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.

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!

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.