So yesterday, Sunday 18th April, I was meant to come home from the roping clinic at Grafton, and work some horses. I was having a good time just chilling out, and learning a bit from watching, so I stayed a little longer. By the time Phil was finished - he was of the opinion he couldn't be bothered driving home (1.5 hours!), and wanted to stay. I was umming and aaahing about whether to head home without him, and decided to stay.
It was pretty cool sitting round a camp fire, with some long time horsey people, who have been involved in horses for over 30 years, and one of who makes saddles, the other makes bits, the teenage son of one, and Phil who has ridden since he was a child. They have all ended up in the same place - interested in the vaquero style of horsemanship, and ranch roping. Which is super interesting. I'm not that interested in roping, but the vaquero style of horsemanship is very intriguing, and makes alot of sense to me. Maybe one day Ill raise a horse that way.
So the conversation was pretty interesting, and I learn alot about, well, alot just listening. But as the night went on, I was antsy, and started kicking myself for not heading home. The horses were right - they all had grass and water, and I knew I'd be home pretty early on the Monday, but I was still annoyed at myself. By this time though, the beer had been flowing, and i was dog tired - so no driving home for me!
Once we woke on the Monday, I had a quick coffee with everyone, then we packed up and hit the road. Phil commented on how much brighter I was, and I must admit - despite sleeping in a swag in the float, I felt a hell of a lot better, and rested. I was so tired over the weekend, and today I felt good. So we hit the road. When I got home, i went straight down to the juniors paddock and fed them out some hay, fed Rosie and the baby, went up to the house, helped phil feed the old horses, and threw my stallion a bit of hay. The only horses I didn't check were the 3 in the bottom river flat paddock - I don't know why, I do it everyday, but not today.
We had a long breakfast, chilled out around home for a while, I read the paint horse journal that I just got in the mail, then got off my butt and went to work with the juniors. The idea was to get everyone worked today, to start the week off. I've got a show this weekend - rookie day on the Saturday, then the full show on the Sunday, which I will take Cooper too - he has hardly been worked because he was lame for that 12 days, but gosh darn it I'm goin to the show! I went to the juniors first, and they all came running up, so I started with Squizzy first. I wanted to work with her for led classes, so I started doing that, she leads well, but just gets this shocking look on her face when she trots. So I was trotting her, and whenever she relaxed, I stopped. This wasn't working - due to my level of fitness! I couldn't run for as long as it took her to relax, so I just started working the ground skills. I worked on refining her backup - she has been doing it reasonably well (and doing all of the skills well) for the past couple of weeks, but now I am starting to ask a bit more of her, like 1 cue, 1 step. She did this great, so i went onto circles. Perfect! I was happy with her circles today - no playing up, no bucking, only 1 sour face, then the rest all good. I asked her to do a couple of turnarounds on the lunge - no problem:) So I led her into the yards, and worked her yielding - both to a feel and a suggestion. Again I simply wanted to refine - make sure it was 1 cue, 1 step, make sure she wasn't drifting forward in the movement - all good, not perfect, but we are talking a short amount of training.
I went onto squeeze - the initial goal is to have the horse confident and happy enough to go between you and a solid object like a fence - and respectful enough that they won't creep into your personal space and bump you in the process. I had only done squeeze a couple of times with her, and was happy when I asked her to put her nose on the fence, then her hind, then opened the space and allowed her to go through - and she did it without complaint. I did this a few times - disengaging her hind after she had gone through, and sending her the other way. I was confident enough in her to ask for her to stop in the middle of the squeeze, and she was confident enough to do it.
I was going to leave it at that, and then i got inspired by an old fence post lying on the ground - i thought, ill just get her to go sideways over that, then Ill leave her for the day. Well, she did it lovely in one direction, and then I heard galloping behind me, and turned to see Rosie bolting up the hill with Beatrix close behind her. Phil was on his way down the road on his stallion. Now we had a distraction to work with, which is great, you can have all the awesome work in the world - but if it all goes out the window when the distractions come into play, then what do you have?
I continued to ask her to move sideways, and just ignored her focus on the stallion. Phil arrived at the yards, and I just asked her to shift over. She wasn't great at it - she drifted forward a couple of times, but I am happy to let this slide for today - she is young, and she did do what I asked - again, it wasn't perfect, but she is immature in her education.
Her finished I tied her up and went to grab Rocky. On the way I noticed that Boogie was limping a little (we have had rain the last couple of days and they are coming out of a really dry time, and now their feet are on wet ground), I Haltered Rocky, tied him up, and haltered Boogie. I tied her up and cleaned the mud of her rear foot. She had a crack where an abscess had busted out - I think i mentioned this in a previous blog. Now this with the wet weather had softened and allowed a bit of moisture in, making it a bit uncomfortable for her. I left her tied and went to work with Rock.
Well, first up I just wanted to rub him a little. He took the opportunity to walk right up to me, and stand right in my space. I asked him to back up, and he came further forward. I asked him again, without moving my own position, and this time after asking with just a wiggle of my finger and not getting a response, i put a loop down the rope which caught him on the nose. He backed up. I then asked again with my finger, and he backed up to the end of the rope. I let him rest out there, and he licked his lips like there was no tomorrow! Oooo are we having a breakthrough with Rocky? Maybe yes. I let him rest for a while out there, and then I asked him another couple of times. I actually got some backwards, that Ken would refer to as "happy feet" Yes! We are talking to each other today!
From here I went onto desensitisation - just rubbing him with the stick and string, flicking it over him, doing the helicopter over his head, and hitting the ground. He fussed a bit when I was hitting the ground, but I maintained my relaxed posture, and continued to hit the ground until he stayed still while i did it, and left it there.
I then went onto yielding, both to a feel and a suggestion. He moved away from my prompts quite nicely. I had to correct him a couple of times - which I am happy with, because there was no argument from him, just misunderstanding. I got some nice steps from him, both at the hindquarter and at the forequarter. Wow. By this time I am wrapped about the change in this horse today. He is really trying for me, and just putting it on the line.
Next we try circling, and the improvements just continue. He still is pulling his face today, but he doesn't stop and turn and argue as he has in the last few sessions. Even his face pulling is left to the couple of departures where I have to use my stick and string, and when I had to use the stick to keep him going. Today I was actually able to stand in one position, lean the stick on me, and ask him to go around me to maintain gait and direction. AND he does it! Today he actually takes responsibility, and does what he knows he is meant to do. And I am bursting :) I am so rapped in this little fellow today, I leave it right there.
I am just tying him up, when Phil gallops up "we have any wire cutters up here?" I say no, and he says Buddy (one of his horses) is stuck in the fence. Bugger. I've got 3 young horses tied up here, and I'm downhill from the house. I quickly untie them all, and sprint. I make it to the house in time to help Phil - he's getting the fence pliers, I get the car keys, and he goes. He has tied the stallion up to a tree, and he's in his ute, heading down to cut Buddy out of the fence. I'm not far behind him with bandages, a halter, bucket, white ointment, and whatever else I can lay my hands on in my 30 second hunt. When I get down there, he is out of the fence but it doesn't look good. His leg is pretty swollen, and we have been away, so we really don't know how many hours he has been caught up. He is eating, and able to put some weight on it. He was tangled right near the dam, and he doesn't go straight for water - hopefully this means he is not desperate for a drink and thus has not been caught for long - by the looks of it, it would appear probably overnight. Thankfully it was a cooler day, and he was caught under a tree.
I call the vet and organise for them to come straight away. I feel soo guilty. I planned to come home on Sunday, and this shows that I should have. These horses are in a 15 acre paddock full of grass and with a big dam, so I thought they would be right, and for the last 2 years when I have stayed somewhere overnight, they have been. Funny thing is though, that I may not have even noticed if I had come home on Sunday. When Phil found him, he was just standing still under the trees - Phil actually rode straight past him and said hello - then rode the stallion in the paddock for about 1/2 an hour, and only then thought something was up, as Buddy hadn't moved. So If I had driven past to check them, I may have just seen him standing under the tree - and not noticed until the next day, that he hadn't moved. These horses on the river flat are rarely fed so we don't call them up - we just drive past to check that they are happily grazing. They are all wormed and treated with Brute, when we need to, but they are our grass eaters, and are all fat as mud. There are so many variables here - even if I had someone checking him, maybe they would have checked him Sunday morning, and he got caught Sunday lunchtime - the same result would have happened.
The vet has tended to Buddy, and he seems to think he will be ok, he is bandaged up, and needs penicillin shots for the next few weeks, so we will see.
So, on the training front, a great day. Lessons learnt - take the time to rest, it makes you a better horse person. Organise for someone to check your horses if you are away longer than a day. Persist quietly and kindly when you are not getting on with a horse, you may just get a breakthrough.
Happy trails
TJK
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