Feels like -30

This week in weather, the northern part of the United States is freaking COLD.  There are wind chill advisories in red all over the place, saying not to go outside unless it's absolutely necessary.  Weather channels were all over predicting it was coming, so the day it was supposed to start dropping in the afternoon, I went up to the barn in the early afternoon- what can I say, I like to sleep in.  It also didn't seem too bad at my house.

At the barn, the wind howled, rattling the roof and snapping nearby tarps viciously.  Snow tornadoes lived and died in the arena, and I huddled in the warming room knowing that my plans of a quick trail ride were this side of crazy.  Instead, I took my boy in and switched blankets from his medium weight to his heavy weight.

Now he's in Hollyberry plaid to keep him warm! Silver put two round bales without hay nets in each pasture so the horses can eat to their heart's content- and to warm their bellies.  Still, I felt bad for Ella's dam, Liza, and for Ella.  I don't own a blanket that would fit Ella, but Rocky's extra would fit Liza fine. I tried to go up to the house to ask Silver if she thought Bryan would mind me putting a blanket on his mare, but she wasn't there.

I decided I would put it on anyway, especially because her coat wasn't as thick as it could have been.  Liza was skittish about being caught, edging away from me as soon as she saw me coming with a halter.  I scooted her off with my lead rope, but the second she considered not running away I backed off. Other horses nuzzled near to say hello, but she was a suspicious lady.

Exhibit A: Rocky is happy to see me :)

She finally allowed me to walk up to her and put the halter on.  Her eyes were wider than they should have been, but she accepted it.  My mom was nervous, and tried to convince me not to put the blanket on her.  She was convinced I was going to get kicked in the head; a possibility, I'll grant, but I kept a close eye on her and took my time making sure I wasn't scaring her.  When I walked her over to where my mom stood holding the blanket, she started to side step anxiously.

My mom started tugging on her, trying to get her to stop. I took the lead rope away from her, telling my mom to let go.  I allowed Liza to move her feet but kept my hand near her eye to keep her away from me.  As soon as I wasn't trying to force her to be still, she stopped and stood quietly.  I handed the rope back to my mom and told her to keep her hand up.

Liza was still a bit worried until I tossed the blanket over her back and starting rolling it out over her back.  As I worked, her eyes got soft and she obligingly moved so the wind would blow the straps closer to me, not away.  She seemed to realize that the blanket was keeping the worst of the wind from chilling her, and stood still to let me strap it on her.

I finished, praised her, and let her go.  She stood with us for a few seconds, accepting the neck rubs, then cantered back to the hay pile.  Within a minute she was chewing happily on hay.  That night I sent Bryan a message letting him know what I'd done.  He seemed okay with it (through type, anyway) but assured me that "she was used to -30 so she would have been fine."

I'm not sure how horses "get used to" -30, but I know she would have survived the few days of freezing temperatures without a blanket.  Wild horses do it every winter, without a constant supply of easy hay and water.  Except for the ones who die, but that's life in the wild.  Anyway, I felt bad that she didn't have a blanket on, I had an extra, and I used it.

I should have asked permission before doing it, and that is where I become overly helpful.  I see something I think is fixable, and I "fix" it often without thinking of the human element.  Liza is not my horse and I did not have permission to touch her, specifically, only Ella.  However, if someone had done me the same favor, I would have been grateful.  Thing is, I still have what I am going to coin as "helper's guilt."


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Here's a fun maternity test for everyone.  This is Ella (the filly whose butt is facing the camera):

Which mare is her dam? 

We Built This City on Ice and Snow

I went up to the barn yesterday, bundled up in all of my winter gear and excited to work with Rocky and Ella. When I got up there, Ella's owner had her out already and was just about done messing around with her.  We chatted for a bit, and as I was talking I gestured upwards with one of my hands.  I noticed Ella shy away a little, eyeing me suspiciously. I continued the movement over and over.  My arm swished past my body, making more noise than usual due to the fabric of my jacket.

Ella edged away, her ears back and nose in the air.  I followed her, keeping roughly the same distance as the one that had startled her.  When she stopped trying to sidle away and seemed to relax a little, I stopped waving my arm and rubbed her neck.  She blew out softly, already seeming to understand that a neck caress is soothing and means that she has done the right thing.  She flinched a little when I repeated the exercise, but didn't try to move away again. Her owner, Bryan, remarked that he had never thought of desensitizing a horse with something as simple as an arm movement.

We talked about it for a few minutes, and I encouraged him to foster her natural curiosity about things that he knows won't hurt her. If she is spooks at something, let her walk up and smell it. She'll learn to investigate things rather than run away from them.

I asked if he minded me working with her in the round pen, and if he wanted to watch.  He was happy to hear this, and led her through the barn.  She snorted and went sideways a little when exiting the other end of the barn.  Bryan was going to keep leading her to the round pen, until I stopped him and had him let Ella smell the potted plant that had made her shy.  Within seconds she was trying to eat the brown, brittle plant stems. I reiterated that every spook is an opportunity for learning, and the more she is shown that the horse-eating-thing she spooked at will not hurt her, the calmer of a horse she will be.

We let her go in the round pen to buck and trot around for a few minutes.  I also wanted to see what the footing was like without putting pressure on her to follow my directions.

Half the round pen was icy, but the other half seemed okay.  The last time I had her in the round pen, she had cut across the pen, skipping the now icy half completely.  I decided to give it a go, and stop if the footing became too much of a problem.

She remembered some of the lesson from four days previous! I had to walk up to her to encourage her to move out the first time, but after that all it took was a snap on the ground with the whip in the center of the round pen to send her off when she was getting sticky.  Once she purposefully walked in the correct direction off just my point, most times it took pointing and clicking to achieve it.

Ella was doing pretty well going right, so I decided to work on sending her to the left.  Unfortunately, she became braver about the other half of the round pen when traveling to the left.  I had to back off completely when she went over there, as the ground was smooth ice with a dusting of snow.  Several times her feet slid around.  I finally decided that I needed to stop the lesson.  I wasn't able to cue her properly and she was putting herself in danger on the ice.

I moved on to desensitizing her to the lunge whip.  She was fine with it rubbing down her neck and sides, but was flinchy when it touched her butt.  When I rubbed down her left hind leg, she kicked out when it touched just above her hock. I kept rubbing when she kicked, so she tried to move away from it while seriously considering kicking again.  After a few seconds, she stopped her movement and stood still for me for a good 10 seconds.  I took the whip off her leg and praised her.  I put it back, and she huffed out a breath, then relaxed.  She didn't try to kick out the rest of the session.

It's moments like that when I know I'm doing the right thing here, teaching her not to kick and how to relax. Bryan had said he picked her feet without a problem before I got there, but I worry that he trusts Ella a bit too much.  He also doesn't know how to desensitize a horse properly, and would have removed the pressure when she struck out rather than keeping it on, effectively teaching her that if she strikes with her feet, scary things go away.

Ella also tried to push into me when she got uncomfortable with what I was doing. I curbed this by keeping my hand at her eye level.  Every time she attempted to push into me, I tapped her face with my hand.  Ella would throw her head back in alarm, but back off.  After a few times of running into my hand, she figured out that she needed to keep a respectful distance.

By the end of our desensitization, she was standing quietly while I flipped the string of the lunge whip over her back and butt, then dragged it back to my side.  I let the string flip around the far side of her from me, curl under her belly, and then I would drag it back across to me.

Overall, I'd say we ended on a successful note with her desensitization.  I had her stand tied for a bit, and she pawed a little at first but then stopped.  I was able to release her after only 10 minutes or so, when she stood quietly with one hind leg cocked in relaxation.  Smart filly.

The First Day

Yesterday, I had a day off before going back to work for another four days. (I work an odd schedule. I work four, ten hour shifts per week which means that some weeks I will work 6 days in a row and other weeks I will have four days off in a row.)  Anyway.  I was planning on taking Rocky out, doing some groundwork and then hopping on for a quick ride.

When I went out to get him, he had his nose buried in hay.  He greeted me, then went back to eating with the apparent hope that I would allow him to finish his meal.  As I went to move him off the hay, Ella walked over to say hello.  Her eyes were bright and she seemed to say, "You came here for me, right?" 

My plan was to start working with her next Tuesday, when I have several days off in a row and the lessons would have a better chance of sticking with her.   Rocky's absorption in food and Ella's eagerness for human contact changed my mind, and I slipped Rocky's rope halter over her head.  It was a little big, but I tied it off so it sat correctly on her face.  She came with me without hesitation, until we got to the gate.  Then she seemed a little unsure of herself, and needed guidance to know that she should turn around outside of the gate so I could close it.

I took her to the round pen, and Ella made soft snorty sounds as we walked.  Her tendency was to want to crowd me, warning me that if she were to get scared she would likely try to climb into my lap.  I urged her gently into her own space.  I let her go in the round pen for a few minutes on her own.   She snorted, bucked, and moved around the space, spooking herself at the same place three times in a row.  Her yearling antics were fun to watch.  She tested the fence, nibbled at stray grass that poked up around the pen's posts through the snow, trotted with high steps before throwing a buck and running across the pen, only to stop and smell the ground again.

Once she seemed to accept the boundaries of the space, and lost some of her wide eyed look, I entered the pen.  My plan is to start slow and basic, keeping the lessons simple.  

We started with Ella moving in the direction I point, and to continue moving that direction unless I specified otherwise.  She spent a lot of her time looking out of the round pen, but within a few minutes she was starting to get the idea.  I began by pointing to the right, waiting a few seconds, then clicking while pointing, waiting a few seconds, and finally snapping the lunge whip against the ground.   The first five times or so that I asked for her to move out, she ignored my pointing and vocal commands completely.

After that, she started to turn her head so the outside of her eye could see me.  It was beginning to occur to Ella that this two legged thing was not going to leave her to her own devices, and was instead insisting that she move in a specific direction.  I did not make any effort to control the speed she moved at, only the direction her feet were moving.  Sometimes she scooted off because I ended up snapping the whip directly behind her butt before she would go.   Other times she slid off at a walk after the first sound of the whip from the center of the round pen.

Ella liked to stop to smell a pile of manure on one side of the pen, and then stare out of the pen at her pasture just across the barn yard.  On the opposite side from her pasture, she would cut across the round pen and consider coming in to me.  I directed her feet to keep going when she would get stuck somewhere, and only asked that she stay at least the lunge whip length away from me when she cut across the pen.

After she followed my direction based on only my point-and-click, I invited her to come in to me by turning around and walking away from her.  She immediately came off the fence, smelled the ground and then went to stare off at her pasture mates- who, by the way, were all staring back at her.  I let her breathe for a minute, then went back to asking her to go to the right.

She responded better, still needing the occasional sound of the whip to motivate her but starting to figure out that she has two chances to go before the whip would come out.   Ella walked off after I pointed, and I invited her again to come to me.  This time, she came halfway across the round pen to me and stopped, watching me.   She let me approach her and I rubbed her neck on both sides, praising her for listening so well.   Her skin was warm under her thick winter coat, almost to the point of getting sweaty.  Her breathing was harder than usual, blowing in hot streams on my hands.

For her, she had gotten a lot of exercise.  She had played around in the pen before I asked anything of her, and then had walked, trotted, and occasionally cantered of her own volition but in the direction I wanted.   As a now-former pasture puff, her time in the round pen with me was hard work.

I stopped rubbing her neck, took a few steps away from her, and crooked my finger while clicking.  She didn't know what I meant but, being the friendly filly she is, took the invitation and walked up to me again.  I clipped the lead rope back to her halter, and that was the end of her round penning session. 

I walked her through the barn, which she blew at uneasily.   I stopped and let her stand to look around several times.  Her eyes were wide but she followed me with minor hesitation.   Ella was then brought to a tie ring, where I let her stand tied for about half an hour.  I got Rocky and fiddled around with him while keeping an eye on Ella to make sure she didn't hurt herself or loosen her lead rope too much. 

She pawed at the ground, whinnied to nearby horses, and once pawed with such a big step that she put her foot over the bottom tape of the arena that she was tied next to.   She reared, scooted back a step and was free of the arena tape.  Ella stood blowing with her head up, waiting for someone to do something.  When she discovered she was unhurt, still tied, and that no one was coming to "save" her, she looked distinctly disappointed.

I caught her cocking a hind leg in relaxation a few times, but as soon as she saw me coming to release her she began to paw again.  Ella earned her freedom from the tie post out of luck, as the stallion on the property needed to be brought in and I was asked to move her.   She walked nicely back to the pasture, but made the mistake of whinnying at her pasture mates on the way.  I had her back up a few steps, taking it slow so she could decipher what I was looking for her to do.

Overall, her first day went very well.  She seems interested in learning, and is much calmer about the process than she should be considering her lack of handling.  Here's hoping the rest of her training continues as successfully as her first day! I'm curious to see how much she remembers when I take her out on Tuesday.

The Fear Place, part 2

Before I continue my story from The Fear Place, I wanted to throw out a quick update to Ella. Yesterday, I finally heard back from her owner, who said that he is happy to have me work with her!  I am really excited to do this, and will definitely be posting our progress.  Unfortunately, I work a lot in the next week and so will not get a chance to start working with her until next week.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry.

The fear had taken over my mom.  Tapper had stopped when he reached Rocky and I, but a part of her knew that she should redo the hill.  The panicked part tugged quickly back on Tapper's reins, and he obligingly backed under a pine tree.  Snow tumbled down around my mom, and she had to hunch forward under the branches.  Her eyes were wide and I could tell that her mind had fractured with fear, not processing the situation clearly.

I suggested that she dismount and do some ground work, joking about "surviving the experience."  Her terse reply of "No shit!" told me where her head was, and it wasn't ready to ride.  She got off, and proceeded to lunge Tapper going up and down the hill.  Her cues were a little off, and she would tug him toward her at the bottom of the hill.  He obediently would turn and face her, but she hadn't meant to tug on him.  She would briskly send him off again, and he was starting to get agitated from all of the mixed signals.

I asked if she meant to pull him in, and she said no.  She stopped doing it then, now that she realized what was going on.  I told her to change his direction more frequently, which helps him to relax and gives her more to think about in terms of cuing properly rather than just letting Tapper trot around her.  Within a few turns, Tapper's eyes were quiet and calm.  He was doing what she asked without issue, but my mom hadn't completely left The Fear Place yet.

I pointed out that he was behaving himself and seemed over "his" issue.   She slowed herself down, and was able to agree with me.   I told her that instead of riding straight down the hill, which seems to make her more fearful, I suggested riding circles on it.  She ended up going down the hill to the side of the main trail where the slope wasn't as steep.  She rode up behind me, stopped and looked at me.

I told her to go do it again.

She let out a reluctant breath but she knew I was right.  She went down the hill twice more, each time becoming more confident as Tapper didn't put a foot wrong.   Finally her smile was back in place, and she was able to laugh about the experience.  I reminded her that she needs to work on just going up and down that hill until it gets boring for her. She said I was right, and that she would plan a time to do it one of the next times she went to the barn.

Working through fear isn't easy, and I'm not sure if it's something that ever completely leaves you.  With horses, nothing is ever guaranteed other than the fact that they can be unpredictable.  I love them anyway.

 

Sorry for the poor quality of this image, but it was the only one I could find of it! It's from Bonnie Timmons' book, "Hold Your Horses."  I recommend every horse aficionado own a copy. 

Fun Post Tuesday! AKA, the Post with lots of Pictures

Well folks, today I am going to take you on a journey.  A photographic journey of my last trip to the barn.  Okay, I didn't document everything- but if I did, it would probably get pretty boring.  Anyway.  Starting with...

The drive up! I pass these awesome little mountains/big hills on my way to the barn. Majestic, no?  Also, it gives you a weather forecast: snowy, gray, and a little chilly.  Next, we take Rocky out of the pasture!  But wait, who is that cute little horse with him?  I'll give you a minute to think about it... (and by "think about it," I mean, read one of my recent blog posts... hint, hint).

If you guessed Ella, you'd be right!  She's in her yearling awkward growth spurt phase, and she's dirty from not being brushed, but I still think she's adorable.  Also, she looks like she's not purebred Quarter horse.  She has an awful lot of white, especially going up her hind legs.  Perhaps she has some Paint in her?

I didn't take any pictures of grooming or tacking up Rocky, you'll just have to take my word for it that it happened.  And then...

Silver on Walker, a horse she bred, raised and trained.  Can you tell what breed he is?

We headed out!  Silver took us brush whacking around her property, and Rocky loved it.  Bear was in 7th Heaven, too, and happily galomped (it's a real word. Think about a dog running and trotting gleefully through snow, not always gracefully but with joy. There ya go) along with us.  At one point, we came to a super steep hill.  I remembered this hill from summers past, and hadn't felt comfortable going down it then.  Like I said, it's really steep but it also has smoothish rocks sticking out of the ground on the steepest part, which makes for slippery footing.  I warned Silver of them but she decided to cowboy down the hill anyway.  Walker handled it quite well, although they slid 2 or 3 times.  I didn't feel comfortable doing that, so I dismounted and slid down the hill next to Rocky.

He was great about it, I had been worried he would try to climb into my lap but instead he slowly ooched his way down next to me.  I slid more than he did, really, and used him for support.  Good horse!  Then we continued on some of the open trails, and saw two deer.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of them.

Bear following Silver and Walker

We tromped around these woods for a bit and then started back for home.  Silver decided she wanted to grunt up that steep hill, so we split ways for a few minutes.  Rocky became more nervous and excitable after leaving Walker's presence, but he still listened to me.  When coming around to the meet up, I was able to snap these photos:

Find the horse and rider!

This one is a lot easier to see them.

If you don't see the horse and rider in this photo, you may need to get your eyes checked ;)

We met up in this valley and headed back on familiar trails.  Rocky was a trooper, but when we got back he was tired.

Good horse, good ride, cold thighs!

Ella

When she first arrived at my barn, the 3 month old filly had never been outside before, except for her trip from her stall to the trailer.  She was an "oops" baby, and a young man purchased her dam plus one out of the kindness of his heart.  He saw the chestnut mare locked in a stall and decided that he could afford to buy her, releasing her and her foal from their stalled prison.

My barn owner, Silver, decided to keep them in a stall with a run for a while, allowing both mare and foal to acclimate to the outdoors before placing them in a pasture.  The filly was so excited, she ran straight through the stall and out the end of the run, bucking and leaping with joy.  She was caught without much trouble and returned to the run, where she learned what a fence means.  Her dam was cautious about being friendly, having learned that humans can lock her away without a thought.

Ella, however, was not so reserved.  When she saw people, she came right over to say hello.   She sniffed my hand delicately, then let me run my fingers through her soft, fluffy coat.  Her eyes were warm and interested, not at all afraid to have a stranger rub her neck.   Ella stuck her nose up to smell my face, and we exchanged breaths until she was satisfied.

When she was freshly at the barn, I remember admiring her markings.  She was a soft sorrel color, and I figured she would deepen into her dam's coppery hue.  She has four white socks, the hind ones rising above her hocks in the front, and the front ones coming to her knees.  With her wide blaze, I could see what she would look like as an adult, her white legs and face would be quite striking to see.

I was wrong.  Ella did not shed out her baby coat to match her mother's chestnut one. Instead, she turned butter yellow with a thick white mane and tail.  This little angel I was falling for turned out to be palomino, the color of my first beloved mare.  If I could afford it, I would have bought her months ago, when I still thought she would be chestnut and her mane was only wispy curls above her neck.

Her owner doesn't do anything with her.   Ella just turned a year old this fall- more evidence of her being an oops baby.  The owner doesn't drive, so he relies on friends to bring him to the barn.  Silver says she usually only sees him when he drops off board checks once a month.  He did put Ella's dam into training with Silver, to get her riding.  I've seen him out a few times to tool around on her, but the last time he was out he planned to get on her after not seeing her for a few months.  He didn't know how to put the saddle on, and when my mom went to help, cautioned her that "the mare has already bucked today."

He isn't a bad person, he simply isn't able to or doesn't put time into his horses, into learning to be a horseman. They are now out in a pasture with other horses, where they receive all of the vet and farrier care they need.  I itch to take Ella out, teach her to be a good young horse that leads, stands quietly for Silver to trim her, and start ground work that will make teaching her to carry a rider someday so much easier.  I could even pony her behind Rocky, a good exercise for him and for her, getting her out on the trails to explore more of the world.

Right now, she's a mostly unhandled yearling.  Every other month, Silver takes her out for a trim but otherwise, she's a pasture puff.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think she should be in any sort of intense training.   However, it's much easier to put manners into a young horse than into a large, adult horse who has had plenty of time to decide how things should be on their own.

I debate what I should do about this situation.  For several months, I avoided Ella's pasture because I was becoming increasingly attached to her, and again, I simply can't afford another horse.  I don't know what the owner's plans for her are, or if he has even considered her future.  Right now, my guess is that she is going to be a fairly tall palomino Quarter horse mare, not registered (to my knowledge, anyway), with decent conformation and a good temperament.  I think she could really be worth something, if she had even basic training to fall back on.  She's going to look flashy once all of her growing is said and done, and she seems to have a laid back, calm attitude.

I wonder if he would have any interest in paying me to work with Ella, but I suspect he may not.  Like I said before, he did put her dam into training but hasn't done anything with either of them since.  I keep telling myself that I should stay out of their business and mind my own, but now Rocky has been put in her pasture. I can't avoid seeing her anymore, and it tugs at my heartstrings to think of all the potential being wasted with this filly right now.

I read Fugly Horse of the Day, I know what happens to unregistered, untrained yearlings if their owners' financial situation changes.  My other worry is falling in love with her, only to have her disappear after I've worked with her and spent a good deal of time with her.  I think I may ask if he would be interested in paying me almost anything to put some training on her, and if he ever decides to sell her, that I would "help" him find someone appropriate for her.  I have no problem with Ella going to someone who is going to love and care for her, so I think that may be my best bet.

Thoughts?  Have you ever been in a similar situation, and what did you do?