bred by Cheri's stallion a few months ago.  So, one of the mares is a 6 year old paint (all black with a small blaze) that stands just over 15 hands high, is pregnant and has won many halter competitions.  Beauty was originally trained by Cheri and she then bred her and traded for another horse and has now received her back into her herd.

There is a high probability that we will acquire Beauty within the next few days (Merry Christmas Tammy) but Beauty will stay at Cheri and Eric's until she has foaled in the early summer and will come here only after her offspring has been weaned.

What did we get? Well, Beauty is a big horse (over 15 hands) and has bloodlines from Champion, Grand Champion, Supreme Champion Quarter Horse bloodlines (King, King Fritz, Poco Bueno, Little Joe and Traveler) 

What did I do?  I saw Beauty in her (temporary) stall and was amazed at her disposition and size. I will be able to ride her without a doubt and I can't wait.  I started working with her, this was the first time in close to two years she had been worked under the halter and she was very well behaved and remembered what she was supposed to do very quickly.  I worked desensitizing her with the rope and she really had a hard time at first then was able to stand without flinching, we quickly moved to the saddle blanket where it took some time but finally stood still allowing me to put the blanket all over her body.


So what does this mean for Megan and Fiona?  I will continue to work with Megan and Fiona until we are ready to receive Beauty and then we will be finding a new home for Megan.  I hope to have her broke and riding by then but there are no guarantees about what she will or will not do.  The reason I want to continue with her is I truly think she is a smart horse and will make an awesome horse for someone. She is young  and willing to learn but has some trust issues and I am willing to work with her as long as I can.  This is not to say Megan's fate is sealed at this point but It has a high probability of moving her to a new home and hopefully an educated horse owner.

Fiona does the bunny hop

The horses have been a challenge lately due to the abscessed hoof on Megan and right at the end of the abscess we get hit with a deep freeze for a few days. Hopefully this cold weather will kill off flies, fleas and other bugs that have been hanging out in the valley just a little too long.  

Fiona has showed that she is feeling good and wants to show what she can do when I let her out of her stall. She has started playing and showing off a bit, she jumps, kicks, runs, bucks, bunny hops and snorts all in a playing manner.   I found that I can get her to interact with me this way most days but only after I watched part of  "dancing with horses" with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling.   I started playing and running with Fiona and got some great responses but now she will actually play and have fun for about 10 or 15 minutes.  


Fiona is a funny little girl, she does learn quick and is very lovable. She is always wanting someone to scratch her neck or give her hugs but then will do what you ask of her.  The funniest thing she does is a Bunny Hop when she plays.  She will run flat out from one end of the pasture to the other, stretching her head out and making full strides leaving Megan in her dust. When she gets almost to the end of the pasture she starts putting on the brakes, stiffens all four legs and hops to a stop. This is something that will need to be trained out of her when she is under saddle because that hopping ride is bone jarring and not something you want to experience if you do not have to. 

Horse hoof template and Duct tape pad

As you may well know, we have been nursing an abscessed hoof on Megan for a few weeks now.  Each time we go out and have to put on a new absorbent pad or insert into the soaking boot so her foot will dry out and heal correctly.

A couple days ago I wanted to try an experiment and see if I could make a template of Megan's hoof so I could make some hoof pads up ahead of time.

It took some time but I found a block of wood and started cutting on it with my cutoff saw which was not even close enough to start and barely a rough cut.  I got out a coping saw and the wood was too hard (black walnut)... My sawzall came to the rescue and I was then able to create a hoof replica so I could mold hoof pads for Megan's hoof.

 

  Hoof Template

 

 Hoof Template and used Duct Tape pad

 

 used Duct Tape pad bottom

  

 used Duct Tape pad top

 

 Hoof template in used Duct Tape pad top view

 

  Hoof template in used Duct Tape pad side view

Eureka, we struck brain matter!

 We got Megan in July and have been working with her since then.  We started with essentially a wild horse that had basically no human interaction for over two years. I thought from the start that we had something special that we were getting and today, I think I finally found out what exactly that "Something Special"  was.

Megan has challenged me every step of the way since day one, she has ultimately been the top dog, alpha horse and lead mare up until today.  Something happened today that I will try to explain but may take some time.

We went through the regular catching routine, desensitizing and sensitizing working the feet and trying to break through that thick skull and into the brain.  Once I see Megan drops her head, I know I can safely proceed with cleaning hooves, more advanced movements and  training techniques.  Today I did just that and got the same as usual results, which compared to two months ago is amazing but still not getting into the horse's brain.

I finished cleaning her hoof taking dead tissue from around the abscess area, making sure nothing will be getting into the hoof, I then went on to fitting and securing the Duct Tape pads to her front left hoof to keep the remaining abscess hole clean and mostly dry for the day. I started to work with her a little more and found that after 10 minutes of working with her, I saw something that I would consider a breakthrough.  She let down all guards, trusting my judgment and followed my every movement and direction from one end of the corral to the other, around and over obstacles all while moving her feet in every direction possible without reaction of flight or fight.  

The moment I noticed what was happening I got a little curious as to what I was seeing and was it true. I stepped in front and faced her, she stopped, I moved a step to the left, then to the right (sorry, not Rocky Horror) and she tracked me in her every move and would not let me get more than a half step around to her side or away without her making adjustments to her feet and keeping me in her total vision and focus where nothing else mattered.  I found what makes her tick, FINALLY!

Do not drive her, do not whip her, do not push her... but Direct her and Allow her to follow and do what comes naturally for her. Be Megan the Horse!

She took my direction, did everything I asked her to do, all while Megan gave me total control and respect.  Don't get me wrong, tomorrow could be back to the same beating my head against the stall door and using pressure to get her to do what I ask, but as far as today goes.... It was amazing!

Farriers and feminine absorbent pads heal abscess.

All is well if you call a hole in the bottom of your foot and you are a horse.

We had our farrier (Lincoln Todd) out on Monday to trim both Fiona and Megan's hooves and find the problem with Megan.  Lincoln got Fiona all trimmed up and looking pretty good but only after a small fight with her feet.  I have not put as much work into Fiona as I wanted or should have and it has been about a month since I picked up her feet.

Megan on the other hand was a little more challenging at first.  I caught her and worked with her just a bit, although with her pain I was cautious about how much I worked with her.   Lincoln grabbed her front left hoof and started trimming away and did some pressure tests on the hoof where amazingly enough, he found a abscess in the hoof just like a local trainer told me it would be.

Once he found the abscess location he dug out some of the hoof and was able to get some drainage, then he dug out a tiny bit more and the abscess let go.  "Yaay, no more pressure" is what Megan was saying at that point.  It was time to trim up the rest of the feet so he went to the back left, she wouldn't stand still.  At that point I had to tell Lincoln, "Let me work her feet for a few minutes" and I did just that.  Foreward, backwards, yield her hind end left, then right and the front end left and right finally getting her to listen, calm down and drop her head so we could work her hind feet.

Lincoln went to her left hind foot and she moved away again, so I worked her again.  I remembered, she does not like her rump to be petted as you are getting ready to pick up her feet, bypass her rump and go right down the leg and lift the hoof.  She knows you are there and will lift every time.

We were on a roll, she picked up all four feet and got all trimmed up for the first time since April when we got her. No telling when the last time she had all four hooves trimmed or had shoes on.
 

Megan now has a hole in her foot we had to do something right away to keep it clean, clear of mud, sticks and horse poop.  It was now the perfect time to get a boot so we could have her foot soaking in Epsom Salt water and draw out the poison in the abscessed hoof.



We got the boot and mixed up some saltwater, that was the easy part and the hard part was soon to come.  Putting the boot on was more than I expected and at one point it put me in a position of questionable safety, That was not fun at all!!  She was flipping her foot in the air kicking off the boot once, then finally stopped. I got the boot back on and she was much calmer but not completely liking this huge chunk of rubber on her foot.  I got Megan calmed down again and was able to pour saltwater into the boot and without her freaking out and sloshing out all the water.  We have done this over three days now and it is time to dry out the boot and hoof.

After doing research on the web, calling trainers, farriers and the local horse people, everyone said they used diapers to draw out the moisture. Well, I know diapers are expensive and there will be a lot of waste in cutting down the diaper to fit her foot. I did some thinking and went to the local drug store (Bi-Mart) and asked one of the pharmacists about using a feminine absorbent pad for something like this. She felt sorry for the horse but was very understanding and helpful finding the correct product to draw moisture out of the open hoof.  I stuffed 3 absorbent pads  (with sticky backs) into the bottom of the soaking boot and wrapped the top with two more. There will not be any moisture, dirt or sticks floating around in that boot!!

Tomorrow we add iodine to the mix and will be done with it in a few more days once the hoof closes up.

A lame end to a new start!

A New Start!
I took a chance on Megan and now she is lame. 

I wanted to start getting Megan out and around to see how she would be in unknown areas to her so I took her for a walk out of the corral through the hall/stall about 4 times until she was mostly calm and used to the surroundings, smells and grass. 

Yaay, there was clumps of grass to eat everywhere and she found them.

After taking megan out and back in then working her feet for a few minutes she was ready for uncharted territory and get to work.

She was very curious and wide eyed but I still had control of her feet. If she pushed into me I moved her hind feet with the hindquarter disengagement exercise and had her back down a bit.  We would walk another 10 feet and she would spike back up again and we would do another two or three circles until she calmed down again.   I think we did this four times in about 300 feet.

We got to the well tilled area where our round pen will be built soon and just walked her in circles, and then went through a whole group of  exercises moving and controlling her feet forward, back, side to side with her front and hind end.

We are now ready to work!

I sent her into a trot with the lunge line (only 12 feet) and she loved it.  Her head was up, tail and mane were blowing in the wind and she looked like she was smiling and I was sweating.

All went well and she got used to going from the barn to the round pen area real well, it was like she anticipated the run and liked it.

Last Sunday I took her out and was working with her pretty slow, I had her trot around for a while getting warmed up and then went into a canter, pulled her back to a trot and she was doing great until she stopped very quick and pulled her front left foot up and was limping very bad. 

She either hit something in the ground impacting/bruising the bottom of her hoof, punctured the bottom of her hoof (couldn't see any injury)  It could have been an abscess or old injury that came to the surface after impacting the hoof but we are still not sure what happened.

So now we wait, I have talked to many people and they in general have a 3 to 10 day waiting period before they are real worried.  An abscess will likely blow out or burn out in a few days, the impaction/bruise will calm in about 4-5 days and I am hoping for one of those!


I called two farriers with injury experience and I have yet to hear from them.

Stay tuned for updates on Mare Megan to see how she is doing.

Wish us luck!

Quick update on Fiona and Megan

This morning I went out to feed and both horses were hanging out by the barn waiting for food. There were no games being played, they just both wanted food.  I chased them both away from the barn separating them, one in the pasture and one in the barnyard.  I was just then able to take a look at Fiona's bumps and bruises and scratches.

All in all everything looks ok, there are no deep abrasions or scratches, there are only places where a layer of skin and hair have been scraped off by Megan's hooves. I checked her out for tenderness around the head and neck then the shoulders, checking her back and hindquarters and still only found nothing to be worried about.  Even yesterday I noticed she was doing good and did not have a limp, so it was pretty superficial and not any significant injuries. 

I did notice that today and yesterday afternoon, Fiona is keeping some distance between herself and Megan.

Kicking out against pressure

Last night after getting settled for the evening I heard what sounded like a car door shutting, then another.  I got up and looked outside only to hear a large bang in the barn, NOT GOOD!

In running to the barn, (Yes Running) I heard another 2 hard hits and loud noises along with loud horse noises. I turned the corner to see both Megan and Fiona look at me like I had interrupted something and asking "What?"   I chased Megan out of the stall and noticed a few hoof prints on Fiona, then started looking closer and noticed a few abrasions and lots of missing hair from hoof scrapes. 

Fiona took a lot of abuse all over her body, including her head/cheek area.  From her head to tail she was covered in hoof prints and two prints directly on each side of her tail along with right on the point of the hip bone and top of the rear.  In looking at Fiona, I noticed she was limping pretty good and favoring her right hind leg/hip that is when I noticed a couple more scrapes.

After inspecting both horses, Megan threw and connected a lot and Fiona had no chance while she was pinned against the wall in the stall with no way out.  No more confined spaces allowed so the stall/barn is off limits for now.  We can not afford large vet bills because of a horse fight and that kind of behavior is not acceptable even though it is partially human fault providing small spaces where horses could have issues.

I looked at the barn wall and door, it was pretty graphic with hair embedded in some of the wood, deep gouges in the plywood and a lot of dirt/mud/horse poop mix strewn about, even on the ceiling.  This was a one sided fight and it could have been much worse so I took action to be sure it does not happen again due to human error.  The horses were separated last night and during feeding this morning, after feeding time Megan had her ears laid back and was chasing/herding Fiona into the larger pasture. 


It was quite an experience and hope to not have a repeat anytime soon.

Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack, Wack,Wack, That is the start to the day!

Today started exactly as the title says, Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack, Wack, Wack.  That is one of the Clinton Anderson horse backing techniques that I am learning and so is Megan, FINALLY!

I have found that Megan can be very sensitive but is also very disrespectful and can be very lazy.  Today reinforced all of those traits in her and now I get to work through even more of her issues.

I knew she had backing problems but she would not respond to tapping the lead rope "1-2-3-4" tapping the rope harder each set of 4 then actually tapping her lips and nose.  She planted all four feet, leaned back and put her head in the air saying "you can't get me!!!!  I had to change techniques to get her response and respect.

She was not quick to respond to "Wiggle, Wave, Walk, Wack" but she did respond when she ran into the tip of the crop style whip/stick, I had her attention.  Megan actually came back around and gave me 2 eyes and backed away more and more until I could consistently get 4 steps instead of one.

I decided to quit there while I was ahead and went through desensitizing drills by throwing the rope over and around her body and head then laterally flexing for relaxing and thinking. 
It was then time to quit while I was ahead and feed the horses.

Just a couple photos of Fiona from this morning.

 

Rain is here!

It is that time of year where all the kids have gone back to school and it has started raining.  This year the rain is a little early just like the rest of the weather.  Tonight when I went to feed Megan and Fiona I hit it just right between rain storms. The top surface of the ground is soaked, super slick and was just like walking on ice. 

I was able to feed the  horses without mishap but there was no way I would even try to do any training tonight.  This morning I did work with both Megan and Fiona for just over an hour.  Fiona is doing pretty good and now getting accustomed to some of the training techniques I am using now.  She starts and turns perfectly under the halter but does not like to stop when told to do so.  She also does not want to yield her hindquarters and pivot away, she stepped out once and then started running like she was on a lunge line.  We have a lot of work to do with Fiona but I have very high expectations for her in the near future.

Megan,  Well she did not want to be caught today so she ran around in circles while in the paddock/corral area.  When she decided to give me her hooves instead of two eyes, I caught her hind end with the whip and made her trot around even more.  After about 8 trips around the corral I told her to stop and turn into me and she did just that.  I know that she is in the right mind when she stops and gives me both eyes and I can then approach to put her halter on and start working with her right away.  Over the next few days I will be working more on controlling her feet as in yielding hindquarters and forequarters forward and back. 


Wish us luck this week and I will post the outcome of the training sessions soon.

September 1st 2010, Fall is well on its way!

This evening while Tammy was off at a riding lesson/ride share opportunity, I worked with both Megan and Fiona for a while.  I chose to work with Megan first and everything went as planned. 

I had her lunge around the corral first even if she did not need it. I started with desensitizing using the rope and the string from the whip/stick.  We quickly moved on to doing some sending and side pass exercises. One great feat that was accomplished tonight is, I was able to take Megan into the stall entrance without using a whip or stick.  We just walked into the stall and backed out just like there was no problem or issues just a few days ago.  Next I was off to picking up feet, I was ok picking up both front feet and getting rid of buildup in the hoof.  I then went to pick up the hind feet where Megan picked them up without having any problem at all.  We usually go around and around in circles but tonight I was able to pick at both hind feet without problems.  I did notice some black "Yuck" in her left hind foot but all in all it was ok.  I will pick it twice tomorrow and see what I can get out of it.

I turned Megan lose and went to catch Fiona, where without any troubles at all, she comes right to me and stands to put the halter on.  She is a little sweetheart that likes to run, buck, kick and have fun.  My goal tonight with her was to work on lunging and controlling her feet a bit in the corral.  I found out Fiona is a smart little girl, she decided that when she was a little tired of trotting around the corral the best resting place was the stall.  Fiona was almost playing a game where she would go into the stall area, turn around and look at me as if she was saying "You can't get to me in here"  It made me laugh because she was right.

Everything went real well and both horses were sent out to the pasture with a good amount of hay for each.  Tomorrow is a new day and I will have my hands full with both horses again.  I think it is time to take Fiona out of Megan's sight again and take her through the stall out into the yard.

Great start to the day

First thing this morning I went out to see the horses and work with Megan.  This is the first day in two weeks I have been able to walk right up and halter her without the chance of her running off.  She was a prefect angel and did not hesitate to please in every way she knew how. 

I started with the lead rope and desensitizing her and quickly moved on to pivoting or yielding hind and forequarters.  We then worked on some backing and turning exercises.  The next was side pass and circle pass and she did these both flawlessly and without much correction.  I did have to push her away from me because she always wants to walk very close to me even when we are doing a circle pass.  Fyi, a Circle Pass is where you walk forward and send the horse into a half circle lunge in front and past you to the side all while keeping the forward momentum.  It is pretty fun and great excercise for both the horse and the trainer.  

All in all it was an awesome morning, now we are off to Tammy's first riding lesson at a local trainers just down the road.  

Wish us luck!

Making headway with Megan 8/25/10

Today was a pretty uneventful day working with the horses.  Megan allowed me to walk right up to her and did not give me any attitude or reason to not trust her.  She immediately dropped her head when I approached her and she did not pull away when I rubbed her ears and put the halter on her.  We walked to the barn area without indecent. 

 In all the tools I have, there were two pair of hoof clippers, one large and one small.  I am sure glad I kept those for an emergency trim, which we had to do on Megan tonight.  I lifted all four of Megan's feet with no resistance but noticed a rock was embedded in the edge of the left front hoof.  I tried to remove it with the hoof pick but it would not budge.  I ran to get the clippers while Tammy held Megan then we successfully trimmed a little around the rock and it came right out.  There was a lot of pressure on the rock and it was not going to budge without the trim. 

This week we had to start feeding (purchased) hay to the horses in the morning and evening but only after we have them put in some time training under the halter.  The grass in the pasture is very sparse and what is there is brown, very little green at all.  So before the weekend I hope to put in a few posts and run more fencing so we can open up a new pasture area.  If you want to help, I will not turn anyone away :-) We will be driving metal posts and installing electric fencing so it will not be too bad in the upcoming temperatures.  Maybe in a few weeks after we have a good rainstorm we will be able to start work on the roundpen.  The ground has to be prepped but we cant really do much with it right now.  

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Friday night we have a concert at the Oregon State Fair, Saturday we have a Dressage training clinic in Sublimity and a horse play day at the Polk County Fairgrounds where they are having a barrel race and horse riding competition. Sunday we will be about a mile away for Tammy's first horse riding lesson.  It will be an interesting and busy weekend. 

Stay safe and come back often, don't forget to leave a comment once in a while so we know who has been here.   Thanks for looking in on us.

Today's evening session 8/23/2010

I made the decision that I am no longer going to work with Megan twice per day on a regular basis.  Once in a while I will put in 2 sessions with her but I want to work with Fiona the 19 month old Appy. 

We started working on some of Megan's heard-bound issues by removing Fiona from her sight.  We had to start pretty slow and work up to 5 minutes and more and let Megan work through not seeing Fiona.  It was interesting to watch both horses, Fiona has no herd-bound symptoms at all and I hope to keep it that way.  Megan on the other hand is extremely herd-bound and will require lots of work.  During this exercise when we took Fiona out of the corral she was more concerned about all the green grass in the driveway.

I am sure it is a long road ahead of us just to get into Megan's mind where we can get control of her in any situation. I am prepared to put in the time and work so we can get her to be the best horse she can be.

As with any of our posts, please feel free to post comments and suggestions where you see fit.
Thank you and please, Wish us luck!

Breakthrough in Megan's past!

We took Sunday off and did not do any horse training or ground work, it was a nice lazy day we do not get to experience enough.  Today is Monday and I was able to get an hour and a half in working with Megan this morning and I think I may now know why she acts up when we were working with her feet.

Megan is starting to come around and just started figuring out that she does not need to run when we go to the pasture to catch her.  Last week we had to make both horses run the length of the pasture 4 or 5 times until Megan was willing to stand so we could catch her or Fiona.  Today, I went to the pasture and was able to walk right up to her after only one pass in the pasture, then was able to put a halter on her.

I worked with Megan through our everyday standard exercises of lead-rope and whip desensitizing, yielding the hindquarters, and forequarters, lateral flexing, lifting and cleaning all four hooves then continued with sending and side pass-circle lunge exercises. It was a pretty full morning just doing that amount of work with her. 

We were all done with the exercises and Megan came to the barn where I put fly spray and her fly mask on her, all this without incident.  That is where I found where another big issue lies. She was tied but could pull away pretty easily without force. I walked to her side and approached her hind quarters, like I was going to pick up her hind feet and Megan freaked out pivoting away while snorting and pulling her head into the air.  I took her away and into the corral  where she could settle down but she was pulling/rearing and very reactive to the situation.  I was able to calm her pretty fast once we were able to get away from the barn/stall area where I worked with her a little more, reinforcing good behavior not reactive flight response.    We went back to the tack area where I did another little experiment with her tied up very lightly and did the same approach to her hind end. It was not as bad but still very reactive to my presence to her side while she was tied off.


With my experience of animals and humans, my best guess to what provoked her response is, when she was young Megan was either hard tied or cross tied in a stall or working are where she was approached by the farrier where she was possibly put into a situation where all she knew was to react violently. I do not know if anyone got hurt but I do know she is able to rear all the way up on her hind legs and strike, she will also totally sacrifice everything and rearing up to the point of flipping completely over onto her back to get away if in a situation persists.  I truly think that is why she is reactive to confined spaces and pressure, like stalls or trailers and pressure on her lead rope.

Tomorrow we will continue to work with Megan where we hope to get through some of her flight barriers and get complete control of her feet where we can then obtain her total trust and respect on the ground.  Once that happens, we will be ready to "Ride Sally Ride"  Enjoy!

Working with Megan

As in the last post about Megan, we have been working through some issues with her. The main problem up until last weekend was, we were unable to pick up her hind feet so a farrier would be able to trim her hooves.  We have been working with desensitizing her hind end throwing a rope around her back legs and feet, I was finally able to get a rope through her legs and get a hold of one.  She did not kick but certainly did not like it and was resistant to the idea of me picking up her feet.  She will lift her front feet if you just look at them but the back feet had been untouchable until now.

Fast forward to today, I am able to pick up all four feet and scrape a little on her hind hooves. She is not perfect but she has made some huge improvements trusting humans around her hind legs.  Some of the trust came from last week at the trainers and her working through some trust issues.

After everything we have experienced with Megan, I truly feel she was put into the pasture for the last two years because the owners just had no idea what they had and did not know how to treat an Arabian that wants to be in control.  I am sure Megan ran over the top of them and they did not know what to do and they did not seek help from a trainer to work through her problems.

More training gets results

I have been working with Megan twice a day for about 3 weeks now. The outcome has been consistently getting better and I am even getting some respect back from her since our indecent last weekend. As you may know by now, we got another horse last weekend. Her name was target but she had no idea what it was because everyone called her baby. We are thinking of calling her Fiona from the movie Shrek.

Last Saturday we received Fiona and put her in with Megan and everything was fine. Megan took her so far in that she adopted her as her own baby. Within 24 hours we found out the real meaning of "Heard-bound" and how severe it can be.  Here is Megan leading Fiona into the corral.
We were supposed to have Megan picked up here at the house by a trainer and take her to a clinic about a mile away. The trainer "Sheri" shows up and we proceed to taking Megan out of the corral and load her into the trailer. She was having nothing to do with me or anyone else at this time. She was kicking and biting at me, she was throwing her head and even reared up a little. This action blew us away because we had never seen it coming from Megan, at the time and Sheri took Megan and tried to get control. Megan acted even worse and reared, throwing her head even more and in turn broke a snap on the lead rope setting her free to do as she pleased. The lead-rope snap flew back and hit Sheri in the head just above one of her eyes causing a flood of blood.

The chase begins. All Megan wanted to do was get back with her baby, so she found her way around the house (not going into the road or running off) and started calling Fiona again. I made way through the barn getting Fiona haltered and under control, opened some of the fencing and persuaded Megan to come back into the pasture. What a day it had been so far!

Loading up. We decided to take baby Fiona with us in order to keep Megan calm, we got a rope on Megan again and they both loaded perfectly into the trailer without incident and off to class we went.

The adrenaline flows again! We got Megan and Fiona to the trainers where Megan was put into the arena and Fiona was put in a stall. Megan was still pretty high strung and showed that she was irritated, she wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything new and wanted Fiona and to get home, we all knew that was not going to happen any time soon and she started making even a bigger fool of herself. Sheri ran Megan in circles for quite a while, wearing her down so we could have some control and respect from her. Shari then put a lariat around Megan's head and a loop over her nose bringing out the very worst from the horse. The fireworks went off and for some time, Megan was rearing up, kicking, snorting and striking the air while trying to get at Shari. Megan kept rearing up more and more then she went past the point of no return and fell backwards. She was not injured and shook it all off and kept right on going. This went on for about an hour or more until Megan was willing to accept a halter and be lead around the arena. Finally she was calm and orderly while showing respect and took direction from Sheri the rest of the afternoon.

The aftermath. Every day since the arena incident I have been working with Megan and she has been getting slightly better with every training session (1-2 hours twice per day) she has been showing respect, listening, learning and getting used to being out of the same pasture as Fiona. Tomorrow we will be taking Fiona for a walk around the other side of the barn to where Megan will not be able to see her. It will be interesting to see what happens, I am expecting some fireworks, just not as bad as last time.

Wish us luck and watch for updates!

Working with Megan 8/4/10

Megan did good this morning as usual. I worked with the rope and whip desensitizing her the I worked a little on yielding of the hindquarters.

She does pretty good about keeping her distance now, just by wiggling the lead rope she will stay back from me when I need her to. While walking, she will speed up and slow down to my pace even though I do not have the lead rope in hand. Megan will now also back up with the lightest pressure on the lead rope snap. That is a huge improvement over just two days ago.

This morning I was able to work with her for an hour and a half, mostly working with her back feet so they can finally be trimmed by a farrier. We finally go the rope around her right hind leg "YAAY!!!" and kept working on moving it up and down her leg and down onto her hoof. Even after all the work that was done I was still not able to touch her hoof but we did make HUGE improvements over just yesterday. I did work on her left leg a bit and was able to lift her leg and scrape out her hoof. She did not stand still long for that and lunged forward pulling away from my hand. I will have to keep working on her feet at least 2x per day to get her to give me her feet just like she does on the front. You look at her front feet and she will lift then for you, Not the rear ones though. I now know why the farrier had one chance to trim on her left side. He kept holding on to her hoof while she was kicking and pulling away. This just elevates the situation and makes her even more leary of someone at her hind end.

More training logs and photos to come soon.

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

Time for some training thanks to Clinton Anderson techniques

Me and my wife Tammy spent the weekend at a horse training seminar. We were just observers (auditor/spectator) at the seminar but were able to ask questions as they came up. Up at 5:30 am and back to bed at 11:30 pm made for some short nights of sleep but we survived.

The clinic was at the Ruah Ranch in Sublimity Oregon and was put on by Dale Cunningham. He is a Clinton Anderson protege and does training around the USA for Clinton Anderson training clinics.

We learned so much that by the end of the first day it was all a blur, talk about sensory and information overload! Tammy learned that she needs to be more ascertive and I learned many Natural Horsemanship techniques that will replace the heavy handed training I received in the 70's and 80's.

Today was the first day that I/we have really been able to test the waters with the new training we received and it worked flawlessly.

I started with desensitizing the horse with the lead rope, then went on to work with Megan with other techniques learned. She did everything she was asked or told depending how stubborn she wanted to be.

We still can not walk in and pick up her rear feet and think that in a past life she was severely frightened or injured by something or someone around her hind feet. She is a work in progress but is doing great and Tammy is picking up some great lessons on how to be her horse's leader without endangering or risking injury. My goal at this point is to have Tammy in the saddle by September 1st, Tammy will be able to take Megan for a ride and I will not have much to worry about her after the training and exercises between now and then. Wish us luck.

A little about Megan

Megan is a 6 year old Arabian mare that we received for free. Our neighbor came over asking if we were still looking for a horse for my wife Tammy to ride and gave us a name of a woman that was needing to get rid of an Arab Mare.

Megan was left in a pasture for two years with little to no little human contact and she let us know the night we went to pick her up. She wanted nothing to do with getting caught and kept running and running along with another horse. The other horse Octara, was an unruly mare that was running interference so we could not capture Megan.

Two hours into the chase, the horses finally went into a small paneled corral where we caught and haltered Megan.

The Adventure Begins Here!