Rescuing Rusty

A neighbor and friend of mine came over the other day to see Rusty. I’ve been playing with him in the round pen and put her in to work him a little. She rides very nicely just needs time and experience and practice working a youngster. So they both got worked. She worked on flexing and giving to pressure and getting him used to someone besides me. He did great, she did great and then she hopped on my old boy for a quick riding lesson. I love days like this!

He is settling in nicely, even when I don’t work him we go visit the ponies. He is always eager for a scratch. His feet are looking great after their trim, it fascinates me that they are striped. I always think I can see the exact line that marks the time he was picked up from the kill pen. He has deep grooves then they stop and smooth out perfectly in what looks like the amount of growth that could be expected since October.

I didn’t think I had said anything bad about our boy last time, but apparently I was harsher than I meant to be.

We are continuing to take our walks every chance we get. It does him so much good to get out of his comfort zone. I was going to say that he is doing so much better, staying out of my space and not as spooky. Our next walk was nearly perfect. But yesterdays not as much. We go down the driveway through the puddles and mud. His biggest problem is whirling to face the barn every time we stop.

I ask him to move his hindquarters back where they belong and we stand for a moment before continuing. But it doesn’t always just work. Often the yielding of hindquarters is very stressful and we swing the other way and go in circles and he can get very upset. I try to keep at it very calmly until he settles and will stand.

Walks are a perfect time to work on voice commands, mostly whoa and walk up, he is picking them up quickly. He’s moving away from pressure very nicely and I’ve worked a couple of times on giving to the bit. He is flexing softly both ways. Yesterday I got my blanket out and sacked him out a little, it didn’t bother him to much. It’s my blanket I use regularly so I’m not willing to flop it down on the ground beneath him like I usually would, it’s still muddy out here. I’m going to have to find something else to use.

With a little help I cleaned out the tree branches from the round pen. Worked him in there today, a quick “hey, pay attention to me not the other horses”, showing him the basic idea of it, sort of lesson. I want to desensitize him more and he’s almost ready to saddle. Which brings us back to my everyday using saddle that, like my blanket, I do like to be careful with, not the old broken down saddle that I used to flop around on colts.  This one is a bit heavier too. Oh well I’ll figure something out, it will make me twice as careful in my preparation.

NOT.

Not only was it not a park, it was our driveway, it was not easy.

I caught him in the pen and went through our usual routine, pick up feet, move hind and fore quarters, give head to each side, lots of petting. He was doing so good. I brought my lunge whip along, waved it all around, rubbed it under his belly and against his hind feet as he walked. Even wedged it under his tail and was able to get it around his hind legs with him walking. He was doing great, a little bored even.

So I decided we would take a walk. Get out of his comfort zone a little. I had noticed when he had his feet trimmed and I thought we would do it in the dry spot behind the house, that a switch flipped in his brain as soon as we went through the gate. Calm quiet Rusty was gone and spooky high headed Rusty took his place. So that’s where we would go.

We took our time through the gate, I had also realized that day that he didn’t understand proper gate procedure. You don’t realize how important it is until it’s not there. He must wait patiently, allow me to send him ahead, then yield his hind quarters to come back and stand with his head at my shoulder as I close the gate. Mine have it down and I do love it about them.

We worked on whoa the whole time. Asking him to stop and take a step back when I stopped. But mostly we worked on not running me over. He looked and gawked and jumped in place and thought he might be safer on top of me. I flapped my elbows shoved at his shoulder and tried to maintain control. In the end nobody died! No that’s exaggerating a little, he wasn’t that bad. My arms are wore out from working to keep him out of my space but it was good for both of us. I’ve been wanting to diet and get some exercise, he provided the exercise. He is learning, we need to do this a lot more often.

When we got back to the corrals we worked on the gate again. My two horses had come up to the front so they provided a little extra challenge. Rusty did good. Then we walked down the lane towards where I had left my “stuff” and I let him go. He left, apparently we are no longer friends.

As I left I made a point of making him let me catch him for a good rub and a cookie. I’ll see if he lets me catch him tomorrow.

Which is a completely untrue statement.

My sister in law found him with no trouble at all after I searched and searched with no luck. He has his own Facebook page. He is a beautiful stud, long and lanky and a very pretty color. I think he looks like an older Rusty. But I also think it’s interesting that she got him out of a bad situation and apparently Rusty has a brother who was picked up by the humane society in Ohio.  That’s a lot of bad luck in one family.

State Line Gold Radiance:

The brother:

There was even a picture of Rusty as a baby!

And his dam, with a different foal:

What fun. Thanks Stephani for finding him!

The girl who owns State Line Gold Radiance has been great. She trained Rusty’s dam  and says that she was very petite and like Rusty “Had no respect for space mostly or proper manners lol but she came along very nicely. The key was trust once I had that. Even when she got scared she would look to me. From there she progressed with ease. No buck or rear no bite. I loved her. I had her for almost 60 days. Had her saddle trained. Well behaved. Loading into a trailer like a lady (getting her in to my place was a nightmare. Tried to climb into the manger) had her started out on trails. Green but she was definitely ok to be out there. Very curious.”

She has nothing but good to say about Rusty’s sire, calm, quiet, friendly, good with kids. It sounds like the colts by him with the lady who owned him before her were mostly unhandled and barely halter broke. Even so that’s, sadly, not unusual for breeders, the place doesn’t look bad in the pictures, and she was putting some money into training, so how did Rusty get from there to the kill pen?

Normally I would do it myself but I suffered a terrible baby wearing accident 😉 after which I decided it would be a good idea to trim my two horses. My arm still isn’t working right. And so…

I got my farrier/ friend and neighbor who I occasionally convince to trim my horses for me to give him a go. He was over helping with cattle anyway and stopped to see Rusty when they were done. I had promised him a quick easy job and was hoping Rusty wouldn’t prove me wrong.

The wind was blowing and he was acting pretty spooky. But when they got down to work Rusty didn’t do to bad. The farrier did an excellent job. Perfect for a first (?) trim, first in a long time if nothing else. He was patient and took it easy and slow letting Rusty get used to everything, making sure it wasn’t scary for him while at the same time insisting that Rusty mind his manners. It went great and his feet look so much better now.

This is the only picture I got. I was kinda supposed to be holding the horse not messing around taking pictures.

Always nice to have on a horse that comes to you without one. Not his personally, unfortunately. We will probably never know exactly where he came from and how he got to be where he was. But we can find his family history easily enough.

Of course All Breed Pedigree gives a good starting place, with some pictures and the occasional bit of info, but it’s such a little bit. (Even though I must admit I run any horse I am looking at through the All Breed Pedigree photos test, yes he passes. With flying colors) And looking there today I see that he goes to Chingadero three times! I have always thought he was cool. And I see Winterset back there too. He’s a favorite of mine, absolutely gorgeous.  And Warhawk, I was just looking at a great picture of him holding a calf for doctoring. Not sure there are too many good western Morgans he doesn’t go back to eventually.

But those are so far back, with the exception of Californio, that they only mean so much. Who are his more immediate ancestors?

I  can’t find anything about his dam on the internets. His grand sire on his mothers side though, Baptiste Jay Chayadow, is standing at stud in Oregon at Dragoon Morgans. They say he throws larger colts than his 14.3, that’s holds with my theory the Rusty is going to get tall. Of course I don’t know any thing about his dam so that theory is still unfounded. Jays sire, Rusty’s great grand sire, stood at Belle Coulee Morgans in Canada and sounds like a great all around horse.

His grand dam on that side is from Marana farms in Alberta Canada. They imported her sire from Iowa and have one of her half sisters, DM Lords Melissa, still as a brood mare.

On his sires side, the sire is also invisible internet wise, his grand dam is from the prolific and still very busy, training and show wise, Bridlewood farm. Including training at least one other horse acquired through Forever Morgans, El-Terra at Solitude Morgan Rescue.

Dogwoods Golden Chief, Grand sire on his sires side, I was able to find passing mention of in an article about the great Californio. But only as an also sired by.

So what is the point of this? Other than getting to look at all the beautiful old pictures of Morgans? I really thought I would get to find out really fun stuff about his parents and grand parents. But no. I couldn’t even find them.

Instead it made me think about the importance of doing something with breeding stock. Having a horse with the proper equipment is not a good enough reason to breed! I fully understand wanting to breed your beloved back yard, trail riding, baby sit the kids mare. But. The stud should be well proven at least. Would Rusty have ended up in the kill pen if someone could have looked at his papers and said “Hey he’s by so and so who won something. I know him.”?  Not to say mares shouldn’t be well proven too.

Rusty is royally and beautifully bred. Generations ago. I’m sure the more recent horses were great as well but where is the proof? If not proven they should at least be well promoted. With the internet there is no reason any breeding horses name should not be easily googleable. It’s our responsibility to our horses and their offspring to give them the best chance possible.

Rusty was bred for color, I’m guessing with two palomino parents, and when he turned out to be the one in four chance of a sorrel he didn’t  have great and recently proven horses to fall back on. Look where that got him.

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.