Month: November 2019

B is still not happy with O being in the adjacent but out-of-reach paddock to learn trailer training.  I've tried allowing them to be together then separating but B gets too aggressive (unacceptable and potentially dangerous) when I take O away so unfortunately potentially to B's detriment, they have to be separated permanently for now.  I realize this is a bit of an oxymoron (permanently for now) but it's the horse that drives these situations.  If B can show me he's comfortable with O in the adjacent paddock, I may allow a short time together in the future.  This togetherness appears to be for B's benefit as O seems to prefer his own space.

I certainly don't have all the answers myself so I "phoned" a couple friends on FB and received some "I hear ya", "following", and some great feedback.  It's a relief to know that I'm not the only one who has the bromance problem with my horses.  It makes me feel a little more competent.

One great piece of feedback came from positive reinforcement trainer Shawna Corrin Karrasch of On-Target Training.  She provided me with a link to this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CmWnGSUMF4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2pJYWT8TsF2IbfG2KTG5dz0-BPT0Zigtx2D6trBm9Ks15OmmSe_9-qgiY, which is about 17 minutes long then I went out and tried a few things with B & O.

The good news is that B does take breaks from pining for O and will go eat his breakfast or dinner.  The bad news is that he spends a lot of time pining and pacing, which has resulted in a sore front hoof.  The first thing I noticed is that B gets alarmed slightly even when I approach O's stall.  So I asked O to back up so that B could still see him.  B calmed down.  Then I brought O out of the stall.  B whinnies.  I bring O out of the front of the barn and around the corner so that when B stops whinnying, I bring O into his few.  B calms down.  O and I do the hokey pokey based on whether B is whinnying or drops his head, licks and chews.  The latter behaviors are indications of calming.

I let O loose in the paddock so that he can continue his trailer loading lessons on his own.  Then I take the flag to B and invite him to target the flag.  He'd really rather stare at O to see if he goes anywhere but he likes this target game so he engages and gets rewarded after he touches the flag.  I invite him to touch the target in the direction facing away from O.  This is harder but he understands the game so after a while he touches the flag.  I leave him alone and he watches O get in the trailer.

Hard to see but O is in there eating lunch.  Such a good boy.  I have hope that B is going to feel better and am glad that I have access to knowledgeable and kind horse people through Horse Radio Network.

As a refresher, Odin the Mustang does not like the confines of the trailer or the rattly noise it makes when he gets in.  We've tried months and months of slow going but the result is always the same: he'd rather not, no thank you.  One day in the midst of my angst about his lack of willingness to accept the trailer as a benign thing, I heard a podcast hosted by Certified Horsemanship Association ExDir, Christie Landwehr, in which she said she trained one of her horses to load by serving all his meals in the trailer.

Generally trailer training can be positive reinforcement or pressure/release training.  This method is passive positive reinforcement: he gets in the trailer, his reward is as much hay as he wants.  Usually a bridge signal, like a click, is used so the horse knows that he got it right.  Maybe in this case the bridge signal is the rattle of the trailer.  Oh I hope so!

Someone recently told me they had trained their horse this way too.  My fabulous farrier confirmed the idea but warned that the trailer needs to be securely hitched to the truck or some other fixed object (like a tractor), otherwise trailers are too unstable for horses getting in and out.  I pass this information along just in case someone takes this idea and runs with it but forgets to attach the truck.

Beege the OTTB willingly gets in the trailer as the usual manner of taking it slowly worked for him.  Beege is a domestic horse and super eager to please.  Odin is not a domestic horse (or wasn't) and he decides if he wants to follow my leadership.  Most of the time he does because I think he regards me as a rather benign leader who provides food, water, scratches, and presents some rather interesting puzzles.  He doesn't understand why I want to pick up his feet or why I want to get on his back when traveling together on foot would be just fine with him but he's willing to accept these benign requests because they're not scary or uncomfortable.

The first night, I set up 4 hay bags along the length of the inside of the trailer.  He ate the first one.  Last night, I did the same thing but with less hay at the opening of the trailer.  He took a bite, rattled the divider, snorted and flew backward.  Oh honey, it's gonna be a long night for you isn't it?  But he went back, poked his head in the trailer and tried again.  He's a thinking horse.

By this morning Odin had eaten three of the four bags, leaving the one at the front of the trailer.  When I put in his breakfast bag at the third station near the front, he followed me in.  I asked him to back out so I could gather the empty bags and safely get out myself.  He did that then got right back in to eat his breakfast.  I would've taken a photo but it was still dark.  And that's the other thing, he doesn't mind the headlamp any more, which was an issue until he got used to it.

Beege has settled a bit with this new arrangement.  At least he's eating all of his feed but he still has to go out and check to see if Odin is still out there.  Odin's trailer training seems to be more difficult for Beege than it is Odin.  Yesterday after I let them hang out together for a few hours I tried to groom Beege but he was not having it.  He clearly is still mad at me for breaking up the bromance.  Odin doesn't care.  He let me groom him for as long as I wanted.

In a lot of ways Beege, the OTTB in the background, and I are alike.  We can both spend all night worrying and fretting over imagined disasters.  The reason Beege is worrying is because I'm breaking up the bromance so that I can take Odin the Mustang on trails, to clinics, etc.

To do that, we need to work  on trailer loading as he really does not like it and I don't like the struggle every time.  We have tried positive reinforcement: one foot in, click treat, two feet in click treat, three feet in, click treat, four feet in, click treat, four feet in and walk to the hay bag at the front of the trailer, click treat, ad nauseum.  Every time it's like starting over every time. It's better if I work on it several times a week but for various reasons I haven't been able to do that and I was hoping that all the work we did in June and July when I got them ready to move here would stick.  Nope!

I will get to the point about Beege in a minute just in case you thought I got lost on a tangent.

When O & B were at the last boarding place, O was terrified of low ceilings and closed spaces like barns.  Eventually he was okay eating under the eaves but for the most part he'd stand out in the rain if his food wasn't under shelter.  When they moved here, B was fine going in a stall to eat but I had to introduce the idea of a stall slowly to O.  I started by throwing his hay halfway to the stall for a couple days, then at the entrance of the stall, then I hung a hay bag just inside the stall so that he'd have to eat his hay with his head in the stall. Finally, I hung the hay bag at the front of the stall so he had to be entirely in the stall to eat.  That approach worked great with O and he's completely comfortable being in a stall, even in a stall with B.

The photo above is O having to eat his hay and grain with his head in the trailer.  The trailer is connected to my truck (mirrors pulled in and brake engaged).  The door is tied open and propped on a muck bucket filled with water.  The divider is also tied open but it rattles if anyone, including me, steps in the trailer or touches it.  O is noise sensitive so I want him to get used to the rattle and realize it's not going to hurt him.  Hence the hay bag is tied above the divider so that it rattle every time he grabs a bit of hay.

O is adjusting to this environment beautifully, which is a lot to say for a Mustang who has been out of the wild for less than 2 years.  He's a super sensible, thoughtful guy.  B, on the other hand, is very worried about O's location and spent the night pacing his paddock.  He ate a little hay, all of his grain, drank a small bucket of water.  Even though B can't see O when they're in stalls all night eating, this new arrangement has rattled his confidence in a big way.

I had planned to turn the truck and trailer around today so that it faced out but now I have to leave this configuration for at least another day so that B understands this is going to be okay before I change anything at all.  Tomorrow I have to turn the truck and trailer around, before it starts raining again because I don't want to get stuck in the turn around process.  Then B can have as much time as he needs to get used to O having the trailer as his stall.

Fall weather has been wonderful for the last couple weeks.  This dry spell was after a short but intense wet period that turned the paddocks into mud pits.  The pea gravel porches needed help so I put stall mats on top of the pea gravel and then the rain stopped.  The paddocks are still drying out.

I've been doing little things with the boys.  We've had company, I was out of town for a few days, and sometimes it feels like all I do with the horses is pick poop, feed and water them.  My Wednesday afternoons are a blessing.  Sometimes I do extra chores like spread a ton of lime on the upper pasture.  Then when the boys get curious and come up, I do liberty work with them.  Most of the time I ask Odin to come to the mounting block so I can get on bareback.  He's a good sport about it.  Odin is also pro at putting his front feet in the triangle, which is the start of the obstacle course.  He doesn't push the blue yoga ball very well or sidepass over a log but he has his skills.  Beege isn't very good about putting his front feet in the triangle but he loves to push the ball and is quite good at sidepassing over a log and even over the blue yoga ball.

Today I took Beege through his paces on the obstacle course and worked a bit harder at having him put his front feet in the triangle.  He also let me put the flag on the stick all over his body.  We went for a walk to the front yard.  He didn't seem to mind being away from Odin but he definitely looked at the construction project next door.  When we went back, we practiced with the mounting block even though I really don't have any intention of riding him.  Odin didn't mind at all being alone in the back pasture although he did walk up to greet us when I returned Beege to the pasture.  I gave them a few minutes to snuggle before I took Odin out.

Even though Beege had a great session with obstacles and I didn't overface him at all, he still voiced his objection when I took Odin to the cross-ties in the barn.  He ran around a bit, whinnied but stopped and hung out in his stall even before I finished grooming and saddling Odin.  I took Odin to the obstacle course, took him through his paces and got on.  He really doesn't like to move forward but once he knows I'm serious about it, he gets on with it.  We turned left and right, did small figure 8s in a flat open spot, trotted up the hill to the obstacle course a couple times, backed up, went forward then I dismounted.  One of these days I'm going to take him down the trail to the back of our property but I didn't have the right gates open.  Still, it was real riding, with a saddle and bridle.  Mostly I've ridden him with a saddle pad or bareback and bridleless.  And by riding I mean, I got on, went forward stopped and got off.  Today was a nice little refresher for both of us.  Turns out we're not too rusty!