Category: Horses (Page 1 of 3)

Last month I described the ten-step process by which I'm teaching my very reluctant mustang to load into the horse trailer. For Odin, it's one thing to get into the trailer and quite another to go anywhere.  He gets into the trailer and allows me to shut the divider, shut the door but he doesn't like it.  My goal is to teach him to relax in the trailer.

At this point, the props I described in that post are unnecessary.  Odin has graduated to getting in and standing on the spot where the mat would be.  He is rewarded for standing nicely, putting his head forward, and waiting quietly, no target needed.  Because these exercises are difficult for him, I use special treats, i.e. sugar cubes, so that he knows he is doing the right thing.  For ordinary target exercises, I give him a handful of alfalfa pellets, which are part of his dinner, or regular treats I buy from the feed store.

The eleventh and twelfth steps are going somewhere and relaxing in the trailer, not necessarily in that order.  I'll explain:

It's been ages since I had a riding lesson and there's a barn 10 minutes away with a trainer who specializes in retraining off-the-track Thoroughbreds (OTTB) for other jobs, such as jumping.  She is also a vet tech, which is where I met her the first time when she assisted my veterinarian with routine vaccinations, dental float, deworming, and sheath cleaning of my late OTTB.  I scheduled a lesson with her, knowing I'd have to consistently but gently train Odin to load in the trailer for the next two weeks.

My ten-step process worked for loading quickly but I knew he wouldn't like the 10-minute journey to the stable.  We arrived early enough that I was able to off-load him nicely then show him around a bit, let him take the new place in and relax before saddling and riding.  Odin is wiggly when it comes to saddling so we are working on that too — standing still and relaxing for saddling.  It's harder with the western saddle because it's heavy with a lot of things hanging off each side: front and back cinches, the breast collar, heavy stirrups.  I chose the western saddle because I'm more likely to sit on him, rather than default to two-point position.  I need to be able to sit on him during this stage of training.

Lhanze, the trainer, set up a few ground poles and had me start working him from the ground since he's fairly green and we want him to be comfortable with the obstacles and the questions they posed without having to balance a rider too.  One gentle step at a time.  Odin is willing enough with obstacles but in all of his mustang life, he has found it more convenient to simply go around an obstacle than over it.  He really does not understand why we do what we do in domestic life but he's curious and finds easy challenges fun.  Once I was on his back and we tackled the same obstacles with ease, Lhanze raised the poles off the ground but not too high because actual jumping in a western saddle is awkward.  Next time I will ride him in my English saddle.  It was a fun lesson with a little homework for me to practice: straight and forward.

Loading back in the trailer was ok but he didn't want to stay in.  Lhanze shut the divider and I was able to duck under it, get him tied and the door shut.  She said it was harder to train to load by yourself, which eased my mind considerably.  Since then I have been less expectant of myself and of Odin.  Also, I wasn't surprised when Odin was a sweaty mess from the 10-minute ride back home.

The reason why going somewhere is the eleventh step and relaxing in the trailer is the twelfth is because it could take many more months for Odin to relax.  We've been working on trailer loading for nearly two years and sometimes we just have to go somewhere. We've moved twice and gone trailer riding.  I appreciate his willingness to trust me and get in the trailer even though he doesn't like it.  We still work on trailer loading several times each week.  It has become part of our training sessions.  If the weather is nice, I saddle him and we practice straight and forward from the barn to the front and back again.  There's a big dip with a creek between the house and barn so we get hill work in too.  The other part of the session is getting in the trailer and just hanging out.

At first Odin ignored the hay bag as he was too nervous to  eat.  He just wanted me to give him the signal to back out.  Just today he was willing to eat hay, even when I closed the divider.  That earned a click, open the divider, a sugar cube then back out.  Like special treats, he gets the extra yummy hay while in the trailer.

Progress is miniscule but I'm so proud of him for working through what must be against every instinct.  Horses are truly magical creatures who simply want to cooperate and please in exchange for kindness and good living.

A few of my lucky friends have horses who load easily into the horse trailer.  They get right in, stand in the right spot and wait for their human to close the doors then drive on.  My horse is not like that.  My horse, Odin the Mustang, was rounded up from the range and likely driven into a noisy metal stock trailer with a bunch of his terrified herd mates or possibly terrified members of a stranger herd.  Imagine walking with your handler to another clanky metal box and remembering those feelings of terror the last time you were faced with the trailer. It’s easy to understand why he resists getting into the horse trailer.

Domestic horses may also have had an unlucky introduction to trailer loading.  Maybe they were pulled, whipped, or otherwise punished for not getting in right away.  It’s easy to imagine why these horses resist loading.  And humans also have scary or frustrating experiences with trailer loading. No wonder trailer loading is difficult for everyone involved!

How do we leave the property for lessons, clinics, trail riding, being with friends if both horse and handler dread trailer loading?  Make it a fun game for you and your hose to enjoy!  The game has two simple rules: stay safe and have fun (both of you).  What’s this game?  I call it “Good Times in the Horse Trailer” and I try to make it a good time in the horse trailer for Odin.

The steps:

1. Teach your horse to touch a hand-held target using positive reinforcement. I use a Goodwill lacrosse stick with the head duct taped so that there are no holes in the net.  You can make a safe target on a stick out of a duct-taped water bottle on piece of dowel or broomstick.  You can use a broom.  Whatever you use make sure it’s easy for the horse to see and touch with his nose.  Hold the target in front of him, let him reach his nose to touch it then make a clicking sound (not the go-forward clucking sound) with your tongue and give him a treat.  Repeat until he understands that he gets goodies every time he touches the target and hears the click.  For more resources on positive reinforcement, click here.
2. Teach your horse to stand on a mat. Steps one and two might take 15 minutes.  Odin figured them out in about 5 minutes but some horses are more distracted and everyone has a different learning rate.  A mat can be an old saddle pad or old towel or old bath mat.  I use brightly colored bath mats and when Odin puts a foot on the mat, he hears the click and receives a treat.  It didn’t take him long to figure out I wanted two feet on the mat and then he was rewarded for staying on the mat for a count of five, ten, long enough for me to walk around him, get something from the tack room.  The mat is his standing spot.
3. The first two steps are easily taught at liberty. When I want to move these games to the trailer, I use a halter and lead rope mostly to help him focus and not completely abandon the game.  The halter and lead rope are not to pull him in the trailer or punish him in any way.  At this step, simply move your horse’s mat to the trailer, either near it or in it, depending on how comfortable your horse is near the trailer.
4. Use your hand-held target to move your horse to the mat. Reward him each time he touches the target as you move it closer to the mat.
5. Show him the mat and ask him to stand on it, then reward. These are fun games that he recognizes and can easily accomplish.  That feels good for both of you.  Success!
6. Move the mat closer to where you ultimately want the horse to stand. If the mat is in the trailer and the trailer rattles, you may have to reinforce him for standing on that one spot for a while.  If your horse is in the trailer and wants to leave, let him back out nicely, then ask him to target and stand on his mat again.  Giving him a bit of choice in the matter builds his confidence and trust in you.
7. Keep using the target, mat and rewards to the place where you want your horse to stand patiently.
8. Once you reach that place, repeatedly ask him to target. I transition from the hand-held target to targeting a flag or handkerchief hanging where his nose goes. Reward for standing nice with you and continuing to play the target game.
9. Reward him for standing on his mat while you move along his body to close the divider or butt bar.
10. Close the door and show him the hand-held target from the outside of the trailer. You stand on the outside of the trailer and let him touch the target with his nose 5-10 times.  My horse gets more distracted at this point and ideally I’d like him to touch it 10 times but I’ll let it go if he no longer wants to play that game and instead licks and chews as a sign of release.  Then I open the door, open the divider and stand with him and target again for a moment or two until I’m comfortable that he’ll stay with me for as long as I ask and then I’ll back him out and let him graze before we go ride or go back to his paddock.

As you practice, these steps go quickly and you may be able to skip steps.  Sometimes you have to repeat steps.  Sometimes Odin wants to leave before I’m ready.  I let him leave and ask again, repeat until he waits for me to initiate backing out.

Keep in mind that depending on your previous experience or your horse’s previous experience you both may need to be reassured that this is a fun, safe game and worth practicing!  Take as much time as you need in each step. It’s also important to remember that learning for both of you is not linear and sometimes it’ll feel like you have to go all the way back to step one.  I’ve had this happen when I’ve mistakenly tried to rush Odin and just get on with it darn it!  When will I learn that impatience does not pay? Not soon enough I’m afraid as I’m still learning that lesson. Thankfully horses are forgiving if we are generally kind.  Now I take as much time as necessary in each step and attempt to give Odin good feelings about getting and being in the horse trailer.  When he feels good about it, I feel good about it and those are games worth practicing.

Since we lost Beege the other day I'm trying to give Odin the Mustang more attention than usual.  We both feel a little lost and clingy without B.

Here's the video I made of R+ training at liberty: 

Beege was ultimately my teacher.  Of course when I got him  in October 2015 I had big plans to start eventing or continue hunter/jumpers.  He'd been retired from the racetrack for at least 7 years, someone had him for a while and started eventing him.  The photos of Beege going over beginner novice obstacles were horrifying at best because his rider wasn't balanced, was jumping ahead of him.  What I liked was his try in spite of a poor pilot.  Beege was going for it even though it didn't look like he enjoyed it very much.

After I adopted him from a neighbor, I put him in training at a local hunter/jumper barn without much success for a number of reasons.  The training operation was in transition was one problem and the other was that B didn't take to a life mostly in a stall.  He was used to having access to pasture and turnout.  Most boarding and training barns do not have the luxury of  acreage for adequate turnouts for all the stabled horses.  Many horses get turned out for an hour a day then return to their stall or the arena for the remaining hours.  Many horses do fine in this system.  Some horses prefer the familiarity of their stall but not B.

In November of that year I moved him to a friend's pasture.  Since I didn't have a horse trailer I attempted to do some training on my own and relied on past practices or traditional horsemanship, which is often pressure and release or sometimes even punishment.  The idea is to apply pressure then release when they get the right answer.  At the time I didn't know how to recognize the right answer.

One problem with B was that he felt pressure from so many directions it was difficult to get him to focus.  Plus it was November so daylight hours were in short supply and training in the field lead to mud, which is less than ideal.  Training on my own was depressing as I was not making any progress with him.  It was also clear that he didn't trust me as his leader.  For good reason too.

Thankfully I was introduced to a kind farrier who had some connections that might be able to help me.  One of these connections was a trainer starting her own business and she was willing to come to me to help me out. We started training together in February 2016.

Meghan is a natural horsemanship trainer, which I knew little about except that it seemed kinder than traditional methods.  In the past I had rejected it because it never seemed like natural horsemanship trainers ever actually rode.  Which was short-sighted of me.  This time I needed to start somewhere and clearly we weren't going to start riding until B was more trustworthy.

Meghan's practices are primarily based on pressure and release techniques developed by trainers like Pat Parelli.  B was extremely sensitive so where we started was simply desensitizing him to a stick and string.  That went well but we moved on to the flag and learned that he was explosively distrustful of the flag.  If it so much as moved, B would snort and bolt.

My hopes for riding and going to events were pretty much dashed, although I could see some progress with Meghan's training.  Her goal was to teach him confidence so that he didn't have to snort and bolt.  We worked together over the months and were able to hand-walk him over to a neighbor's arena.  Sometimes it went well and many times it didn't.  It was always hard to tell when an exercise that had started well was going to unravel B.

Since I grew up on the philosophy that 30 days of training will get you a rideable horse, my hopes to start riding any time soon seemed silly.  But Meghan was moving her operation to a training facility and I could put B in full-time training in June 2016.  The consistency would help him.

Or so we thought.

What we found was a long journey of lameness exams, ultrasounds, x-rays, chiropractic work, joint injections, a strained suspensory, which required stall rest.  I wasn't sure if the treatment was worse than him living with a strained suspensory.  Plus it was December so my getting to the barn to hand graze him was difficult.  Arena exercises were out of the question because if he got scared, he needed to move his feet.  Possibly a lot of moving and that was bad for his recovery.

Eventually (3 months?) he recovered from that injury and we were able to start riding again. Until he started spooking at unpredictable things.  Since he wanted to learn and wanted to please, we thought he might have more pain.  After more diagnostics and injections, a specialist diagnosed arthritis in his front fetlocks.  Maybe he'd be suitable for light trail riding or maybe some easy jumps but he'd be unpredictable under saddle as it was clear when he was in pain, his fear and distractedness overruled any training he'd had.

None of this was fun for B or me.  Or even Meghan really.  It's difficult to ride an unpredictable horse even if you're getting paid for it.

I made the decision to retire him to another friend's pasture.  I could still do ground work with him and he learned to like some of the Parelli games because he was good at them.  He was good at obstacles and targeting strange things like boats, tractor implements, and tarps.  He would even stand on a tarp.  B's bugaboo was the flag.  I spent hours trying R+ (positive reinforcement or clicker training) just getting him to look at a flag.    Finally he would target it.  Sometimes he'd allow me to actually touch him with it.  He learned to love target training and getting rewarded for the right answer.

What B and I gained from training was confidence.  I learned to be a leader and to wait for him to tell me what he needed that day.  Sometimes B was very quick about telling me what he needed, which was a reminder that he was safe.  Mostly B was a sweet horse who desperately wanted a job he was good at. R+ training was a good fit for him because he loved being successful and R+ rewards, frequently, a job well done.

This post will be one of many as I work through my emotions about losing him on Friday.

I lost this beautiful boy yesterday. When I went out to feed at 5:00 a.m. Beege heard me coming and whinnied a bit pitifully from a place near the pasture — not his normal waiting place.  It was still dark but I found him lying down, steam rising from his body.  Not good.  He'd obviously been rolling and was in pain.  I walked up to the barn to get a halter to help him.  By that time he'd gotten himself up and came up to his stall.

At first I was relieved, thinking he was okay but he started pawing violently in his stall.  I called the vet emergency service and was about to put on his halter when he went down and got himself cast against the wall, couldn't get up.  By then my vet called to say she was on her way, driving time.  I tried to help him up by putting a lead around his front hooves and rolling him my way.  Somehow he managed to get himself up, ripped a wooden post from the wall and headed back outside.  I called him back in so I could halter him before he went somewhere else to roll.

Even in his extreme pain he was compliant and wanted my help.  I got him haltered and we walked outside where there was a little more room in case he went down again.  And he did.  By then Randy came up to the barn with a cup of tea for me, because he's sweet that way.  He's not a horse guy but he asked if he could pet B and so he did.  He went back up to the house to take care of our old dog, Jodee, while I waited for the vet.  B was up again and I kept him walking to avoid going down again.

By the time the vet arrived, he went down again and cast himself against the barn.  Between the vet and me, we got him up again and she injected him with a sedative.  How he did not gash his legs by getting stuck against walls is beyond me. 

The vet did her normal check with the stethoscope and injected him again with more sedative.  Not enough sounds in the hind gut, which means blockage.  We started discussing options.  Surgery?  He might not make it to the operating room.  Since B was retired I didn't have him insured for colic surgery, mostly because his quality of life post-surgery probably wouldn't be great.

The vet put on the long rectum sleeve and felt around for poop and blockage.  No poop.  More injection as he was obviously still in pain.

At that point he put his forehead on my abdomen and rested it there for a moment.  It was a poignant moment and remembering makes my eyes water.

The next step was to tube his nostril to see if she could draw any liquid out of his stomach.  Some came out, along with a bit of grain that he'd eaten the night before.  His dinner hay must've been between that part of his stomach and whatever was blocking the exit.  He'd eaten most of his hay so we concluded that I caught his colic early, which is a blessing sort of.  Less time to be in excruciating pain.

She said that if he colicked again through the third sedative that she could give him the super sedative, the morphine based one, and ultrasound his gut.  With the ultrasound, she saw the front part of the gut moving a little but nothing in the hind gut.  We made the decision to put him down.

The morphine made B feel calmer and as always he was compliant.  I lead him up to the back pasture with a spot in mind for burial.  He stopped at the crest of a small hill and started to graze.  His final meal, his last moments of being a horse.

If he had pooped on the way up to that spot, I would've rejoiced but I knew he was just being a horse, relaxing with me for a few moments.

Dr. Claire came up with her kit and explained to me how it would work, the series of injections, how she would help him lie down after the first injection and how I could be at his head for the final one.

It was still dark when she began.  He went down with a predictable thump.  I loved on him, told him what a good boy he'd been, and then he was gone.

A horse's body takes several minutes to shut down.  About 30% of their body is respiratory so they exhale several times even after the heart has stopped.  I probably would've been shocked by that if Dr. Claire hadn't explained what to expect.  My only other experience was with cats and they exhale only once.

I spent the day alternately mourning and worrying about Odin the Mustang.  Per Dr. Claire's advice I let him discover B's body.  It took a couple hours and when O finally saw him, he spooked then walked over to investigate.  As a mustang who grew up on the range, I felt certain that O had seen more dead horses than I ever have but I wasn't sure what to expect from him.

O grazed near B's body for a few hours.  The excavator was coming but I wasn't sure when so I covered B's body with a tarp.  O didn't like that.  He tried picking up the tarp with this teeth, pawing at it.  Maybe he wasn't ready yet.  I'm not sure.

The excavator did arrive in the afternoon and B is buried now.  O seems to be looking for him, a little lost, clingier to me than usual.

Rest in Peace Winterproof.  June 3, 2003 – February 7, 2020.

There are some downfalls to having your horses at home and one of them is mud.  I knew winter rains would bring some mud but didn't it to be quite like this.

In this photo, Beege is having a big yawn from possibly processing some major thoughts about being alone (without Odin the Mustang) for a little bit or we might've finished up some clicker training in his dry stall.  I gave him a little porch by flopping a stall mat over the entrance so he has an outside place to hang out that isn't mud.  There are non-muddy options but he has to travel through mud to get to them.  The same is true for Odin's space.  Hopefully this summer the mud will be mitigated.

So how is the equestrian journey supposed to continue during mud season when the footing is treacherous so most groundwork and riding are out of the question?  My solution is this book:

The very first lessons begin in the stall or a small, enclosed space like a paddock.  Both my horses enjoy this training and I can do a few minutes every day simply to remind B to calm down and O to respect my space.  These are perfect training sessions for wet, muddy, short daylight days and they both become interested when they see me setting up a potential new game.

With a weather forecast like this:

I see a lot of small exercises, which is relationship building, in the near future.  And when it's time to ride again, that relationship building will mean a lot.

The other day I mentioned in this post that I had listened to a Horses in the Morning podcast episode in which Mary K Kitzmiller answered my written question about trailer loading.  She had great advice and helped me figure out where to go with Odin, which I practiced yesterday.   She also had some great not-to-dos about which I immediately felt guilty but then realized that now that I know better, I will do better.

One thing MKK said was that if he doesn't want to get in the trailer, don't punish him by making him move his feet.  Remembering back to a recent session where O didn't want to get in the trailer when I did ask him to move his feet, I felt guilty.  And he did get in the trailer and we got to go for a trail ride that day.  He also got back in the trailer after the trail ride without any fuss.

Thinking back, I wasn't punishing him by asking him to move his feet.  He was kind of rattled by the training (I had him over threshold, which is not the goal) so I allowed him to move his feet in a safe place away from the trailer and I wanted him to move his feet in a way that wasn't just running around and bucking.  I wanted him to engage his brain rather than feel like he was running away from A Scary Thing so I asked him to change directions, jump up a little terrace, and when he was ready I asked him to transition down to a walk then halt.  My goal was to make sure he was with me and listening to my cues.

My next goals are to work with him in such a manner that he doesn't go over threshold, so that we don't have to move his feet.  I may ask him to move his feet in order to make sure he's paying attention to me and can follow simple cues such as move your shoulder, move your haunches, be soft in the rib cage but I think that most R+ (positive reinforcement) trainers would agree that doing a little ground work now and then to check in is good horsemanship.

Here's a 54-second video of my R+ work with O on Saturday.

B has lots of yawns when I bring Odin back up to the barn.  Often we go up front to work on the gravel driveway and away from his lounging area.  Up front is out of B's sight.  At first he protested loudly and frequently.  Now he protests a little and less frequently but clearly O's absence gives B a lot to think about.  In fact, B was yawning when I fed breakfast this morning so I'm not exactly sure what happened during the night to give him deep thoughts.  Maybe he was still pondering that he's okay in spite of O's temporary absence.  I really don't know.

It's hard to see but I have B's right front foot wrapped as he's had a deep abscess that is taking a long time to heal.  The vet was out about 10 days ago and dug a little channel for it to drain then wrapped it in layers of poultice, vet wrap, duct tape, padding, elastikon, and more duct tape.  This muddy area between his stall and his lounging area isn't ideal for his fragile feet but it's what we have for now and this layered wrap stays on for several days.  He very well could be feeling better because this morning he went for a roll, a buck and a fart before returning to his breakfast.  The buck and fart lifted my heart a bit.

In yesterday's post, I mentioned some advice I received from trainer Melissa Deal about treating him for ulcers.  I couldn't find a source I liked for the product she mentioned so I reached out to a multitude of sources and started feeding him a little bit of slippery elm (one of Melissa's suggestions), Redmond Daily Gold, and am waiting for Ultra Guard from Smartpak.  At first he didn't like the slippery elm so I disguised it in his dinner with soaked beet pulp. He seems to like the Daily Gold so I will likely keep that one.  What I'm hoping for is to reduce or eliminate all his bodily dysfunctions so that his brain can work.  How many of us have clear thoughts when we're distracted by a belly ache or sore foot?

When you take too many big steps and things are still difficult, it's time to backtrack.  I found myself dreading trailer training because Odin doesn't like it and I don't like him not liking it.  I don't like backtracking either because it takes me further from my goals.  Or does it?

Recently I've been perusing my sources of horsemanship advice that make me feel positive.  I listened to an August or September episode of the Stall and Stable podcast, in which host Helena discusses adding "The Compassionate Equestrian" to her reading library.  During the episode she interviewed Melissa Deal of Victory Land Dressage located in North Carolina.  Their discussion was about compassionate equitation and how it can help you achieve your horsemanship goals.

The timing was perfect since frustration was definitely keeping me from my horsemanship goals, not only with Odin the Mustang who is my riding horse, but also with my retired thoroughbred, Beege.  I signed up for one of her virtual lessons and was immediately surprised by her first suggestion, which was that Beege had ulcers.  I was surprised because he's been retired for years so it didn't occur to me that he could develop ulcers (again) from just ordinary household stress — stress from moving Odin to an adjacent (but different!) paddock, stress from pain from arthritis and a nagging abscess that is taking a long time to surface.  In short, many things stress B out that doesn't stress O out at all.  So I'm trying some nutritional supplements to see if that helps him feel better.  She also gave me a list of 6 basic things to work on, including targeting,  head down, standing on a mat (in one place) — all the things that horses need to learn before they can move on.  And she gave me a realistic number of times that the horse should be successful at these exercises before moving on.

I also realized that in my own library I have a positive reinforcement book by Alexandra Kurland that lays out this foundational training in a step by step format.  The virtual lesson plus the book helped me have a great day with both my horses yesterday.  I found a kid's lacrosse stick at the Goodwill the other day, duct taped the head to make a hand-held target.  Both horses really enjoyed that lesson.  Also, from Goodwill, I found some bath mats that will serve as stationary places to stand.  O prefers to pick them up and shake them but he gets the idea of standing in one place.

And finally, I listened to an episode of Horses in the Morning podcast, in which Mary K Kitzmiller answered my written question on air about helping O be comfortable in the trailer.  He gets in fine but doesn't like to stay in.  The short answer is to let him out if he wants out and ask him to get back in.  Eventually, after 100 times (or maybe 1000) he'll realize it's okay and be fine with staying in.

The hard part for me is knowing that doing this 1000 times is going to take about 3 years but if I attempt to coerce O into the trailer it could take a lot longer, maybe never.  However, I'd rather be a compassionate, positive horseman than a frustrated, anxious one.

Some day, not long from now, it won't be January any more.  The mud will dry out, I won't worry about the horse trailer getting stuck, about O losing his footing on the squishy surfaces and it'll be safe to ride again.  For now, it's January, it might be raining, or snowing and freezing, and that's just the way it is.  Thankfully January doesn't last all year.