Day 5: backing and dropping head

Today I worked with Reece on backing in the morning then in the evening we worked on having her drop her head to make haltering easier. After doing a bit of review, turning and facing me then did a bit of leading practice. To begin backing I grabbed the rope a little bit under Reece’s chin then applied backwards pressure. She caught on quickly and after five or six times she responded quickly and consistently.
Later today we decided to start training her to drop her head when we touch her pole. At first I tried putting one hand on top of her pole and put some pressure on her halter by lightly pulled down. We decided that we should try a different method when she just started getting annoyed at me and trying to get away, so I decided to move the hand from under her head to on the bridge of her nose. When I applied pressure she would drop her head to get away from my pressure. When she dropped even slightly I would remove my hands. She did well and is making great progress!

day4: hose intro

On day four we decided to introduce Reece to a hose. When she got out on the first day she scraped up her right foreleg pretty bad and we have been watching it closely. We found that the swelling had not gone down from day1 and we are worried about it so we decided cleaning it off with water would kill two birds with one stone, help the swelling and get her used to baths. I had her walk over the hose twice and both times she ignored it like it wasn’t there so I rubbed her with it and she didn’t mind that either. I had my sister turn the hose on low pressure and I sprayed her foot then removed it. She was fine at first but quickly decided she did not like being sprayed. She walked around me and I kept the pressure on her till she stopped when I removed the pressure. We both started getting annoyed each other so I put down the hose and did some turn and face practice, something we already know, so we could end on a good note. Tomorrow we are going to try a different approach to hose intro.

Day3: training begins

On the morning of day 3 my sister, Hilary, sat outside the pen while I sat inside where she always paces to try and discourage the bad habit. I was reading a book on training called Bringing up Baby by John Lyons (highly recommended if your training a young horse or any horse at all, it has some great tips.) and had a ‘carrot stick’ of sorts. All it is was an old medium length whip that you have to have for driving in 4-H (my sister used to have a driving pony) with some bailing twine on the end; you can use it for desensitizing and using it as an extension of your arm while working with horses. If Reece began her pacing routine I would stand and wave the whip if I had to so she would go in a circle, instead of pacing back in forth, which would bring her around to her hay and she would stop to eat. It worked very well. After lunch, I went back into her paddock with her and closed the door to her stall to minimize her ways of ignoring me, just something to say ‘hay look at me’. Then I used the carrot stick to pick up her lead rope and get it into my hand. She looked at me but then began ignoring me once again so I ran the rope through my hands steadily applying pressure and if she looked at me I would slack the rope and take a step back. We continued this routine until she was turning and facing me with the tension. I began to reach out with the carrot stick, if she tensed up, before she moved from me I would bring the stick back a few inches and allow her to relax some, and then I would reach out again and brush her shoulder with the stick. Soon she was allowing me to scratch her with the stick on both sides and I could also reach out and scratch her shoulder with my hand some.
By the end of the day I could walk to her side, pick up the lead rope, look at her hind quarters and she would turn and face me. I could also scratch her under her belly, down all four legs and around her tail no problem. If only people knew that the places horses don’t like to be touched, they love to be scratched.
We also worked on haltering some. The halter she had on had some metal on it and was rubbing really bad so it took a few min. but I got a new rope halter on her that we made a while ago so it would not rub as bad, we also removed the drag rope because I can now touch her and there is no need for it (although since she is a wild mustang we decided that leaving the halter on at this point is a good idea in case of emergencies we will have some sort of control.)

finish paddock+let Reece back out

Due to our mishap with Reece attempting to jump the fence she was kept in her stall for about 24hrs. At first she was fine eating the hay and allowing me to go into her stall with her so I could get to the calf we are bottle feeding. There are only 2 ways to get to the calf’s stall, through Reece’s and through the outside paddock that was being remolded.  We figured it was good to be around her as much as possible so we went through the stall. Once we got some heavy machinery to dig some holes for posts into the paddock and she heard the noise she began pacing like a crazy animal. By the time we got everything set up it was late afternoon and she had a solid, 8ft tall plywood wall to greet her. to open her stall door we had a rope system set up, so I pulled it the door swung a foot then the string broke and the door was stuck a foot open. So my sister, Hilary, who had the best access to the door jumped in and opened it fully expecting to see a blur of bay filly mustang go shooting out. But that did not happen. Reece stopped pacing, looked out the door and walked out with her head down so she could nibble on some grass as she meandered through her new paddock. She took a sip of water from her trough then heard the next door horses again so she started pacing…again. Hilary and I sat outside of her pen and read books while watching her be a freak pacing back and forth, taking a bight of hay, a sip of water then starting again. It drove Hilary crazy since she hates pacing. Eventually she settled down and stopped pacing so she could eat her hay and that was all we did.

day1: home at last

I stood outside the makeshift pen of panels we had set up so I could get some good shots with the camera my dad had handed me a few min. earlier. We were about to let her out, the mustang I would train over the summer she was fairly calm now but still stomped as my brother jumped down from the side of the trailer, “she let me touch her!” he exclaimed excitedly. He positioned himself at the back door of the trailer ready to get out of the way if she flipped out.
“Austin, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t terrorize my horse she is still wild you realize and I don’t want you messing with her too much” I said annoyed. She had not been very happy on the way home and I wanted her out as soon as possible so she didn’t get too spooked.
He shot me an annoyed glare then looked at my sister “you ready?”
She nodded, “ready as I’ll ever be”. She wedged herself further in between the barn and the trailer to block the filly’s only escape.
Austin swung the gate open and got out of the way as quick as he could hiding behind the solid trailer, “Is she out?” he asked trying to crane his neck around to see.
I laughed lightly and lifted the camera, “No but she is thinking about it”.
The filly stepped out then turned around and jumped back in. my dad let out a hardy laugh, “Maybe we should let her stay in there”. The filly turned and sniffed at the ground then hesitantly stepped out talking a few steps then turned to load up again.
“Well at least we know we don’t have to teach her how to load” my sister smiled and I giggled a little at that. My job just got easier.
The filly stepped out again, this time continuing into the pen and looking around. My brother, Austin, closed the trailer gate as my other brother, Zack, closed the gate to the pen.
“Good girl Reece” I whispered while snapping a picture.
Zack looked at me with curiosity in his eyes “What?”
I smiled ”Well me and Hilary were thinking Pnuma Freesia was a good name, Pnuma is Greek for wind and Freesia is a type of flower and since we couldn’t decide between the two we decided to name her both. Then when we were playing with the name trying to get a nickname for her somehow we came up with Reece, doesn’t it fit her in a way? She just looks like a Reece.”
He smirked, ”Weirdo”.
My sister stood up from where she had been leaning and sighed, “We better leave her alone and let her settle in”.
We all agreed and my brothers left as me and Hilary headed up to the house. Before we got in the door we heard some banging but when we looked we saw that my dad was still out working so we ignored it. The banging happened again and this time my dad yelled. Oh shoot I thought as I sprinted down to the barn to see Reece in between the Panels we had set up and the original pen’s chain link fence.
“Oh my gosh!” my sister gasped as she came around the corner, “Reece what have you done?”
Hilary and my dad went into the pen and began disconnecting panels from the one she had tried to jump and destroyed. As I stood in front of where Reece had pinned herself with my hand stretched out to keep her from escaping further. When there was room for her to get back into the pen we backed off and let her go back in.
 My dad herded her into the stall that was connected to the paddock and shut the door, “looks like we need an extreme makeover”

catch&load

On June 25^th 2011 me and my sister set out hauling our trailer for the 2hr and 3min trek to eastern Washington to pick up a wild mustang. Hilary had been tired and agitated at the setbacks of the morning as we were leaving 40 min later than expected. The ride there was quiet and there was few words spoken until we pulled up to the corral where the mustangs were running in a confused panic, shoving one another and tripping over 14ft drag ropes but somehow respecting one another’s space.
One mustang, a black bay filly, was cut from the herd, pacing back and forth finding a way to get around the two person block that kept her from the safety of her herd. She darted. The horse wrangler moved into her path to cut her off but she pushed past him ignoring his presence.  
After 15 min of struggling to get a hold of her rope the wrangler went for the other filly we were hauling home, he got a hold of her lead quickly but she put up quite a fight flipping herself on her back and rearing violently. Finally he got little chestnut into a shoot that lead straight to the trailer where she loaded easily.
Again he went for the bays lead got it then it got pulled out of his hand. He went for it again this time gripping it tight against his tan chaps and bracing against the bay filly’s pull. The struggles backwards with all four feet planted on the ground then with a great swing of her head pulled the rope out of his grip. The wrangler looked at his female assistant and they both began walking forward. The herd ran around the pen but the bay was easily cut off. They cornered her and she went into a small shoot made just for fighters like her. The girl slammed the small gate closed and the man reached threw the panel and grabbed the lead bringing it over the fence and allowing the girl to open the pen door. The filly shot through the door dragging the wrangler behind her. The wrangler finally gained his footing and pulled back on the filly. He allowed her to go forward as he fallowed behind her bracing against her pull and placing himself where there was no escape. The assistant opened the gate and the filly took off threw into the shoot to the trailer where the other filly was. She jumped in and the gate was slammed behind her.
The wrangler rubbed his back, “Wow, I like that on