Rescuing Rusty

The next time I caught him I had the sense to shut the gate before the other two could follow us out.

I lead him with no difficulties this time to the front. We zigzagged up the lane crossing the river flowing down the center again and again. He plodded right through. Up front I curried him until it occurred to me that now was the perfect time to put a bridle on. So I shut the gate and left him there while I went to get it. When I got back he was pacing the fence, upset as always to be left alone. He came to meet me half way despite his upset.

I slipped the bridle on without incident, he had no clue what was coming and is great with his head.  After that not so good. He didn’t have a fit but he was not happy and spent the rest of the time I worked with him trying to get that thing out of his mouth! I make a practice of not messing with bits the first time on, let them deal with figuring out how to hold it and put up with it before making it more of a nuisance.

I picked up his feet, asked him to yield a little, then decided we would try lunging again. Maybe not the best idea. Not that he was bad, exactly. The whole thing was a little upsetting. He wanted to go to the other horses, he doesn’t believe there is any reason not to walk over me when I am in his way and mostly he didn’t understand yet what I was asking.

We had worked on it a little the day before, in direct sight of the other two. They were standing at the gate watching. This time he couldn’t see them but knew that if he got to the gate he would be able to. So he wanted to the gate. Every circle he made on the far side of me from the gate he would drop his shoulder and try to push through me. All this at a walk, which doesn’t mean slow he is a Morgan, but it is icy and muddy and very slick here so nothing is with any speed. Fortunately he doesn’t have an ounce of mean in him just lack of understanding of personal space. Many times he could have smashed me or kicked my head off as I slipped around, but he doesn’t want to.

I found a good quitting place and worked more on moving his shoulder away. We zigzagged back through the lane and its river to do some work next to the other horses if that’s where he wants to be so bad. There are few things I want to do right now, or am able to do with this slick miserable weather, that can’t be done right in the middle of them, he can learn that they aren’t a safe place.

And a revelation.

I’ve been going out to visit him in the pasture, taking treats, brushing him giving scratches and a couple of times bringing a halter and playing with him as he gets settled in and rested from his long trip. We are great friends, he’s been very sweet and well behaved.

Today I managed to make it out to see him without any children. Yay! It was the first time this week what with sickness and the usual busyness.

He came half way across their pen to meet me. Lowered his head nicely to be haltered and receive a good scratch in greeting. The other two were looking our way as we turned to head up towards the barn.  The place is laid out to run cattle, lots of lanes, pens and gates. As we got onto the lane that leads to the barn they decided to join us. They didn’t come running up behind or try to chase him. Everybody is getting along very well. They just followed at a slowly diminishing distance.

He came unglued.

His swirls say he should have another side to his personality but other than being very upset when he first got here he’s been docile and compliant. Now he was bouncing off the end of the lead rope on each side and not noticing that I was in the middle as he ran through. He did circles around me as I cussed the other two and tried to get them to scat! They looked at me blankly, dumbfounded that I wouldn’t want their help. We finally got to a gate I could close to keep them out. They stood wanting in and I attempted to regain Rusty’s brain.

With a few reminders he remembered that I had space of my own that he guessed he should maybe stay out of. We worked on lunging, mostly moving his shoulder away from me. I don’t know that he knew what I was asking but he was willing and did a pretty good circle. Gave whoa a go. He had no clue.

Then we worked on giving hindquarters and forequarters. He gives the hind great but the idea of moving out of someones space is beyond his comprehension. He drops he head very nicely when asked, for haltering and someday soon bridling I hope. He picks up his front feet great, fortunately as bad as he is needing trimmed. I picked up one hind foot today and he had no clue. He let me have it but went in circles looking at me wanting to know what I was doing.

He’s a big puppy dog who needs to learn some manners.

Well one of them anyway.

When I go to buy a horse the first things I look at are head shape and placement of whorls.  In my experience with my own horses and way back when I was starting colts I have found that whorls and head shape are great indicators of personality. This isn’t completely hair brained. Various grates including Temple Grandon have studied it and apparently it holds true with dogs, cattle and even children. I’m going to have to look into that a little more.

Lets take a look at Rusty. The most obvious are his swirls. Two, high, side by side. They worried my when I first saw them, I’ve had horses with side by side that I did not get along with, as opposed to my ponies stacked swirls that I love. But everything else about him looks good and they are not necessarily a bad thing “This type of double whorl seems to give the ability to hyper focus. These horses are challenging and gritty, like most double whorl horses, but the ability to hyper focus and not back down from a challenge can be an asset in professional hands.”  I like the sound of that. On closer inspection though he has three more whorls one at the base of each ear and one just below his forelock right in the center. What do they signify? I don’t know. I did find one place that says they mean “greater intelligence and a more reactive nature” That sounds interesting to me at least. so far he is sounding like a very interesting somewhat complicated horse.

He has great swirls just behind his ears that should mean that that is where he will bend best through his neck. Judging by his beautifully developed neck I’ll go with that.

So on to his profile.

Am I the only one who sees a hint of a dish there? I think he has a very slight dish and a slight moose nose. I love this one, “uncommon intelligence and confidence”. Who wouldn’t like that. Of course smart horses are the hardest it seems. If that dish is my imagination he may simply be sensitive and bold.

His jowls, medium maybe? I wouldn’t say large. That just means average, nothing either way really.

I would call his muzzle refined and soft. So more sensitivity there.

His mouth, medium to long. So average to sensitive and intelligent. Linda Tellington-Jones is careful to point out that intelligent horses are easily bored and look for ways to amuse themselves when not kept interested and are often labeled difficult.

From the front, an angle that is amazingly hard to get by the way.

His chin, nostrils and upper lip say calm, interested and again clever.

Eyes, here’s a hard part for me. Large eyes is such a subjective thing to look for. But pig eyes are easy enough to spot so I guess that’s one place to measure from. I’m going to go with medium sized, so again average but soft and kind. Not overly wide between, which would signify intelligence, but not narrow either, slow learner,  especially in comparison to his muzzle. So I’ll go with average.

He has such nice ears. Broad and finely shaped, steady and reliable. But maybe a little on the hot side, so lots of go not surprising in a Morgan.

All in all I would say a horse with an intelligent nature, mostly steady with enough good points to offset those two swirls. But the swirls ought to keep things interesting. Not for a beginner, but if someone likes a horse that has a mind of his own, he could be lots of fun.

I went out to get the pictures for this and realized why it is so hard to get people to send good pictures when horse shopping. Most of them looked like this.

I’m thinking about it.

I don’t have much experience, tried a little with Never but that’s been a couple years. So I dug my book out. I was in the library digging through books I haven’t looked at for awhile. I dug past my favorites, Deb Bennets Conformation Analysis, Horse Coat Color Explained and there underneath were the ones I was looking for: Clicker Training for Your Horse and Getting in TTouch, but that one is another subject altogether.

I keep reading interesting things about clicker training,  Bad Eventer  was saved from a bad wreck with one little click and Terrorized Trail Guide used it. Alright that’s only two places but it is intriguing. Hopefully we will start playing with it soon. Then again who knows, they have someone interested in him. Maybe he’ll be gone before we start to really work on anything.

In the meantime he’s settled in nicely. He comes to meet me, or us depending om how many children I am toting along, when we go out to see him, I have picked up both front feet, he really needs a trim, and worked on yielding the hind quarters and fore quarters away from pressure. He seems to be willing and mostly quiet, even when kitty twines herself around his legs. Shocked and somewhat horrified, but quiet. I can see the pushyness that was originally reported about him when he sees something interesting or simply wants to be on the other side of me. He just goes, my presence doesn’t bother him at all.

Hence starting work with teaching him to move out of my way.

I went out last night to check on him one last time. He was pacing the fence, of course, and came to meet me. The flash light didn’t phase him at all. And he ran towards the scary hay carrying monster again.

The next morning I was glad to see he was still alive. Still running the fenceline and still not going to his feed. He was friendly and came to meet me though. We had fog and hoar frost and the horses were nicely tipped in white. I had planned to keep him well away from the other two for a few days. I know he had been quarantined after he got picked up from the sale but he had been at another barn, with horses I assume, and had come so far, I wanted to be careful. But he was having such a fit by himself I was worried for him. We let the other two out so they could get to know each other over the fence.

They meandered slowly down to him and snorted and squealed over the fence a little. There was no drama. I decided they were in no way threatened by this scrawny new baby horse. Then they left back to their hay and he resumed his frantic pacing.

So I went against all usual horse introducing rules and turned them all in together.

Coyote, true to his normal rotten self, was a jerk. But it went well I think. Everybody survived without injury. I put hay out in many different places and he had no problem finding feed he could get to. And now that he could get to the other horses he was fine being away from them.

I read once on The Terrorized Trail Guide that when she brought a horse home from the sale barn instead of leaving them to settle in she went out many times through the day to visit them and offer comfort and friendship in those first stressful days. So I’ve been trying it. I go out as often as I can and offer a cookie, a curry or just a friendly scratch.

He’s started to come to meet me when I go out.

Up our way the weather was clear. Roads were fine. They finally made it mid afternoon. I had kept the children up from their naps to meet the new horse, and to play outside in the beautiful weather. Right on time, google maps, GPS what ever, are great, they pulled into the yard. I was a bit surprised at the state of the pickup and to see a horses head sticking out the back of the trailer.

My horses immediately began the required screaming in greeting and he returned their calls heartily. But the female half of the hauling pair climbed right into the trailer with him. He unloaded nicely if enthusiastically running circles around her and wanting to go to the other horses. I was leading one child and carrying another so I asked her to lead him to his pen. His butt swung side to side as we wadded through the deep snow to the gate but he never really tried to pull lose.

The male half of the pair followed quietly, big and lumbering he was obviously along to help drive, not a horse person.

In his pen Rusty allowed her to pull the blanket off over his head with no interest or concern. He then proceeded to run the fenceline calling for those other horses he could see. We went back to the house. I invited the crew in for a drink and they accepted. We sat at the table and I got him coffee hoping to hear about the trip. They settled in, seemingly for the long haul and proceeded to tell me about their horse hauling escapades. Apparently they breakdown a lot. And are often late for pick ups, after which they can’t understand why the people cancel. Once they lost a wheel on the trailer, not a tire the entire wheel. They thought it best not to cross the mountain pass loaded on only three wheels so they got it fixed.

I was glad to hear that.

As my children nearly fell asleep at the table we sat and talked. They were headed to Rapid City next for a pick up and from there to Arizona via Oklahoma. All this in an old ford, late eighties I think? I was amazed and impressed. But mostly wanted to get the kids to bed. I had meant to offer them cookies but forgot I’m afraid.

As soon as I could I got back out there to play with him. He was busy having a fit and was not interested in me. H was willing to take a cookie from my hand and let me put a halter on him without fuss. I lead him through knee deep snow to the waterer. He was spooking and looking around as he followed me and I expected at any minute to be stepped on. There was no way I could get out of the way I was barely managing to walk in the high crusty snow. The waterer was terrifying. He sat back on his haunches then shied back and forth. Never though did he pull on the lead. I stood by the water and splashed my hand in it and he slowly inched up to it then drank greedily with legs as far back as he could keep them and neck extended.

Next we waded to the hay bale. he tore into it as I stood scratching his neck. I figured I would leave him to it and pulled the halter. As I turned to go He lunged after me and I thought he was going to smash me. I keep remembering that his original evaluation said he was very pushy. But no he rushed around me anxious to get back to that fenceline. Plus the hay is next to the bull pen. I don’t believe he has ever seen cattle. They are both fascinating and horrifying as he tries to figure out what in the world those things are.

I grabbed an armful of hay and carried it back to him, scooping snow into my boots with every step. He turned from the fence to snort at me as I got close, a mysterious misshapen monster. Head high and feet prancing nervously he watched me come, ready to flee at any moment. Then he took off, coming towards me. He barely waited for me to set the hay down before tearing into it. I left him there to eat in peace.

I have been amusing my self trying to decide how I would rate the haulers if there was somewhere to offer my review. I’m not sure. He got here, unharmed in as timely a manor as possible considering the weather.  I don’t hold doing repairs on their pick up before leaving against them. They were very brave in unloading him regularly for breaks, while it was nice for him I’m not sure I would have done so with a colt of unknown training without facilities in case of reloading issues. He was starving and very thirsty when he got here. Again not necessarily their fault. Many horses wont eat or drink when being hauled, I don’t remember seeing a hay net though and he sure went right for it here. And as for them being rather, shall we say odd? Don’t suppose that is something that can be complained about.

I don’t know what is usual for horse haulers, the only time I’ve ever been around anything like that was when we moved from Omaha to Chicago and my mom had her horse shipped. The race track in Omaha was still going and the Thoroughbreds were regularly hauled back and forth. Her big, rather obese Morgan gelding was loaded on the semi trailer, three stalls wide, with those slick racing fit Thoroughbreds. It was all very professional and he was quite out of place.

Where to start even? How about Oregon.

He was going to be in quarantine for a month then they would start looking for a ride out here for him.

Apparently it’s hard to find a ride east from Oregon this time of year. He came out of quarantine in November now, mid January he found a ride out here. They, the very nice lady from Forever Morgans told me he would be here Tuesday. Monday I contacted her to see what was up. The people hauling him had had a break down and he would be here the next day. Wednesday that is.

I got a call from them Tuesday morning to say they were on the way. Then a text from Portland Oregon with a picture, just an update of where they were. I loved it. Then nothing unfortunately, I wanted hourly updates! I may never get out that far but I can travel vicariously through a horse.

They let me know that night when they stopped on the Oregon Idaho border. And I had a basic idea of their rout thanks to google maps. I can see why so few people try to make the trip. There are three main routs to the east side of the Rockies, all of the quite circuitous. Already the delivery date was pushed back to Thursday morning.

They let me know as they neared Salt Lake City and when they entered Wyoming and even sent more pictures when I asked nicely.

Wednesday night they planned to drive through but stopped for the night when the roads got to icy. The next morning they were going again, slowly, heading for Cheyenne. Google maps showed “Traffic Incidents” all up and down the interstate between Laramie and Cheyenne. They sent pictures of bad roads and trucks in the ditch.