Rescuing Rusty

My husband is brilliant really. He shoved me out the door to work Rusty so that Rusty wouldn’t be left to marinate in the bad memories of our wreck. In the end though, I benefited just as much as Rusty did. More so perhaps.

Rusty seemed mostly unfazed. I had let him out to graze earlier and he wasn’t interested in talking to me. I understood and accepted his indifference. I deserved it. When I went out to work with him I wondered if I would be able to catch him. He was out in the wheat. I walked out to the fence and he noticed me right away. Head up he looked at me. I called to him and he walked towards me immediately. Things weren’t as bad as I thought. We worked on little things as we walked back to the house, whoa and back and good leading position. He looked pretty hard at the yard when we walked past. My husband keeps asking me not to let the horses in the yard. I am going to make a concerted effort to oblige him, that would solve a large portion of the problem.

He did walk willingly past though, clear out around the trees to the back of the house, and, there, at the pickup I tied him. The second of the changes I am attempting. He was not happy. Sticking to the plan though I clicked him as soon as he stood on all four feet for long enough to allow it. I loaded up on hay cubes and kept a good supply in front of him while I trimmed one hoof. I didn’t say I was going to ride him, I said work Rusty 😉 Besides I had convinced myself he was off slightly and his back could be sore, anyway, no riding. He needed trimmed anyway. So, I got one hoof done. He stood tied nicely, not fighting or pawing. My knuckles were aching from the cold and previous injuries coming back to haunt me. After one foot I untied him and we played fetch. Then the second hoof.

We went on like that, rewarding him for standing quietly, fitting other things in between trimmings to give me a break more than for him. I saddled him, no issues there at all. I had to make sure my saddle was really ok. I’ve spent a fair bit of time wondering if a full grown cow or a clothes line posts and all exerts more pressure. The saddle is made to hold a cow on the end of a rope. I hoped that this wouldn’t be able to break the tree or, what? Who knows what it could have done but I can think of plenty of things to worry about. It seemed sound and whole so we went for a walk. Out behind the scary chicken coop. Up and down the hill into the dump. Then up the hill behind it into the trees. That part was really scary and he didn’t want to do it more than once. Then back to finish up his feet.

It was a very simple lesson. Easy for him, I was going to say both of us but trimming gets harder all the time. I’m getting old. I didn’t ask for anything challenging or stressful, just enough to leave him with a different memory than the bad one. And I felt SO much better afterwards.

I hadn’t realized how badly the whole thing had affected me. I hadn’t wanted to go work with him. I didn’t want to do anything with him or any of the horses. I felt sick to my stomach and thoroughly shaken. Now I feel, good. My confidence is, mostly, returned. I am assured that he is fine, I didn’t break him, mentally or physically. We are once again on good terms. We both got back on that horse and life is good again.

It seems like every really bad ride is followed by a drastic leap in his understanding. Unfortunately sometimes it also goes the other way. We have been doing so well together. I can watch videos of him and see how hard he is thinking and concentrating on what I ask. It lots of fun to see those wheels turning in his head. His great try and concentration are some of his finer points, but also a big drawback. He needs constant attention and I need to match his concentration in order to keep up with him.

I shouldn’t have brought him in  in the first place. I was exhausted, so tired I could barely focus enough to keep my eyes open. The morning had been warm after starting out cool and foggy. The kids lay down for their naps and I finally had a chance to enjoy the good weather. When I got outside it was cold and cloudy again. The feel of snow was in the air. My husband went by with a four-wheeler and stopped to talk for a minute. Snow was indeed on the way and the temps were dropping. I told him I would try to work Rusty real quick before it got worse. The next few days were going to be cold and I didn’t want to miss my chance.

He and Onna were standing at the far end of their pen watching Coyote graze out in the wheat field. I called and Rusty came ambling along to answer. From the first second I let him out the gate I could tell that his attention was elsewhere. He knew Coyote was out grazing and kept thinking hard about joining him. I convinced him to come to the yard with me. He stayed and ate while I curried him, but wandered off while I got the saddle out. I tied him to saddle, something I never do. After saddling I turned him loose again then went back into the house to refill treats.

When I came out he was standing at the clothes line. The saddle horn was just touching the first wire. Heart in my throat I tried to circle out around him so I was applying pressure away from the clothes line. Working him like I would a cow. Looking back I probably should have just walked up behind him. He walked that last step forward and felt the wire on the saddle horn. It spooked him forward further which tightened the wire more. He shot forward pulling the posts over. The force of it knocked him onto his butt. He got up and ran sideways, the wire at the horn not allowing anymore forwards. Finally as he sat fighting, off to the side of the clothes line the last wire broke and he trotted off down the drive. Somehow the saddle, loosely tightened, had stayed on his back. Somehow he hadn’t become tangled in the wires and sawed himself to bits. God was watching out for us.

My saddle, that I love so much, did receive some damage. The decorative stingray trim along the front of the pommel was cut through and there were some scratched and scuffs. I am so thankful that it is, for the most part, ok. It is from another time before kids and with lots more riding, back when I could justify the expense. A custom made saddle isn’t anything that will be happening again anytime soon. The clothes line was a complete loss. My husband did not yell at me, quite the opposite. He was very comforting and claimed to have never liked that clothesline anyway. And Rusty seems to be ok. I think he’s a little sore on his left hind. It is extremely likely that it is just me though. I can’t see that he’s actually limping, although I’ve decided he’s slightly short stridded there. My loving and understanding husband is pushing me out the door now to go work with Rusty while I can. Do I really want to leave him with that  memory he says? And he’s right I don’t. For a non-horse person he knows what he’s talking about.

So what am I going to do differently to make sure this doesn’t happen again? Well the clothes line is gone. My kind loving husband got it cleaned up this morning. Figuring how to prevent this exact catastrophe is pointless. Not because the clothesline is gone but because it seems like covering a bigger picture would be wiser than one tiny issue. I think we do need to start tying. Maybe not for saddling, I want his feedback and to make sure I’m not rushing and doing things he’s uncomfortable with. But before and after. The times I am running back and forth getting stuff from the house. he does need to learn to stand tied anyway. If we ever do start showing he HAS to know how. Being mat trained isn’t good enough at a busy fairgrounds or parking lot. We will start small, clicking for one second of not pawing and no fit throwing, and build from there. See if my theory really works.

The other big issue, I think, was me not him. I take full and complete responsibility for the accident. Looking back I can see everything I did, every sign of things to come that I missed, everything he said to me very clearly that I didn’t listen to. The cure isn’t to not let him have liberty but for me to know when I shouldn’t be out working him. When I am distracted or too tired. He requires my absolute and complete attention and as much as I know that I need to heed it.

Here we are doing the same pattern Ava was rocking in the last video. We walked it a couple of times then proceeded to trot. It was much harder than it looked. All of this has me thinking though, I spent my life pursuing that headset. I told my husband last night that i had spent 40 years working on it, he said no, I’m not 40 quite yet and even if I was I didn’t start at birth. He likes to ruin my fun. We decided probably at least 20 years though. From the beginning with a really bad dressage instructor, to a really good one who I wasn’t good enough to fully appreciate or make use of, two great reining and cow horse trainers, years of starting colts and now, finally, playing around with clicker training and not working towards any type of showing and hardly even riding. It figures that now is when I finally truly, I hope, get it. All that time spent pulling on their heads trying to drag them into collection. I read that it comes from behind, I pondered it deeply and wondered how in the world. But I couldn’t figure it out. I think I’ve found it. Not that he is “collected” I don’t want or expect him to be at this point, but he is so soft and giving his head to the slightest pressure. I don’t want him on or, especially, behind the vertical. There are a couple more videos from this ride, I split them up to keep them short and sweet, in one of the others he keeps wanting to go behind the bit. I spend lots of time pushing him to go forward and keep moving to avoid that. I am trying to stay out of his mouth as much as possible while still offering guidance and support. And he is spending most of his time nicely rounded. I love it.

I need to get this written down while the epiphany is fresh. It’s amazing how sometimes you hear the same thing, again or in a different way and it becomes clear. Or seems clear. Sometimes what I think is an epiphany becomes as clear as mud when I try to put it into practice. This, though, I really think is quite clear and simple, I simply need to pay attention and do it.

Back chaining or building a behavior chain is something I hear and read about all the time with clicker training. Breaking an action down into its individual and very small pieces and concentrating on each one separately instead of lumping an action into one big, and confusing, movement.

We are working, loosely, on stops followed by a roll back. We aren’t drilling on it, but I try to do a couple every time I ride. I always feel like I’m all over the place so I have a few set things that we cover consistently. Right now it’s stopping, roll back, trot departure, turns on each quarter, trotting poles, and trotting circles. Other things get added and basic steering is built in, plus, when able I try to build up little trips out of our arena. Slowly building courage, for both of us 😉

The roll backs are coming pretty good. Sometimes the stop is sloppy. Sometimes the turns lack momentum or are around the middle. It’s what we are doing anyway but I need to put more thought into each piece. Instead of randomly treating I need to get one piece down and then add the next step. So I guess we need to perfect our stop. Make sure that each time he is offering the same response. I exhale, say whoa, and sit. In response he should drop his hindquarters and stop, fully and completely. If I then continue to sit and hold onto him with my legs he should go into a back. We have both of these for the most part. Sometimes his stop is slow, he wants to keep going. His back is often crooked, that can be fixed once I have more control of his hind quarters. I will keep clicking and rewarding after each one.

Once that is down and easy for him we can start again on the roll backs. Ask him to give his head around nearly to my knee on the side we are turning to. Open up that rein so he can “go through that door”, apply outside leg and rein asking him to go through the door. I suppose at this point I will reward him for and after the turn. Need to make sure he is turning on the hind quarters not around the middle. Once that is good we will move onto the next step.

The next step is to launch out of the turn with speed and power. Eventually I will want him to go straight into a canter, for now a walk then trot is good. By this point he will no longer be rewarded for the stop or the turn, unless we are going back and reinforcing them. His click will come after he has performed all the steps in the chain, stop turn, and go. In the beginning it will be a take off, click, slam on the breaks and get reward, but as he understands and get the maneuver down the treats will fade out and we can continue to lope, or trot 😉

In clicker training the act of setting a goal and writing down the goal and your plan on how to reach the goal is strongly emphasized. I don’t usually do it. This is my plan, my goal, it is nice to have it thought out and written down, it helps to clarify and think through the actions needed to accomplish said goal. Now to see if we can reach it.

Which ever Rusty happens to show up for the day.

He is such a conundrum. Flighty and reactive. Scared of nothing, a big puppy dog. Heavy on my aids, so light and responsive it scares me. That horse is going to drive me insane, sometimes from the shear joy of riding him. When he is good he’s so good. A shift of my weight send him off in what ever direction I think about going. An exhale causes him to slam on the brakes. I can feel him move beneath me more clearly than any other horse ever has. His gaits are spectacular and since I have finally learned to stop trying to get a horse on the bit and instead ride them forward working from behind, he carries himself so round and straight. Most of the time.

This time I recorded our ride. It didn’t cause total failure but our ride wasn’t as good as the ones before. I could tell from the ground that he wasn’t with me, I got on anyway. He didn’t do any of the very unpleasant things he had been doing for awhile there, he just wasn’t all there. He was fidgety with the bit, lots of mouthing and head movement. He wanted to fall into his circles. Mostly to the right, or we may never have made it to the left, he dropped his shoulder in and stuck his head out to the outside. I was working hard to get him straight, asking for a slight leg yield to the outside. It doesn’t look pretty, I was hoping to get his prettyness on video.

I did get a little bit of the thing that has been thrilling me the most lately. I laid out some ground poles for the girls and their “riding lessons” or for them to play on. That is mostly what they do. Who would have thought that jumping tiny cross rails would make for great riding lessons for girls who want to play at rodeo.

Anyway. I’ve been trotting him over the ground rails. I never noticed anything spectacular with horses before. Or maybe I never did it before. This time I seem to have gotten the spacing correct, except for one, and he is doing everything that is hoped for when trotting poles. The lift to his back is breath taking. He rounds up, extends his stride, and reaches over the poles. I don’t always do the best job sitting it, in the video I flop around like a fish, but it is so incredibly fun to ride.

The point of the video is the first little bit of him trotting the poles. The rest is mostly just admiring how gorgeous he is. When did my ugly little duckling get so big, and beautiful, and Morgany? He used to look like a scrawny ugly little thing with a neck far more quarter horse than Morgan. He grew up!