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

Tying without Trauma

Ruby brought the mail and there was the new Perfect Horse issue. John Lyons wrote an article called "Tying without Trauma". Wow! He should have been here yesterday! I got a cup of tea and sat down to read it, but I ended up reading it like I was wolfing it down and running out to try his stuff before I could even sip the tea. It was one of those days where I left unsipped cups of tea in the kitchen several times, and when I went to heat one up, I found another in the microwave where I heated it up earlier.

Lyons recommends that for four days, in each session you have the horse circle you on a leadrope in a roundpen and stop it at random by sharp pulls on the lead. As the horse learns to comply, you increase the speed. We got to a good crisp trot today. Cisco only went sideways once, but he was on the long rope in a 36ft square pen, so he never got free. At each stop, the horse ends up facing me, so I gave him some positive reinforcement each time. He likes that part.

I have been getting on and off Paisley. Sometimes she is tackless, but she never does anything but wait until I get back off and give her a treat. She's been saddled and driven in the pen, now it's time to drive her around the yard. When we graduate to driving down Largo Canyon, I will know I have a real horse.

Cracker Joe is the most eager boy of the bunch. He absolutely loves his training time, but today we had to get a little problem sorted out and he thought I was rather unfair. I wanted him to stand with his rump in the corner of the pen, so when I asked him to move his front legs sideways, his back legs would be not likely to move. He tried to refuse to be in the corner, so it was time to make the corner the only good part of the pen, everywhere else involved cantering suddenly and after three minutes, the corner, with all of its peace and quiet, seemed like the place to be. For a minute after he is coerced into compliance he seems mad, but he gets over it when he realizes that he can still earn rewards.

Heart Attacks Aren't Free

I spent the weekend working as a volunteer at the Clinton Anderson WalkAbout Tour. They put me at the gate checking and selling tickets, so I didn't actually get to see much of the program, but they give volunteers a gift certificate worth $220 of DVD's so they can catch the clinic on a disk.

I did fall for his speil about the ring tie that is supposed to teach horses not to pull back when they are tied. The rope slips through the ring and the horse gets far enough away to not be scared. Hmmm. Cisco the blaze face mustang came with a reputation for pulling and going bezerk while tied. I hadn't really pushed it so I wasn't sure if he would. Clinton's speil is that you let them freak out and they will recover - "Heart attacks are free," he says. I think Clinton is really good with domestic minded horses.

So I forked over the $20 for the ring and brought it home. Tied Cisco to one of my hitching posts. Started desensitizing him to a couple of things like the rug from the front porch and the crop & string I use. No big deal. Then I start lifting up those feet. The last foot was the right hind and as I bent down to touch it, Cisco went into highspeed reverse, slipping that rope through like it was waxed, until it reached the end, where it was just a little larger because of the braid back into itself. That acted like a dead stop, so since something had to give, and it wasn't going to be the mustang, the weld popped on my hitching post and the horseshoe ring, with the Anderson special went flying. The rope was 20 ft long, so suddenly there was a panicked mustang pulling a dancing horseshoe at high speed around the yard. The horseshoe would catch on objects as Cisco ran past and a couple things went crashing. Cisco hit the back gate and broke the latch, but he was turned around and running back toward me before he could realize his freedom. I ran to close the gate before anything worse could happen. Cisco ran into the park area of the yard and I saw his legs slip out from under him as he hit the pile of leaves along the fence. He was down flat on the ground and not moving. I ran around the paddock. He had slid under the fence and his head was pinned to the ground. He couldn't move. Chester, the mule, ran over and started biting him. I chased Chester away and secured the area to prevent any more equines from trying to assist. I got Roger and we started shoving on the head of the mustang trying to pry him back through enough that he could wiggle. We thought we might have to get a cutting torch, but we kept shoving. The leaves must have helped us and suddenly he was up and off again but without the rope behind him. After a few minutes he let me catch him.

Yep, that Anderson special is a wonderful tool for domestic horses. Can't recommend it for mustangs.

When I got to the WalkAbout Tour on Friday afternoon, it became really obvious that what we volunteers were actually going to be doing was helping with the retail merchandising operation. We tied mecates to bridles, put together handy-strings and sticks, as well as clipped leads to halters. They told us that Clinton wouldn't have time to talk to us until after the show and that if we had a question, we could ask him then. After the show, they had us hopping double time to get everything packed and ready to roll out. There was no time for any kind of conversation with the celebrity. He stood by the back door and watched us carry the last bits to the truck and stow it away. Then Clinton handed us our gift certificates and shook our hands. I was still holding on to my question, but I saw the opportunity slipping away. It was then or never, so I asked.

"I have a question for you, Mr. Anderson, what about donkeys and mules? What would you do differently?"

He looked me straight in the eye and said "I know nothing about them." Then he turned away. Well, you have to admire honesty. Hmmmm.....

Yrs,
Patricia