Reincarnation of a Perfect Mustang

Today is a moment to remember: Cisco got his back right foot cleaned for the first time since he arrived last fall. Clay was doing the cleaning. I was giving him intermediate bridge cues and scratching his withers. Somehow the mustang let us do it. FINALLY!

Cisco has been rather mad at me for the last few days though because I've been putting on the mustang rebirthing kit to hold on his starter saddle. The mustang rebirthing kit, my long time readers will recall, is three ace bandages, one wrapped around his girth, one as a breastcollar and the other as a britchen. They are all snuggly and stretchy so they can't possibly be uncomfortable. The term rebirthing refers to that thing people were doing at the end of the '90's where they wrapped them selves up really snugly and then simulated the birth process, being born into a better world. Flaky, perhaps, but the mustang has needed a little rebirthing. In the latest sessions I have been putting a fleece English saddle pad on, then cinching it down with the rebirthing kit. All snuggles... but he isn't too happy about it.

I started by asking him to target the pad with his nose, then his shoulder, then his hip, and then, introducing a new body part, target with the withers. He would scoot himself under the pad just fine.... we also did the english saddle, which he moved to contact with his withers, but we didn't leave it on for long.... I wanted him to have special yard-wandering privileges for saddle pad wearing. So we just got it on and let him free.

I've been working almost totally at liberty with him. He rarely needs a rope and if he jumps away he almost always comes right back. So this saddling was done with out restraint. It was getting to be almost dusk and I needed to unsaddle him and feed. He was standing on the patio and it was a bit breezy. I untied the britchen bandage and it dangled in the wind.

THAT WAS IT.... HE WAS OUT OF THERE!!! He ran around, craning his neck to look at the bandage end, and snorting loudly. He ran across my arena space, around the laundry garden, up the hill, down the trail, around the building, and back again. He got near and I asked him to target my fingers... he did. I picked up the bandage end and asked him to target it. He did. He touched it several times with his nose, and then I tried to move into position to untie the other bandages. THAT WAS IT... He ran off again. This time moving away any time I got near.

It was getting dark, so I fed the other critters and put some hay in a stall Cisco could access. I found myself a bucket, turned it upside down near the stall door and sat down to wait. It is the dark of the moon, so it was getting hard to see until I turned on the barn lights. I just sat their waiting. Pretty soon Mr. Blaze-faced Mustang wandered in out of the dark. He let himself be unsaddled then turned to the feeder for dinner.

DAY TWO OF MUSTANG REBIRTHING UNDER SADDLE PAD
Yesterday I penned him up to feed him breakfast and went out early to put back on his gear. The pad has two loops on each side for the girth and girth straps, so it really works well when you just run your bandages through the loops. He got it on, still willing to put his withers to the pad, in exchange for a horse cookie, then I let him free in the yard again. There is about 2 acres in the yard, so they can graze, stand in a forest, climb a hill, run down a trail through the sage brush, etc. They love to be out, but yesterday you could see him standing with his head down, lethargic and depressed by the saddle pad. I kept things in my pockets, so I could go out and tell him how great he looks in a pad, rewarding him with carrots, cookies, grain, and raisins for his participation in the rebirthing activity.

Then it started to rain, so I brought him back into the pen for unsaddling and let him return to the herd. I didn't want to take a chance unsaddling at large again because I didn't want to be sitting on a bucket by a gate in the rain.

Today I expected him to be stand-offish. It was too wet to have him wear the pad. We only wanted to clean his hooves. He came up to be caught when I held the rope out and called his name. He let us clean his panic-prone hoof. He's such a good mustang!

Meditation on the Riddles of Equine Training

At my last posting, I was quite optimistic about progress with the critters. All my equine buddies were going out and about into the vast wilderness with out a bit of worry and the bridge was just an interesting landmark.

Then on Friday, the situation deteriorated with a visit from the farrier, a man you have met before on my blog, Billy Hibbler. Billy is a really good guy, but he drinks a lot of Mountain Dew so he's wired up about 20 notches higher than me. He was the former owner of Cracker Joe and the recent trainer for Jemez Dancing. The animals hate him. All of the animals!!!! So suddenly Billy arrives and no one can be caught. They fidget, kick, balk, shy and generally act cranky. My pride in them gets scratched and dented. Then Cisco bolts out of hand and runs around the corral in such a frenzy that we think he is going through a pipe fence. Now, understand, Billy never speaks mean to them or threatens them, he just is a fast moving cowboy. He thinks that I never train my animals.

Animals can sense peoples energy, I am quite sure of it, then they all sense each others energy. Jemez Dancing was probably the one who first really responded to the smell of wired-up-cowboy and as herd leader it infected all the others. Danger was in the air; run for your lives!!!

Okay, I consoled myself, it's just a Billy thing, when he is gone and forgotten they will be back to being good. On Sunday John, my hubby, came home and we took the mules out for a ride. The perception of the bridge as mere landmark was gone and the trolls living under it must have been back. John and Chester, his mule, are totally bonded. Chester loves John. There is no fear there. Chester and Cracker were real dips about the bridge, but failure wasn't an option, so eventually we had a nice ride beyond it and up Ice Canyon until we reached the semi-permafrost zone and decided to turn around. I was really sad to see that the memory of all of our walks across the bridge last week had made no impression.

Today I started a new project with my animals that involved recording their physical dimensions. It meant tape measures on their bodies. Hmmm....

Over the weekend, Clay West, also known as America's Most Lonesome Cowboy, returned to work on his cowboy novels, so I now have some expert horse-wrangler help at hand. Clay grew up on a ranch where the horsetraining was progressive enough to include Ray Hunt clinics. He has been speaking Natural Horsemanship since the day he was born, but his heart is into being a novelist, so we provide him a place to work and he gives me a couple hours of help everyday. We stepped out this morning, clipboards, pens, tape measure and paste wormer in hand for my new project. Eight equines to work through; one by one they were brought to the work area and convinced that tape measures are harmless tools used by humans to pet equines.

The donkeys were passive, the mules were interested, and the horses were most likely to be shy. Anticipating real trouble from Cisco, the new mustang, we saved him until last and took a coffee break before we caught him up. It was with some feelings of trepidation that I set down my cup and headed back to the corral. Tape measures are yellow and make funny noises. They move in a springy erratic manner. They may or may not eat horseflesh for breakfast, no one knows.

I started out with a training session. We targeted the tape measure. Touch with your nose, touch with your jaw, touch with your ears, touch with you shoulder. Then I started just randomly holding it across his body parts and rewarding him for standing still. After five minutes of training, we started the process. Eighteen measurements... we worked from the head back. Around his nose, across his brow, along his face, around his neck, down his mane, around his barrel, across his shoulder, along the length of his body, from hip to hip, along his back. I didn't think we could do the final measurement.... flank to flank around the rump for britchen length. I fully expected him to take flight at the first touch of the tape to his rump, but I rubbed the brown rump with my hand then the tape, then Clay read the measurement as I pulled it into place at the other flank... no fireworks at all, he just looked at me to see if he had earned a cookie.

We were also recording the equine behavior as we went. Cisco was more in the passive behavioral profile exhibited by donkeys than in the wiggly horse category. He always hides his dynamite when I am expecting a big explosion.

So what did I learn from all this? Hmmm, it's really kind of a zen question that will require some kind of long meditation. The most obvious lesson though, is if you think you are doing well, you are probably about to have everyone blow up, and if you are waiting for them to explode, they are going to fall asleep unless you give them a horse cookie.

Targeting

With all the snow and ice everywhere, I've opted for more sedentary training this week. We've been studying the names of body parts. The speed the animals learn this is just amazing.

First I have to provide a target. My fingers held in a victory sign (or peace sign) are the target. I start teaching a body part by touching it firmly and saying it's name. I do that three times. Then I hold my finger-target near and say "Target ______" where the body part goes in the blank. For example today I was teaching chin, so the cue was "target chin". At first my fingers are so close that almost any movement will bring them into contact with the body part, then gradually I increase the distance that the animal has to move to get contact. It's not long before the animal gets it.

Paisley is most consistent about chin, but she's adding to shoulder, hip, ribs, hoof, knee, nose, jaw, and ear. Using shoulder and hip in quick succession we have gotten a sidepass. She can sidepass away too.... I find it bidirectional control quite remarkable!

Cisco is a real targeting enthusiast. He loves it so much that he has stopped acting like a wild mustang, but comes running when I call. He knows nose, ear, jaw, shoulder, knee, hoof, hip, and chin (a little). His specialty is shoulder, but the speed he turns his hip suggests he may have some interesting possibilities.

Cracker Joe is my most advanced targeter. He will extend his hoof to a target held infront of him (spanish walk soon). He will target his jaw when we are walking around the arena, replacing any need for a lead line. He does nose, ear, jaw, shoulder, knee, and hoof. He is ever so delicate about his ears, just barely tipping them to gently brush my fingers.

Chester will play dumb at first, as if he can't remember anything. Then you just have to let him think you are giving up and going away and suddenly he is an anatomical genius. The only thing about Chester is that he sometimes let you know he would be willing to "target penis". Yikes!!!

Hopefully the weather will change. JD will get his last four rides and get to come home so he can learn some targeting too.

Breakthroughs with Photography

Kayce Cover called me up to ask if I had any photos of doing Bridge & Target with Cisco. You may remember that she came out a few months ago and helped me with him. She took a lot of videos, but she's working on an article for Planet Cheval, and didn't have any thing she could use.

Hmmmm. Of course I never take photos of me working my animals since it is always inconvenient to handle a camera and I have been quite fuzzy about the whole B&T thing, though I use the Bridge part all the time. I just never quite grokked why have a target.

Well.... let me tell you the lightbulb came on when she told me how to proceed with Cracker's Kneeling Act. "Quit pulling his leg!" Hmmm. She said I needed to establish some basic targeting for his body parts. He needs to know what I mean by the words "nose", "knee", "hoof", "ground", and "up". I need to be able to verbally tell him to lift your hoof and put your nose and knee to the ground. I started thinking it would take years, but since I was going to try to photographically capture Cisco doing B&T, I might as well warm up on Cracker. The little hinny had a momentary confusion between lips and nose, then he was putting nose to my "Peace Symbol" target quite consistently. I started pointing to his knees with the target and it only took a moment to get the knee to reach for the target. I opened up the camera to try to capture it, but I couldn't hold up the target for anytime before there was a body part stuck to it (usually nose). We targeted hoof for a few minutes then I gave up for a fresh animal.

Chester volunteered. He must have already known nose, and maybe somewhere in his history someone already taught him knee. You can't photograph it fast enough with a digital camera to get the target finger anywhere but on the mule. We'll work on other body parts later, but I suspect that his anatomical training has been rather extensive, so I put him away.

It was clear I would have to NOT tell Cisco what we were actually doing to start out with if I wanted a photo of fingers and horse reaching for each other. I held my fingers out in target gesture and focused the camera on them. Then I waited for a curious mustang to sniff them. Click!!! Then I spent five minutes teaching him that "target nose" was an easy thing to do. We shifted gears and I pointed the target at his back (problematic) hoof. "Target hoof" He trialed the front foot and finally cocked his back ankle just a tiny bit. Yes! Soon he was fishing that ankle up and swishing it around trying to contact the target. I needed duration to get the photo though, so I started giving him intermediate bridge signals (like saying "almost, almost!") until he was holding it up in contact with my fingers for several seconds. I got out the camera and started shooting each attempt, but with the digital delay most of the shots didn't work. Finally he just cranked up his leg and got a look on his face like "I know you won't be satisfied until you get that photo, so JUST TAKE IT!!!" It was time for a jackpot reward for the boy.

Ah, yes, I am finally figuring out Bridge and Target! It's about time! How much utility is in it is yet to be seen, but the animals love the training. Ms. Paisley knows "target shoulder gee" from "target shoulder haw" as well as nose and knee. She also just about has "nose to ribs" figured out.

Here is Kayce's website address: Synalia.com incase you see how useful this might end up being.

An Epiphany

I had an epiphany today. You can get Cisco to perfectly execute his evasive turn and jump away if you just send him off on a longe line. It is the very same movement that happens when he gets nervous about anything and wants to get the heck out of Dodge. His earlier training probably solidified this behavior into something he thinks he is supposed to do. I normally have him come in and face up to me before I send him off the other way. He was anticipating the send off and it struck me that it's his basic escape problem only just on cue.

If I can elicit the behavior, I have it under control, we just reprogram a "Thinking about jumping away" state into a "Thinking about looking toward the human" state. So I tied a plastic bag onto my stick and started flipping it around. The rule was if he was looking at the human, the human had to behave and keep the stick near the ground. If he was looking anywhere else, the human could flap the plastic as she pleased. The human moved around, trying to sneak around the mustang so she could start flapping. The mustang knows how to watch.

Then we spent 10 minutes letting the bag dance in the winter sunlight, gently wafting down over the mustang and tickling his belly hairs. When the bag was no big deal, we started longeing, cutting off any attempt to anticipate the send off. I asked Cisco to stand along the rail before I sent him off. This confused him for a moment, but then he realized that I wanted him to be momentarily stationary. I was pleased that three times he started to jump away and then arrested himself. I am hopeful that we have finally found the key to solving this difficult problem.

We traded the stick and flag in for the tamborine and he longed around the little pen with me keeping the rhythm of his back outside leg. Cisco loves anything musical.

To rush could be fatal.

We haven't let the snow and slush stop us, we are just moving slower, working hard to avoid slipping around. Not only the critters, but me as well. You just don't want to have to make any quick moves when you are on snow, slush or mud. Like picking up the mustangs back legs.... one false move and he will slip, bolting away, and I will have my spectacles splat in the icy mud at best. No... we have to just make sure that we don't get into trouble. If a person did crash and burn on a winter's afternoon and lay unconscious in the snow until someone decided to rescue them.... well, at least I have an epitaph picked out for my headstone.

Cisco and I are doing well though. I've spent the time flicking and flapping things over his body, tossing the rope, rubbing him with a stick, and singing holiday mustang songs until he sighs and lets his lower lip hang loose. I put him in the tiny roundpen and gave him a choice: would you like to give me your right hind foot and get this cookie, or would you like to circle the round pen ten times each way? He chose circling about three times and then figured out he might as well just eat cookies. Today we worked on lateral movements of the hindquarters. I had his lead looped around a fence post, hoping he would pull and yeild just a tiny bit. I started tapping his back girth area. At first he was worried and he tried pulling back just a bit, then he stepped forward. That was our starting point and I rewarded him. From just stepping at all, our criteria level rose to stepping sidewards with either hind foot, them to stepping sidewards with the hind foot nearest me. He crossed over a couple of times (the ultimate goal in hindquarter lateral movements) but I didn't have that as the bar on this first day. You have to slow down in this kind of weather. To rush could be fatal.

I was using some horsetreats that smell like apples and are about the size of a slice of apple. They are entirely too big. One day I took a bunch into the woodshop and bandsawed them into quarters, which made perfect treats. A good training treat should be about 1 cubic centimeter. Smaller than a grape, bigger than most raisins. I have thought about writing to Purina and asking them to manufacture such things, but that letter remains unwritten. The dog likes the apple flavored treats too. She was sitting on the horse feeder, which I had turned upside down in the center of the roundpen and supervising. She says bigger treats would be better, especially elk flavored ones.

If you read my blog often, you will notice that I seem to sea-saw around in the development of the mustang as a tame horse. Somedays I proceed as if I was going to be riding him next week and somedays I just dwell on the basics of the basic. In my opinion, you can never overdo the basics. If they don't have perfect stable manners, there is room to seek perfecion. If you can't get them to relax when you ask, you still have work to do. If they don't yeild in the direction indicated, it would be suicide to think you should ride them. If you can't tie them they aren't trained to any degree. Cisco and I have work to do. We are focusing on the desensitization side of horsetraining and every session, no matter what it seems like we are doing, we are really forming a bond of trust.

After this week, I will have some old office projects finally off my desk and I can start to really focus on equine training. My goal is to have Tobiah, Paisley, and Cracker ready to sell, should I need to let them go. Tobiah just has to have some work on yeilding to rein and leg cues, Cracker is going to get some trick training, and Paisley needs to work on driving and overcoming herd-attachment. It's going to be a fun winter.

The High Line

With two less animals (and needy ones at that), I got to refocus my efforts today on the remaining equids. The Cisco Kids inability to be tied is the first and foremost thing that needs fixed so I started implementing a plan. First I pulled the big 1 inch cotton rope out of the grain shed/bus. I spent a half an hour trying to toss the end of it over a big branch in the cottonwood tree that overhangs the paddock. Finally it went over and I shook and wiggled it until the free end dropped low enough for me to catch.

It's not easy to tie a knot in rope that thick and stiff, but I managed to make it into a big loop with the bottom just as high as I can comfortably reach. I didn't want it to look that we were planning a lynching, so the rope is hanging in a big loop. Then I put all the animals in Rita's old pen and got a halter and leadrope with a safety snap.

I started with Cracker since he is the littlest. I tied him to the loop with a quick release knot and set about giving him a good grooming. He wiggled the highline rope, but he never really put any force against it. I cleaned his hooves and let him go. Paisley is always keen to be in the limelight so she was next. She just acted like she was raised on a highline, so away she went all spiffy groomed and clean hooved. Chester has been so snappy lately, maybe he would test the system. He does not like any pressure on the curry comb and he let me know it with a quick snap towards me. I slapped him hard, but he didn't try pulling on the highline. Again, another clean animal left the paddock. Tobiah needed the grooming so he was next in line. He pulled against it once and then just stood while I brushed. There was only one dirty animal left.

Well, I started getting second thoughts about this so I came in and googled highline & horse. I came up with the Natural Horseman's Supply page on "Tying from above". I have read almost all the articles on their website and would recommend that everyone take the time to give it some study. There is a lot of valuable information pulled together in the NaturalHorseSupply domain.

Cisco had his halter on and was waiting for me in a stall when I went back out. I thought he might spook from the overhead rope, but he stood beneath it calmly while I rubbed his neck and started singing to him. I was a little bit frightened and the adrenaline made my voice waiver, but I kept singing until I felt myself calm down. Then I reached up and tied the safety knot. The dynamite was in place and the fuse was lit.

I kept singing and petting him. He sighed and I rewarded him with a horse cookie. He was quite relaxed. I started turning and walking away for increasing lengths of time, then bridging him with a resounding "X" and giving him a cookie. While I was away, he started playing with the rope, twisting it around his face and ears. At the most I was away about 1 minute. He never pulled back even a little bit. I was on the 600th chorus of Twinkle Twinkle Little Mustang, when his 10 minutes was up and I pulled the safety knot free. The dynamite was defused.

Tomorrow or perhaps sometime when I am not here alone, I will have to let the explosion happen. It will be good for him. Once he can be safely tied, we'll be on the road to rehabilitation. We've done what we could to prepare. We spent several afternoons in the round pen with a lunge rope practicing stopping in response to pulls on the rope. He knows. He is smart. Heck, he might even know not to try it.

I would love to hear from you if you have any experience with high lines. I have had lots of domestic horses tied up that way and never had a real problem, but I never had a errant mustang.

Patricia

Post Thanksgiving Relapse for the Mustangs

We were putting in a new woodstove in the guest wing so I didn't have much time to spend with the animals. I doubt if they really missed me while I was gone to Mom's. On the way back, I picked up a new kind of horse treat. Rita spit them out.

Both Rita and Cisco had relapsed in their training. Rita snorts more but Cisco snorts just as loud. It's not a nice horse sound and it almost always means that the horse is about to exit the vicinity. They had a hard time coming up to me. Cisco wouldn't allow the rope to be on his neck. Rita wouldn't let me pet her right side. Isolation is generally prescribed and then you have to just spend enough time with them that they remember that the human is the source of all good things. Within 10 minutes they were each sticking their heads through the rope loop and letting me scratch the scary part.

This week, Cisco gets to try something new in the way of learning to tie. I picked up a surcingle at the Socorro pawn shop. After he consents to wear it, I will run the lead rope through a side-ring and tie it to his tail, with just a slight bend to his neck. He can jerk his head back and bolt, if he likes, but it won't get him untied. The surcingle will ensure that the rope stays along his side and doesn't get tangled under his feet or flipped over his back. He is not going to like it. But, I will have stepped out of the corral and it will be between him and his tail.

If it works well, I think Rita will be due for a treatment too.

Yrs,
Patricia