Big Success

Well today we hit a milestone - Cabrito let me put the halter on!! And of course, no one was around to take pictures of it... lol. I roped him again and started the "rubbing" process up to his ears where we left off last time. He was okay with that so I started working my way towards his jaw, which he allowed me to do also. So then I picked up the halter and lead rope and started rubbing him with that a little bit. He was surprisingly okay with the lead rope touching him and being draped down on his other side. Then I presented the noseband of the halter to him and rubbed his muzzle with it, followed by rubbing all of it under his neck and on his chest. Next I worked on putting my right hand and arm over his neck and getting him used to me standing so close and having pressure from both sides. That took him a little more time to get used to, but soon he was comfortable with me almost "hugging" him around the neck. So, the last step was to pass the halter under his neck so I could grab it with my right hand and put it over his nose. He did great and even stood quietly while I got it tied. PHEW! Talk about a huge relief for me! We then spent the next 15 minutes or so working on leading exercises and just wearing the halter. I even led him back to his pen with it. It was really tempting to want to leave it on him for fear of not being able to get it back on, but I realized that if I couldn't get the halter back on him, he would not be ready to do any other exercises if I'd left it on. It's a trust thing, and besides, practice makes perfect right? :0)

Yesterday we had a really good session! I no longer need the whip to touch him first, he will let me walk up to him and touch him with my hand. So yesterday I roped him again and worked on bringing him off the fence of the round pen to see how good he would stay with me since the fence isn't there to hold him. He did really good! By the end of our training session he was standing in the middle of the round pen allowing me to stand at his shoulder and rub him all the way to his ears and a little around his jaw. He is also letting me pet him on the point of the shoulder and his chest. Before, this was an area that if you got the whip there he would strike, so that is a huge improvement. Cabrito even stood quietly while I un-threaded his neck tag and finally got the darn thing off of him! So he is officially no longer #3235! lol. Spencer worked with him a little bit too (I think he's curious more than anything) and started to see how he felt about a rope coil being slide up over his nose. He did pretty good with that and seemed comfortable. Spence also started getting Cabrito okay with someone maybe wanting to touch his face as he's still pretty leary of someone coming at him from the front. Overall though, Cabrito did really well and seems to be getting more and more relaxed with us messing with him. We even led him from the round pen back to his pen and then took the rope off in there. This morning he let me walk up to him in his pen and pet him with BOTH hands - so there is definitely some trust being gained. I'm still worried about not getting done what I need to before the competition, but I know that no matter what, Cabrito is going to be a great horse!

So on Thursday I picked up where we left off from Tuesday. It didn't take Cabrito very long to let me get close again and scratch him with the lunge whip. In fact, he seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing so I thought I'd see how he felt about me touching him with my hand. I rubbed him with the whip and started getting closer with my arm out moving it up and down in a petting motion. He got a little bothered, but only moved off a couple of steps. I kept at it until he was letting me touch him! I was able to rub him on his hindquarters and back on both sides. Then yesterday I worked on that some more, getting him used to me approaching him without always touching him with the whip first and also working my way up closer to his head. By the time we finished, I had rubbed all the way up to his jaw on both sides and he figured out how pleasant it was for me to itch him under his mane. I tried touching him in his pen last night when I fed him, but that must mean something different to him since it's "his" domain. I got my hands on his hindquarters, but he was a little uneasy. I'm not sure if I'll get to work with him today since we got more snow last night and the wind is blowing a hundred miles an hour. But if I do, I plan to work some in his pen as well as the round pen so he learns that it's okay to be touched regardless of his location.

I am so proud of him though, and myself. This has been very challenging and finally getting to touch him was the most rewarding and exciting feeling. This mustang has certainly reminded me of my earliest days working with horses - being frustrated and not knowing what to do next. But thank goodness he is a patient teacher because I have already learned more from him in 3 weeks than I learn from most horses in 3 months!

Snow Day

Well since we have over a foot of snow here today, I decided to just take a few pictures of Cabrito and post them here. Poor little guy can hardly get around his pen there's so much snow! He seems pretty content to stay in his shelter and munch hay though. :)

LOTS of getting touched today!

Well, we went back in the round pen this morning first thing since the weather was supposed to deteriorate by this afternoon (which it did lol). I have to give Cabrito credit for being VERY smart. I had a harder time getting to the point where I left off yesterday since he decided that leaving was still easier than standing still. So I roped him again (and woo hoo, caught him with my first throw!) and did more of the same work from yesterday, only this time being able to help encourage him to stay put a little better. This was working OK, but not great, so I decided to get his feet moving, but towards me rather than away from me. This helped me work my way up the rope and do a little "accidental" touching of his nose. Roger then came out to help me and suggested that I approach him with my flag handle a little bit more deliberately. I guess I might have been trying to "sneak it up" on him. Oops. But Roger was right, a little bit more deliberate approach actually helped. Cabrito was still pretty bothered by me getting in close to try and touch him with the flag handle though, so Roger went and hunted up a pole that is about 8 feet long that I could try touching him with. It worked pretty good! I could touch him with it and he could get worried and leave, but the pole never went away. Long story short, after an almost 3 hour session I was able to rub him with pole all over his hindquarters, back, neck, chest, and even up by his ears and I was able to be fairly close while doing it. We ended with me rubbing him on his left side, and then I walked behind him, he switched eyes and I rubbed him on the right side. He was hipshot, relaxed and had a very soft look on his face. I hope this is the breakthrough that I needed to help him get ready to be touched by my hand and haltered. I would have to say that this is the hardest horse I've ever worked with and he's challenging me every step to think of new ways and approaches to get where I want. But what a great horse, he has a lot of try and seems to want to figure out what I want!

In the round pen finally

Well, it's been a long time coming, but we finally got the round pen usable for Cabrito and I. He handled the trip down the "chute" very well, no trying to jump panels or anything. I tell ya, he has such a great response to pressure - not too sensitive and not too dull. At first, I just tried to let him get used to the new surroundings and get him to let me move him around the pen a little bit. Then we went to work on letting me get close and in position to eventually touch him. I started him to the right (his harder side to get on, but more accepting to try and touch) and he did pretty good. I was able to get very close, and bring the handle of my flag up to his neck like I was going to touch him. I did that a couple of times and then backed off and let him have a break. Then I went to moving him around to the left. At first all he wanted to do was stop and face me, so I insisted that he keep his shoulder on the fence and just look at me. That lead to him not stopping well, so I put more pressure on to get a better stop, which lead to wanting to turn back into the fence and go the other way. Boy he sure tested me with that, but I just kept sending him out and setting him back up the way I wanted him. He eventually got the message and was able to stop promptly with his shoulder on the fence. I then repeated the process of getting in position to touch him, hold the handle of the flag up and when he was comfortable, retreat. I switched both sides and got that accomplished a couple of times on each side and decided that was enough for today. The best thing was that after all that, I knew that I could touch him if I wanted to, but wanted him to have a chance to think about this and process it over night. Plus, I didn't want to run the risk that he would get too bothered and end up setting us back. Although I'm sure we are the farthest behind in the competition right now, I have confidence that we are going to be the most solid team in the end!

In a rut

Hey everyone! Yesterday I worked with Cabrito on the rope and at liberty. On the rope I decided to see if I could get him comfortable with being touched with a long stick. Although he doesn't like to let me on his right side, I was actually able to touch him on the shoulder a couple of times there. On his left side he was pretty defensive and wanting to strike, so I tried to see if I could reward him when the pressure was there and he didn't strike. I was able to use the hook on the stick to get the rope off and did some work with yielding to the rope around his hindquarters and such when it came off. Then at liberty I sent him around his pen and asked for the hindquarters, then frontquarters, and I was even able to direct him in some side-passing and two-tracking with just my body and rope coils. Pretty cool! I even got back into position next to him and got him okay with me just standing in his "bubble".

Now, I'm feeling a little bit in a rut here, do I just keep doing what I'm doing until he gets okay with me/the pole touching him? Is there a way to expedite this process that I haven't thought of? I'm thinking having the halter put on him would have been handy! lol I'll write more later today after I've worked with him again - and hopefully I'll have some new pictures!

I've gotten a little behind!

Well, this past weekend was horse expo, so I have been quite busy and not able to work with Cabrito much. Talking with some of the other people in the competition kinda freaked me out because they are so much farther along than I am. But I have to remember that I made a promise to myself, that everything I do with this mustang is about HIM and helping him to become a desirable horse for someone to adopt, and that I won't compromise him to do well in a competition. So even though we are way far behind, he's not ready for certain things yet and I'm just going to stick with what feels right. But anyways, Cabrito is getting a little bolder and has hinted at doing some naughty things in regard to respecting my space - so I introduced the flag to him today. I sent him around his pen some to assert myself as the leader, and then allowed him to relax and contemplate when he did the right things. He ended up being pretty tolerant of me waving the flag around and was able to stand relaxed, but he also figured out that when I wanted him to move off, that the flag is a motivating tool as well. Tomorrow we are going to build a chute to the round pen so I can do some more extensive work and hopefully (cross your fingers) get him haltered this week!

Web sites

Here are some links for anyone who is interested!

www.extrememustangmakeover.com

Has a good explanantion and overview of the program

www.8thheavenhorses.com

The wonderful facility I'm lucky enough to work at!

An easy day

Today I really needed to do some much needed catch-up work with my other training horses, so I was only able to spend a little time with Cabrito today. That and I'm feeling like I'm getting a cold so I kept my work load as light as possible. At feeding time this evening, I used his new found love of grain to see if I could pique his curiousity a little bit. It worked for the first 5 minutes - he would get real close and then decide it wasn't worth it and walk away. He quickly gave up on coming to me since he figured out I wasn't just going to dump the grain in his feeder and leave him alone! lol. So I worked on driving him off and then backing off to relieve the pressure when he faced me or walked towards me. I worked on that with him for about 15 minutes when he made a good change. Cabrito put himself in the "uncomfortably close zone" and was able to stay put and not leave. So I just turned around and left his pen, and he actually followed me, head down licking and chewing. I think I will practice this with him a couple of times each day and see how far we get with it!

Now officially known as "Cabrito" - the baby goat!

Yep, so I finally settled on Cabrito. Even though it means baby goat, it's a cool name and is easy to call him. Today wasn't such an easy session for anybody - me, Cabrito, or my saddle horse, Roxy. I started out getting him roped on my second try (small victory there since he didn't really move and was about 3 feet away lol) and went back to work with moving the hindquarters and seeing if I could get him to stand a little closer to me and Roxy. I have to give Cabrito credit, he is VERY smart. He figured out that if he reared and spun away, that I couldn't stop him, so you can imagine how quickly that little trick escalated. This was also flustering Roxy, which was frustrating me, so I opted to hand Roxy off to Spencer and go back to working on Cabrito afoot. Things went a little better and I was able to get quite close to him. My hand was just inches away from his neck, but whenever my hand would go in the blind spot, he'd get too bothered and I couldn't touch him. His curiousity was stronger however and he was sniffing and touching my hand with his nose more often. After a while, I needed a break, so Spencer started working with him some. And this is where more of Cabrito's intelligence surfaced. He figured out that when Spence was almost close enough to touch him, that if he struck out with a front foot, Spence would back away. Fortunately it was nothing too malicious, but that colt has got some reach with those front feet! So another good chunk of time was spent keeping his feet moving while allowing Spencer to get close without striking. To end the training session, Spencer was on a roll and was able to get close and pull the rope off of Cabrito's neck. He didn't even run, which was a really great way to end.

There were several times today that I felt completely over-whelmed and frustrated and wanted to tell myself that "you have no business doing this", "you're no good", "this is way too hard". But I kept with it, and thanks to Spencer's great coaching and help, we got through it. And now reflecting on what went on today - I know that we DID make progress, and things weren't that bad. I also have to keep reminding myself that I chose to do this so that I could learn and get more experience. I guess part of gaining experience is having to be put in a situation that isn't easy. So, I'm going to try and keep remembering that and stay away from the bad attitude. I can tell already that this little mustang is going to have a significant impact on my life!

We touched!

Today was a yucky day - wind blowing a hundred miles and hour and a fair amount of humidity in the air. So, I was hoping for a little shorter session than yesterdays! I decided to see what I could get done using my saddle horse, Roxy. My mustang was immediately curious to meet her so that made getting close pretty easy. I was by myself today so I had to do the roping, and it took several tries, but I got him caught. It was funny, everytime I swung my rope he would start shaking his head as if to say "try and catch this!". I worked on the same things as yesterday, only this time I had Roxy's strength to help me. I got within arms reach of the colt quite often, and today he reached out and touched my hand with his nose twice. I suspect that tomorrow he'll be even more willing to touch and sniff me. I also didn't have any difficulty getting the rope off his neck today, I just reached out and pulled the loop until my rope ran through. It was a short and simple session, but a good one nonetheless. When I went to feed him this evening he was staying closer to me than he had and didn't seem as concerned with me being in his pen. He even got his first taste of grain. So far, so good - I just wish I could come up with a name that I liked for him!

First Day of Work...

.... and boy was it work for both of us!! We started this morning at about 10 a.m. Spencer roped the little guy around the neck so I could start teaching him how to yield his hindquarters, not run off and hopefully get to where I could put a halter on him. It didn't take him long to figure out that running wasn't a good option and I had him driving by me, yielding his hindquarters and switching directions pretty quickly. The little guy seems to have a lot of feel and is very smart - lots of licking and chewing during breaks. We kept at this for a while and I kept working my way up the rope. We finally hit a bit of spot where he stopped progressing - and that was when I could get up about 2 feet away from him. Then he'd get a little bothered and need some more space. So with the help of Spencer's dad, I quit pursuing touching him for a while and started seeing if I could get him to lead at all. Working his hindquarters around both directions encouraged him to start taking steps forward with his outside front foot, which of course leads to leading!! He eventually got to where he would come around and then lead forward about 10 steps.

By this time, it was apparent that I probably wasn't going to be able to touch him today so it was time to look for a good stopping place. Not being able to get close enough to touch him made for a challenge of getting the rope off his neck. After flipping it around both sides of his head and body hoping the rope would slide through the honda and loosen up, we decided to fashion a "hook" that I could get close enough with to let the rope run through. By 1 p.m. I had the rope off, had a refresher course in my rope handling skills and my mustang's as well!! He got it over his back, around his butt, wrapped all the way around all 4 feet and handled it all quite well!! No kicking and firing or bolting off. What a very sensible young colt!

3 hours is a pretty long first session for any horse (and me for sure lol), let alone one that has never been handled, but I gave him lots of breaks and "soaking" time so he never quit on me. I'm very happy and encouraged with what we got done today. I think once he gets over the hump of being touched and is able to relax all the way, we're going to be rolling along pretty quickly!

Here are the name ideas we have so far:
"Cabrito"
"Ollie"
"Gunner"

Any other ideas?



This is about as close as he would let me get today

Almost there...

Getting the hind quarters shaped up


Taking a moment to relax


Driving past me, getting a feel for the rope

Pickup Day!

We (Spencer, his dad, grandmother, and I) made it down to Canon City this morning at about 11 AM. It was a neat experience, I'd never been around that area of Colorado before! At the prison where I picked my colt up, they hold anywhere between 2,500 and 3,000 mustangs. They feed a semi-load of hay PER DAY. That's a lot of horses! It definitely gave me a better appreciation and understanding for what it takes to care for our national treasures.

Sooo on to the latest addition at 8th Heaven Farms...

He is a 4 year old gelding that was captured as a baby from the Sulphur herd in Utah. He's dark bay/brown with 3 short socks, a small star and small snip. I might also add that he has a beautiful head and large, shapely and expressive ears!

I think I've gotten lucky and received a horse that is pretty quiet, smart, and seems to think things through before reacting. I was pleasantly surprised with how well he took in all of today's events.

I spent about 20 minutes today after unloading him getting to know him a little and see what he's all about. We ended with him being able to yield his hindquarters to me pretty good. He faced up and did some licking and chewing. I think we made good first impressions on each other. I plan to spend more time with him tomorrow and will post pictures!

I'd still like some name suggestions - right now I'm leaning towards "Cabrito" which means "kid" in Spanish. That seems to fit him!

Well that's all for now. It's been a long day and hopefully I'll actually be able to sleep tonight! :)



Checking out his new pen and kinda getting to know each other







What a pro in the trailer!

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow I'll be headed down to the prison in Canon City, Colorado to pick up my partner for the next 90 days. I've been spending the last week making the necessary preparations and plans for his arrival. It's been hard not knowing what exactly to expect since this is my first experience with a mustang. I just hope that everything goes to plan and he gets settled in pretty quickly! Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post some pictures of his arrival and his new digs. Also, I'm going to need some help coming up with a name for him, so any ideas would be great!!!