Rescuing Rusty

I shared my delight and confusion when Rusty came at a gallop in front of an audience when I called him last week. Or sometime. Today he acted in a manner that was much more like I would have expected.

We went for a walk. A short little jaunt down the driveway far enough for us to practice our cutting a bit. Then right back into the yard, in behind the wind break. My fingers were getting numb, it was cold out in the wind.

The father in law had been doing something with a semi. I could hear a four- wheeler running on the other side of the shop as we approached and the sound of voices. Rusty heard too of course. His head got higher as we got closer, his ears pricked and his step got higher. He started to prance then trot, of course I didn’t have anything on him. Finally he took off, ran down to the other end of the horses pen to where the cows come up for feed. The other two boinged across the pen like deer, everybody’s tails up over their backs. With lots of snorting they stopped and looked around.

As the guys watched him leave the father in law turned to me and said “bucked of huh?” I gritted my teeth, thinking stupid dang horse. Walking on down towards the horses Rusty turned and watched as I came. As soon as I got out of sight of the laughing men Rusty turned and ran at me in a flat out gallop. As a precaution I moved out of the slightly icy road into the snow covered grass. Sure enough, he got to me, slammed on the brakes and feet went sliding in all directions.

I could still hear voices, as the guys stood talking unaware that my horse had come running back to me better than any puppy dog. They were left to think I am a silly girl who’s horse ran away. Any normal person would have had a halter on their horse. Well I have news for them, I’ve never been normal! (Of course they probably never gave it another thought and it’s just my insecurity putting these thought upon them)

Rusty made it here, to us just about a year ago. He was scrawny and kind of ugly. Poor baby Morgans, it’s just not a pretty stage, those teenage years. I liked his breeding but, well, he didn’t look the way I like my horses to look. And with those bad manners, I was not sure he was a horse I wanted to keep permanently.

February ’16

He shed most of his winter coat. Training was coming along alright. He was a likable little guy. But still wasn’t gaining any ground conformation wise. I had to put my thickest saddle pad on him and still the cinch had to be on the smallest hole. My saddle, made to fit big, wide coyote did not fit him well. And that neck. I wasn’t sure that they were right about the breed, it was definitely more of a quarter horse neck than Morgan.

March ’16

At some point this last fall, before I gave up on riding him for the time being, I noticed that I had to let the cinch down a few holes. Then, later, looking at saddle fit, I traded out the big thick saddle pads for my usual pad I use on Coyote. He looked the same to me, but when you look at someone so much it’s hard to tell when they’ve changed. I have started to think that he’s really gotten pretty. He’s getting so wide and his neck is developing some nice muscling.

January ’17

It’s so fun watching baby horses grow up. His back no longer looks too long and weak through the loins. His hindquarters have filled out. His front end has grown, no more downhill. The V with the withers at the low point is gone. He’s maturing into a very nicely built boy.

Like most Morgans, he’s still hard to get a picture of. He would rather be right in your face.

I remember when Coyote was a baby, at this age. He was the ugliest little horse ever. Maybe a foot wide and look at him now. Built like a tank.

We got a nice snow yesterday. Not a blizzard, we lacked the usual wind, this was a few good inches of moderately wet snow that fell straight down. Today I got back to working Rusty.

When I brought him out we had to skirt around all the various children sledding. I stopped and he stared, but didn’t spook too bad as they shot down the hill behind him. We worked in the general vicinity for awhile, keeping an eye on the children. They didn’t kill themselves in that amount of time so I figured they were probably fine and we wondered farther away.

Unfortunately in our wanders we came across my sister in law shoveling the in laws sidewalk. I started to go on past but felt too guilty and went to help. I gave Rusty the all done cue then left him to hang out while I helped with the last little bit of shoveling. He walked around the in laws yard for a bit. I warned him he better not poop, we’d both be dead meat. The dogs and chickens upset them when they go in the yard, I can only imagine their upset about a horse.

He got bored with that and left. I looked up occasionally to watch where he was going. He came to a stop way down at the cows feed bunks where a few lagers were cleaning up the mornings feed. The sidewalk cleared I started to walk down towards him. My sister in law asked if he would come if I whistled. I assured her he would not but called him anyway in hopes he might start my way.

He looked up from the feed in the bunk, ears pricked, and stood looking for a moment. Then he took a couple of steps my way. The steps became a trot, then he took off running. At a gallop he came up the driveway, a good ways away maybe a couple hundred yards. All the way to me where he stopped and wallowed in my lavish praise, and lots of food.

Usually if my horses are going to do something in front of an audience it’s going to be bucking me off or ignoring my requests. I don’t think there’s anything better a horse can do for their person than exceed expectations. What a good boy.

I have been on a bit of a videoing spree lately. Most of them are too long to post here so they are on facebook. The link to his page there is >here< if you want to see them. Some of them are kind of good, the rest are more like this 😉

I propped my phone on the ground, up against a post, with my glove underneath to keep it out of the dirt and got some great video of a blade of grass. There’s a little of Rusty doing some very nice cow work too, but mostly a weed. Oh well it’s hard to judge what will be in the frame while trying to get the phone set up with Rusty looking, and nudging, impatiently over my shoulder.

I always give him, and any other horse I do this with, a get ready to start playing cow cue. It’s much harder to watch yourself do on video. I look like a crazy person. Rusty was really into it though, I love the little hops he threw in. It is still mostly simple back and forths, asking for a little speed in and out of turns but in the end I like to add a, very, little bit more technical stuff in.

And to finish, the I’m not a cow anymore, no more chasing me cue. It’s the same as my “done working, there will be no more treats cue, I really need to come up with something different for one of them. He was a very good boy and I need to try for more, better video.

A year ago, when Rusty first got here, we started his training by going for long walks down our driveway. He bounced and pulled at the lead, or tried to run me over, depending on his mood. I often dispared of getting anywhere with the rotten, disrespectful pony.

Now here we are, right back where we were. There are a few differences. He has a halter on but I never touch it. It’s a safety since we are going out a ways, just in case I need to get a hold of him. And he is no longer running over me, I like that part. Now instead of our work concentrating on manners we are working on Spanish walk, trotting along with me and tucking his nose. I like it out there with all the distractions.

Today I hopped over the electric fence that runs down both sides of the road and we played cow. Out there amid the cows 😉 The fence was nice for a barrier, much less of one than the big fence in their corral. I was so proud of him! We’ve been working on trotting in and out of our corners and he started trotting along side me as soon as I walked off. He still turned the wrong way on his first turn to the right, away from me instead of facing, other than that he was really getting down and moving properly! We quit after two turns each way with big rewards and lots of praise. Hopefully we can go do it again tomorrow.

When we joined Hippologic’s course on setting, and achieving, goals with our horses I set our goal as Figuring out Spanish walk. I can’t say we have it mastered, not by a long shot, but we are much better than we were! He is offering many steps in a row, someday we will transfer it to his back. Someday when I’m back to riding and can figure out how to transfer it.

For now we set a new short term goal. Ever since I saw Alexandra Kurland’s video of her horse doing a beautiful collected trot with nothing on him and never having had a bit in his mouth, I have been dreaming. I want my horse to do that. So we are starting, small. At a stand still Rusty is happily tucking his nose to his chest. I have to watch our form, we definitely don’t want an over bent, nose to chest sort of carriage. Nicely rounded would suffice. I would hate to accidentally teach a bad habit.

Now we are working on holing his nose tucked a few seconds at a time and adding walking. He is happy doing this with me on his right side but quite stressed when I walk on his left. That’s interesting because I started working more on the right side because he was only comfortable with being worked from the left side. Difficult horse.

Our longer term goal, learning to be a cutting horse, is coming along nicely. I think. I’ve done some cutting, years ago, but have never trained specifically for cutting so I’m not sure where exactly we should be, if we were training traditionally.

He has been tracking me nicely for awhile now. We stuck with it to make sure he had the idea down. Now we are starting to add speed. First we worked on trotting out of turns. He is willing if not enthusiastic. Now I am asking him to trot into the turn as well as out of it. The first time he gave it to me we stopped there, rewarded generously and went on to easier things. Today we practiced it a couple of times each way. Coming back away from the other horses, turning to the right, he kept wanting to turn away from me. When he finally gave me a good turn we did just one more and stopped.

I hope to move on to using posts, laid on the ground or on cement blocks to start, instead of the fence as a barricade to keep him back from me. Unfortunately, all the posts are froze solid to the ground right now. That may just have to wait for spring.

Has anybody else noticed that the really hard things seldom look impressive. The easy, flashy looking things people ooh and awe over like the dancing horses, tied and beaten until they dance impressively, or as that should be, prance nervously. At the horse fairs knowledgeable people think they look so cool while barely glancing at the meticulously and, for our example here at least, kindly trained upper level dressage horses. That wasn’t where I really meant to go with that but it is something that bothers me 😉

I trimmed Rusty’s feet today! For me that falls under the not impressive looking but hard category. How did I ever do it back when I’d go out and trim four or more horses at a time. It did nearly kill me physically but that still isn’t what I mean.

I neglect to work with his feet.

I know people who pick out their horses feet every day, or every time they see them if nothing else, will be horrified by that. I leave them be most of the time. They live out with plenty of room to roam and well drained soil, they’re not standing in muck. I prefer saying that we go all natural over any claim to neglect.

I work down around his legs regularly, bowing, Spanish walk and such, they have a close eye kept on them. So when I noticed it was time for a trim I started working on getting him to let me hold his legs up. We worked on this, he’s had his hooves trimmed before. Lately though me picking up a hoof meant bow, that needed to be untrained. Or retrained? Or possibly just reinforced that they are separate cues and lifting a foot can mean many different things not just bow and to pay attention to what I’m asking for.

The weather has warmed up from near zero to the low forties, a regular heat wave. So of course I haven’t been able to get out and work him. The youngest child and I did get out for a ride on Coyote, first time I’ve been ON a horse in months. It was a great ride and those two are adorable together but I wanted to work Rusty! Trim his feet preferably.

Today I made it out. He looked around, walked around and we worked on other stuff a little. Then he came to his mat and standing there with nothing on his head, out of his pen for the first time in weeks he stood and let me trim most of his feet.

Not that he didn’t let me trim them all, just that I could not do it. My arms were quivering, the muscles in my hands turned to jelly, I gave up. We went and worked on other stuff a little then came back and finished that last hoof. I’m going to pay for it, and for sitting here typing. My forearm is cramping and sore. I’m such a wimp!

And that is my grand accomplishment. I trimmed my horses feet. Not at all impressive from the outside but for us, we did good.

Random horse picture, cause it needed something

I don’t have any pictures. It’s five degrees out and sprinkling snow, my phone doesn’t work well under those conditions. I do, for short periods, I went through the extra effort of putting my coveralls on and was so hot I ended up stripping my gloves off. For half an hour, or there abouts, I fed treats and got my bare hands slobbered over and they were toasty warm.

I sat and thought, for the last couple of days, about the root of the biting issue. We know it wasn’t rottenness, he wasn’t trying to be mean, he’s a horse. I’m all for anthropomorphism, but we need to be realistic about it. Does that seem like an oxymoron?  I don’t think so, horses share many of the same feelings and emotions of people. I have seen them plot revenge and morn a lost friend, so why not try to be mean? Well, I’m not buying it.

So I needed to look for a real cause of the problem. Lack of manners seems pretty obvious. He’s been improving but I’m not of the beat them into submission school, so we enjoy his personality, encourage good behavior and mostly ignore bad (unless it makes me really, really mad, then he gets a little more reaction) and for the most part he’s great. So we’ll put put that way at the bottom, the very base of the cause.

All the horses have been getting fed, it’s cold I think they can use a little extra. That extra and the perceived competition for feed has been causing him a good bit of anxiety. The other two were just across the fence, I walked by him and continued past, without him getting fed! He panicked, how could I do that to him! And he nipped.

So I decided on a plan. The other two went out the gate and I latched it, they each got a pile of feed. Inside the gate I immediately went to work with Rusty. No climbing the fence first, no making him think he was being ignored. I read over at The Clicker Center about how she taught her horse, Robin, to stand with his neck arched and Robin then transferred it to a beautiful collected trot at liberty. The video is well worth watching. It has been a goal ever since. So we worked on it first, got him well stuffed with treats.

Then I climbed the fence. I was watching him closely the whole time, he stood back and watched. The I played cow, he did alright. When we finished that we walked over to check their water, doing the Spanish walk most of the way, going four steps between clicking!! He is doing awesome! Then we worked on standing, quietly, four feet on the ground and neck arched. Sometimes I clicked him as soon as he took the treat I offered near his chest causing him to arch his neck to take the food. He was starting to catch on and tuck his nose nicely.

I escaped out the gate as the others rushed in, it gets a little hairy sometimes. Coyote is THE BOSS there is no questioning his authority. Any who dare are crushed. Even Onna rules over poor little Rusty. I am always in fear of being run over, not on purpose of course but I got spoiled having the boss horse for so long.

It was a great day and well made up for our difficulties the last time. Some days I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It was pretty nasty, freezing rain followed by wind driven snow and sub zero temps. The kind that gets the animals good and wet before freezing them. I got the barn opened up and led the horses in, a couple of times. I didn’t lock them in, there have been a few, three or four quite a lot for our sparsely populated area, fires in the last month and I couldn’t do it. They chose not to stay, preferring their wind break. Their choice and they were no worse for the storm even if they worried me sick.

As the snow recedes somewhat we have been finding poor little animals that didn’t make it through. A opossum in the horses corral, we didn’t think we had any around here it came as a surprise to find the poor guy. Felt even worse because of their scarcity, they are supposed to eat ticks by the pound and we do have plenty of those. My daughter found a little sparrow, she carried it around for awhile, playing. Slightly disturbing, she was wearing gloves and it was still frozen solid so other than the rather macabre pet choice I thought it was unlikely to do any other harm. After she got tired of it the cat took over, also disturbing.

The cattle were up behind the wind break with lots of feed and the chickens in their coop. The snow blew clean off of the fields it might have provided moisture to. It did make lots of fun snow drifts around the yard that the children are enjoying but mostly was a completely worthless snow storm leaving us as desperate for moisture as we were before.