Rescuing Rusty

When you’re on a roll it’s best to keep going. Things fell into place perfectly for once. The youngest child sleeping, the oldest off playing with the cousins and my husband willing to take a quick break from the part he was fabricating to come help me. He is not a horse person, strongly preferring his Japanese horses, but is always great help when I need him.

I had some doubts about the wisdom of trying to day, Rusty was fidgety. Not doing anything bad really just very fidgety, looking at everything, mouth going constantly, chewing and lipping. He’s the mouthiest horse I’ve ever seen, I blame it on the swirl on his jaw personally, I think with many people biting would be a big issue. So when he’s mouthier than usual it’s difficult. He was acting like maybe another cap was coming off a tooth. But we went ahead with it anyway.

Same routine, mount from the gate then out around the “arena”.  We went longer this time, back and forth with work on whoa and turning the hind quarters again. He doesn’t seem to grasp the go cue yet, having someone leading helps a lot. Asked him to turn on his hind quarters for the first time today, he did pretty good. Not great but he seems to have a little trouble transferring cues from the ground to his back.

We clicked him and rewarded him the whole time. I love that I don’t hesitate to lean clear down over his shoulder to give him a treat and far from being worried about me squirming around on his back he’s worried about getting his treat fast enough. His lips flap and his teeth nash as he reaches desperately for his cookie. I try to aim for that toothless spot where the bit rides, hope to keep my fingers that way.

All in all it’s going nicely so far. He hasn’t offered any bad behaviors yet. I keep reminding myself that he’s a colt, hold on be careful. That’s kind of a good thing for me, I’m usually so worried about all the bad things that could happen that I don’t ride as well as I should. Hopefully we can keep going as good as we have so far.

And he was great. Tanna was great, Everything went great.

The wind was howling and the temp had gone from very comfortable all morning to nearly one hundred. It is still bone dry so the dust was kicking up everywhere. We brought him in and saddled him, worked on a couple of little things that he has well down to get him paying attention and led him out to the pen we were using.

No round penning or working him until he was paying attention (read dripping sweat and too tired to do anything) just a few cookies and simple cues and he was ready to go. I’m really liking this clicker training. Tanna held his head and I got on off the fence, just like always. She led him forward, I clucked and squeezed and we walked in a nice circle then dismounted at the fence.

I am firmly not a believer in working them into a lather on the first ride. Why not make it fun and easy? But I wanted to do so much more than that little circle. I restrained myself for the most part but with lots of rewards and encouragement I got on again and we walked, were led I should say, to the middle of the “arena”. I asked him to yield his hindquarters both ways then got off on the ground. He gave easily to the softest touch and stood perfectly still for the dismount.

I thought we should stop there he was being so good. But I wanted to ride him so much more than that so I constrained myself to one more little ride. A nice sized circle and giving to the reins both directions then dismount on the other side. And that was it. He took the whole thing like a pro and I can barely wait to do it again!

I really wanted to write this whole thing with exclamation points, notice how restrained I am? Of course there are no pictures, we were a little busy with other things. There is also absolutely no place to set the camera for video. I really wanted to get his first ride on film. From the one place there is to prop my phone here is the little bit of video it was able to catch. Don’t even bother watching after the first few seconds there is no more. Oh, and like my Hellhat? 😉

I sure hope so. Tanna has come out a couple of times this week and ridden and helped me work Rusty. Yesterday was a bit of a rushed lesson for everybody but today I actually got a saddle on Rusty! It’s very exciting and rather rare. He did great, couldn’t care less. We went over giving to pressure, leg and bit, sacked him out a little, played some fetch and sat on him.

I climbed on off of the gate like usual then as a rehearsal for next time Tanna lead him forward a few steps. We clicked him, gave him a treat and repeated. Then unfortunately we were at the end of the gate.

He feels ready. Has felt ready for a while now. Except for the last time I was going to get on and he went a little insane. But maybe tomorrow he will stay sane and still feel ready. Maybe we will really do it, finally. Wish us luck!

Took Rusty for his first walk behind the fourwheeler yesterday. My old boy Coyote thinks he is a fourwheeler and will get upset about his “herd” leaving if they take off without him. Not being scared of fourwheelers is a great asset in our mixed herd. I would hate to get dumped because one came up behind us, better to get them very used to them from the beginning.

He was grazing the yard and I had an offer of a ride to put him away instead of walking all the way across the yard to get him. It’s a long walk 😉

He never hesitated. I clicked him and gave treats most of the way and he was happy to follow. The video was hard to get, he was, as usual, right on top of us and by the time I got the camera out we were to the gate. But there is a fourwheeler involved you can hear it if not see it.

Totally unconcerned

I keep saying what fun it’s going to be someday to teach Rusty to work cattle for real. Then I thought why wait for someday. Why not teach him to cut without riding him? Not sure it’s going to work but theoretically working a cutting dummy, or even plain old cutting is just targeting isn’t it?

My, or at least one of my, biggest problems is keeping my horses out of my space. Perfect match for a horse who has no respect for personal space and runs people over right? Not to mention that Morgans generally like to be right with you (on top of you) anyway. Those people who’s horses go away from them to do great things amaze and awe me. Because I don’t know how to manage that I decided to break it down as far as possible into something I could figure out. To heck with the horse being able to understand, first I need to be able to understand.

So I put him behind a gate. Seemed like the easiest way to keep him off of me. I stood on one side with my target, tennis ball on the end of a curtain rod, and put him on the other side farthest from the other horses. Then I played cow. I’m used to doing that, we do it with Tanna and Coyote all the time. People make the best training cow. We know what we want, can move nice and slow for a baby horse and give the turns and stops that are needed. Working real cattle with a baby horse is great, if you have the perfect set up and unlimited fresh cattle to work. We all have that, right?

I was able to play with him for a couple of brief work outs. The flies are driving him crazy, need to dig out the fly spray and work on that before anything else I guess. Other than that little problem he did pretty good. We worked back and forth a couple of times, I held the target low so it would be more like a calf. He worked pretty good off his hind quarters and turned nice.

My end goal is to be able to open the gate and do the same thing. Then play cow in the arena with him and have him work me while he’s loose. Kind of lofty goals but if we can manage that transferring it to a cutting dummy, then to cattle with me on his back should be easy enough.

It’s hot out. Not to whine or anything. But I did it, I got out and worked him.

We did some easy ground work and he was sweating. I was too of course. I had about half an hour and wanted to squeeze everything in. It was too much of course. We were discombobulated and scattered everywhere. I need to slow down and concentrate on one thing at a time, I have a hard time with that when I am only able to work with him once in awhile. Need to remember, make haste slowly and quality over quantity.

That being said, just because I start out with one goal in mind I don’t see any reason not to change goals mid stride if an unexpected opportunity arises. Like if we are chasing cows and a big scary tank suddenly pops up in our path.

We are accomplishing, or have accomplished, goals I set this spring. I thought it would be fun to have a horse who ran up and stuck his head in the bridle. He mostly has that down. So hard to take the bit when it would be much more fun to chew on the chin strap. I would like to use a leather bit, especially since he likes it so much, but mostly because I really really want an Indian bridle. have heard them referred to as war bridles but have also seen that meaning a rope twisted around the head to make a bridle/halter. Those are harsh and nasty. I just want the leather looped around the bottom jaw that is the bit and bridle all rolled into one.

Until then here is our bridling. He walks up and sticks his head in, needs some refinement. But he also hasn’t had a bridle on for a good month.

I believe I may have mentioned once or twice that I really want to get on this horse! While some things, like maybe saddling, would definitely help me work towards that goal, they are simply too much work and too time consuming, especially for the quick little work out we did today. So we find other things to amuse us.

With riding as the eventual goal it only seems right that we spend some time, riding.

Spring came and with it all the spring works. Corn needed planted, calves worked, cattle shipped to pasture and the garden put in. Rusty got put on the back burner. He got worked a couple of times, along with Coyote. But writing about it was simply too time consuming. So I will try to catch up a little.

I’ve led him to and from his pen to let him graze in the yard. We work on him coming when called and try to throw in a few feet picking upings.

Tanna came over one time and rode Coyote. They worked on leg yields, riding with leg cues and cutting. I got to play cow she figured out how to get Coyote to work a cow properly with only legs and seat. We had fun. Once I was wore out I grabbed Rusty and we went for a walk. She rode most of the way without reins and we played leap frog. One horse waits while the other passes then stands while the other passes. Sounds easy but is a little more difficult than that and is a great game for green horses.

Of course when I tried to get a video Rusty tried to run me over then stepped on my foot.

Rusty got to go to the vet. He had his teeth checked got his shots and a general looking over. He may never be welcome back, he tried to dig a well while we were waiting. But his teeth looked good and one of the baby caps fell off in the process.

I was watching a video today of a lady playing catch with her horse and started to wonder what in the world I was doing watching a video instead of doing. So I grabbed Rusty and we played.

I wanted to check on a calf anyway so we walked out through the pen. I had planned to work on fetching and targeting. Instead we worked on, targeting still I guess, but with a big scary tank instead of a ball, and rudimentary cattle chasing.

Then when we got back to the house we did have a quick once over on fetching. I can’t wait to get on this horse. I need to get back in the habit of getting out and working him. The house doesn’t really need to be cleaned and lawn mowing is bad for the environment anyway.

Or my other double swirl horse.

I know this blog is supposed to be about Rusty but I can’t not mention my favorite little rescue horse ever.

He was an ugly little two year old sold at auction. The reserve his owners meant to apply to the well bred group forgotten along the way somewhere. The two siblings he came with brought way more money. He was plain and scrawny and sold for a couple hundred to a man we knew only by his bad reputation. My mom, there only to watch and in no way looking for a horse, sent my brother to find the owner and make an offer. Their neighbor, my former dressage instructor, had bought one sibling and hauled the new horse home. Mom has been rescuing horses since long before it was cool.

Mom named him Coyote, after the souix stories and true to his name he spent his time at his new home trying to kill himself with many stitches and visits from the vet then was sent out to me for training. I never sent him back and my loving mother let me have him.

He’s saved my butt so many times I lost count. He’s moved cattle to shelter in blizzards, with the snow blowing so thick I couldn’t see a thing. He stopped to gather calves I missed in the blinding white. He’s drug calves at brandings, he’s shown and done very well in ranch horse classes against good competition, he’s told me he doesn’t like to show just leave him alone and let him chase cows. He will happily work cattle all day with scarcely a touch of the reins but I got on him once without anything on his head and got off again immediately, once he finally came to a stop. There was the time the angry mama cow ran under his belly, he reared, striking at her as she charged him. She went right under, he bit at her as she came and he was biting the other side as she ran out. He tried to kill me, crow hopping down a tall, steep hill with no way for me to escape. He stayed upright as we galloped across ice and mud as slick as grease to turn the herd, never even slipping.

He responds to the lightest touch, leaping to obey, sometimes. He has strong opinions and lets them be known, especially if  my request goes against them. He thinks for himself what would be best for us to do and often comes up with ideas on his own. He taught me my first “trick”, when he decided on the right way to get a calf up and moving. I often call him my big red heeler as he drops his nose to the ground and scoots some slow moving calf along with his nose. He carried me safely while I was pregnant and gave my children their first rides.

He’s getting some age on him now, his hocks are a bit stiff, though other than that he doesn’t let it show. He’s still hot and a little crazy and so much fun to ride, even if most of the time we ride around the yard bareback in a halter. I can’t believe it’s been sixteen years now, he’s nearly twenty. Where did the years go? I will never be able to replace him, no other horse will be so trustworthy and so completely crazy all rolled into one. He’s my Yoder and I hope he makes it to forty.

We’ve been going for walks our last couple of sessions. Everybody, but me, has been sick and dragging a saddle out is just more work than I can handle. So I put on his bridle, instead of a halter because, sadly, I want him to get used to being bumped in the mouth. Honestly I’m not the best rider and I know it will happen. We wander through the yard looking for scary things to check out.

He does pretty good especially if food is involved.