Rescuing Rusty

Suddenly our little accomplishments are not quite so impressive.

Tanna came over to play! I was going to say that we seldom get to see her but she’s been here helping move cattle. Maybe it’s that she’s not here just to play very often. School and a fun busy life get in the way, sad for me happy for her.

She came to help move cattle this time too, a tiny little bunch of cattle a very little ways across the yard, with a fence made of a small portion of the father-in-laws semi and vehicle collection to run them between. Not much of a move really and very farmer style, of course it went smoothly, there was nowhere for them to go. As the men undertook the task of putting all those vehicles away we went off to play with the horses.

She brought her new saddle to try out on Onna, it has stirrups long enough for her to reach! and I hopped on Coyote without a saddle and we went for a nice little ride. Then she wanted to see Rusty bow and do his Spanish walk.

We brought him in and he was a little worked up still from being left alone. He didn’t run for his mat like usual, but did go stand on it once we all got there. We brushed some of the dried caked sweat off of his sides, being left alone is traumatizing. He was grabbing frantically at anything he could reach in the back of the pickup but was not interested in fetching his chicken. My daughter was helping too. She stood in the back of the pickup offering his target. He was watching it wave about occasionally touching it sometimes even getting the required reward. It was going to be a difficult day.

Not to mention that my great accomplishments of the week paled at the prospect of an audience. Overcoming hurtles in the privacy of our driveway all by ourselves suddenly seems like a baby step when people are watching. He waved each foot when asked while trying to run over me. Our audience was not impressed, I don’t think they knew we had done anything. He bowed nicely on each side. My daughter was disappointed that he didn’t put his legs behind him like she does with her hands.

We moved on to painting.

He was a painting fool. Splashing water all over the playhouse. I asked him to come do something different, he said no thank you he wanted to paint. So we decided to try it with…. paint!

It met with mixed success. We all got covered in paint, the playhouse even got a little. The paint was a big change and threw him a little. Back to the basics, again. Soon he was back to it and we all had a blast. As usual it was a family thing, at least today there was no child strapped to my back, made it a little easier. We had fun and maybe next time there will be some painting involved.

It’s those little things. And the little things come together and build the big things, but the little things are sometimes the big things.

I had been having a mental block. Spanish Walk was beyond me. Still is maybe, but I feel like we’ve made a big step in that direction. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how to get him to move his feet. I can get on and we can go, I can walk beside him and he follows. But moving in the careful, controlled, one leg at a time sort of way that the Spanish walk requires was beyond me.

Then I realized, all I had to do was ask him to move his feet. Sounds stupid doesn’t it. It’s not all that easy though. It isn’t the hardest thing we’ve done, bowing is physically more difficult. Mentally, for me, this is harder.

He’s been doing a simple bow forever, I stand beside him and put one leg forward. He puts the leg forward on the side I’m standing on. So we started with that but I wanted him to put the same leg forward as the one that I extend, both our right legs or both left. Not just the side I’m standing on, and I need to differentiate the cue.

First I made sure that, standing on his left side, I used my left lag to cue his simple bow. And Instead of placing it on the ground I stood balanced on my right leg with the left stuck out in front of me. Equine assisted yoga, I think is what we’re doing instead of training, that’s not easy.

After he spent some time putting his left leg forward with my left leg cue I stuck my right leg out. He put his left leg forward. It was what he has been trained to do, I wanted to untrain him. It baffled him not to get a click and a cookie for it. I reached across and tapped his right leg until he lifted it.  Then big reward. We spent a long time standing with my right leg stuck out. He started out barely moving that right leg, then started getting the idea. By the end of one session he was pawing enthusiastically right leg and left accordingly.

I’m so proud of him, changing the way he thought and picking up new things. And maybe, just maybe I’m proud of me for figuring out something so amazingly simple. It’s the little things in life.

And so it’s not all text, here’s some pictures of him painting.

I put 8 in his backpack, on my back of course, because he would not be put down and decided that since my hands were free I might as well work Rusty. We had just finished a nice little ride on good old Coyote and were generally enjoying a beautiful fall day. Coyote was grazing the drive around us when we brought Rusty in. He occasionally went to join Coyote but came back when called.

He has been offering a simple bow, begging for a treat. It’s better than pawing and maybe I can keep working on it and get him to offer each leg according to which leg I put forward. I can’t quite wrap my mind around the required steps for a Spanish walk. It is not as complicated as I make it in my head I’m sure and hopefully someday it will just click but for now it’s more than I can figure out. So we will work on easier things like learning to paint.

Of course when I’m not trying to film it goes smoother, and we will continue to work on perfecting his technique. He was picking the brush up and dropping it so I with held the click and after a few attempts he sat and thought about it. Then he picked up the brush and rubbed it all over the board. All by himself! He’s getting the hang of it fast. Smart little horse. Soon we will add paper and probably even paint but small steps.

We also have plenty of tries that look more like this:

Coyote and Rusty don’t get to graze the yard anymore. The cattle are coming home for winter and feed is being gathered. There are piles of ground hay and piles of DDG (dried distillers grain) that spilled when it was being augered into the grain bin. All kinds of things they shouldn’t get into. And Coyote found the open gate into the alfalfa field, he never forgets things like that. I tried turning him out by himself, hoping he would want to stay by the others. He immediately took off for the gate. I took off for a four wheeler and brought him back.

Rusty is a different story. I let him graze in our backyard when he is in to work and he gets a little more as a reward after and he’s not quite as smart as Coyote. It may be his youth, Coyote has had many years to perfect his rottenness. Instead of running for the gate Rusty meandered towards the other horses and hung out, very well behaved, until it was time to put him away.

I was getting out of the car with my lead rope handy as he came over to greet me when it occurred to me that the rope was probably superfluous. I sat back down and shut the door. He stuck his head in the window.

I was sick of being a responsible adult. I was tired of scraping and painting windows, sick of doing laundry and washing dishes and a little sick of a certain small child who has given up sleeping lately thus leaving me too tired to work with Rusty even when I had time. I ran away from it all and went to play with Rusty. He came running when I called him and he got a good thorough brushing. We hadn’t had a real work out in weeks.

As I got situated he grabbed his rubber chicken out of the back of the pickup and asked to play. Who can turn down someone that cute?

I hadn’t even noticed that Daisy was there. Poor girl, I should have given her a cookie.

After his warm up we got to work on other stuff. Even without doing much of anything for so long he hadn’t forgotten. We’ve been doing quick short sessions. I bring him in for a couple of minutes and we do a few bows. I decided we shouldn’t spend all of our time bowing so I added another trick. Because I had so much time to play with him why not add more?

Trying to avoid his feet the new trick involves his mouth. If we get better I will get some video, until then I guess it’s a secrete 😉

He is getting so good at bowing! On his right side especially. He was so fun to play with and doing everything I asked, I couldn’t think of anything else to do. So I got on.

I’m supposed to wear my helmet and check in before and after when I’m going to get on him. They are very reasonable and necessary precautions. I didn’t do either. I only wanted to get on for a minute, they would take longer than my ride. It’s no excuse, I have small children depending on me. But we survived. Rusty was excellent, stopping on an exhale and turning off my legs both ways. Then I slid off and we were done.

It felt good to be back.

Not with Rusty, I haven’t hardly had a chance to touch him for a couple of weeks now. I’ve been pushing hard to get some much needed work done to the house, between that and the children I haven’t had time for fun horse stuff.

Tanna came over and we got to move cattle on the other two horses though. It’s getting to be time to bring them all home from summer pasture. This bunch were a few miles away, across the highway. The guys rode fourwheelers over and we rode to meet them. They went on the north road, gathered the pasture and headed them back towards home on the south road. We road out the south road and met them to help get  the cattle across the highway, past the neighbors yard that they always like to play in.

Apparently today was opening day of pheasant season. Shot guns were a constant background noise as we rode. I wished I had left Daisy at home she is terrified of guns, even Coyote and Onna were flinching from the blasts. I worried about the ride over taxing my poor old Coyote, he’s nearly twenty and out of shape. They mostly plodded. All the way. Slowly. I was afraid we would be late to the highway.

We weren’t. We passed the highway and kept going down the dirt road. Still no cows. We were nearly to the pasture when we started to hear them. They finally topped the hill, the leaders at a run, the tail dragging and a line of hunters following behind.

As soon as we turned the horses they went insane. Especially Onna. She spun circles and scattered herself sideways. Tanna sat up there with no stirrups and rode her like a pro. But the cows moved nicely, they went right past the yard and crossed the highway without even seeing any cars. Onna settled down a little but it was still a mad rush down the lane towards home. My poor old horse managed to find plenty of energy for the ride once it was in a homewards direction. I was still worried about him but for different reasons. He lived as did Tanna and once home we got the calves worked then turned back out with their moms. And all in time for lunch.

I want to get this written down before I forget.

Rusty learns and responds much better from his right side. He picked up bowing, giving to pressure and a simple bow, simply by transferring it from what I taught him on the left side, much quicker and easier on the right. He still has trouble picking up his left front hoof and it was the first thing we started working on.

He has trouble turning to the right when ridden but I believe it is because the cue comes from my left leg?

He has a swirl on his left jaw bone, half way between his cheek and his mouth. Any swirls that are not matched perfectly on both sides always mean there is an imbalance somewhere in the horse. I have thought that the swirl was perhaps an indicator of his extreme mouthiness, and it may be, but it is also his only swirl that doesn’t match.

8 wanted to go for a ride. He makes his wishes known and I seldom have trouble deciphering his wants. Often they nearly give me a heart attack, but at least I know what he wants. And never to look away, even for one minute.

So we went for a ride. Rusty was already out so we let him follow, or not, as he wished. They had just been turned out on the fresh green grass for the morning so Rusty wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about following as he usually is. Not at first.

We made a lap around the yard, decided Rusty was probably going to stay back near Princess Onna and eat grass. So we went down the driveway, out between the fields, for a little longer ride. Rusty got worried as we passed the big house and the shop. He didn’t want to go that way, didn’t want us to either. He ran over and stood by Onna at the gate, calling. We looked back one last time as we passed the tree row where the fields opened p around us. He was still at the gate.

Over the slight hill and out of view we heard hoof beats thundering up behind. He had left grass and the company of another horse to come with us. I decided against proceeding any farther down the drive. 8 was trying to fall off peering back around me to see the neigh come. We went into the unplanted corner of the pivot instead.

Rusty galloped happily in circles around us. Making Coyote really mad, knowing the grouchy old boy could only do so much with riders on. I often wonder if Coyote waits until they are back in their pen and gets him really good. I wouldn’t blame him. Rusty cut close in front of him, then stopped to graze. He galloped up be hind and brushed against Coyotes rather large behind as he passed. But he didn’t even look at the corn.

I was sure to stay a healthy distance from the golden, rustling crop, but though he investigated in that direction a couple of times he never ventured far enough to take a bite. We made a couple of laps, until 8 started to squirm, then headed back.  Dismounting on our favorite flatbed trailer, we unhaltered and turned them loose to eat.

Rusty stopped and turned to look away from me as we were working the other day. I called him and tried to get his attention but couldn’t figure out what he was looking at.