Month: December 2021

Redefining Goals

The link in the caption is a short movie I took of the horses running around in the dark. I was safely standing next to a fence so that they couldn’t accidentally run over me. They’d shoot the gap of the open gate then gallop up to the round pen where the footing is better. And back, bucking and snorting/farting the whole way. Clear the lungs and sinuses before finding full hay bags in their stalls.

Winter horsekeeping is a time for easing off the goals. The dark, cold, mud, and rain help facilitate this. I know people who manage to ride all winter. I sort of envy them but not really. Mostly I envy their level arenas with good footing. Deep in my bones I know that winter is a time for hibernation, for rest, and restoration for both humans and horses. Besides, I mind the cold and damp these days.

My mind loves established patterns and regularity. I find comfort in the sameness of every day. I love having a schedule. I call it my “Beloved Schedule” or “BS” for short. The irony cracks me up because it is B, the bull-pucky variety. The BS is good for setting a schedule to meet goals. Write down or mentally note what to practice every day.

Winter is a time for me to be more present with Odin and Bragi. Just be with them and nothing else. The goals will be there in February when there is more daylight and hopefully better footing.

The horses still have manners because I do micro sessions at feeding time. In the morning, I remove Bragi from Odin’s stall so that they can both enjoy their own breakfast in peace.

Bragi and I work on walking nicely in the barn aisle without crowding me. Bragi is 3 and still needy. His preferred place is in Odin’s lap. Or mine. I’m trying to teach him that he’s okay if he’s not in our laps and in his own stall.

With Odin I work on gaining his attention when he’d rather be looking anywhere else, or head down cues, which releases endorphins. Easy 2-minute exercises.

Whenever you’re with your horse(s) you’re either training or untraining them. Micro sessions are satisfying in that you’re still training but not committing to big sessions in the cold, dark and mud. I think the micro sessions will pay off when daylight returns. Stay tuned!

The official transfer of ownership of Bragi the Mustang from the Bureau of Land Management to me:

Caveat: I’m not a horse trainer. I now own two Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mustangs and subscribe to the idea that every time I’m them I’m either training or untraining them. Both of my boys came from skilled trainers who know how to gently introduce them to the ways of humans. Odin had 100 days of training and was just under saddle by the time I bought him. Bragi had about 30 days of training and barely tolerated wearing a halter. Now he’s seen the vet without losing his mind and I’m working on the idea of bathing and saddling.

More on bathing and saddling in a minute.

Before owning Mustangs, it never occured to me to think about the things we ask them to do from their point of view. For instance, when I got Odin a few years ago he had his first farrier appointment to trim his feet. When the farrier kindly asked him to pick up his foot, Odin seemed truly puzzled. It was as if he asked “why in the world would you want to hold my foot? That seems absurd!”

My farriers are awesome, patient, intelligent horsemen (gender neutral form of the word as my farriers are women). They gently persuaded Odin to pick up his foot and and allow them to hold it. Odin wasn’t alarmed by the request but just thought it was weird.

Looking back at the moment, I agree with him. We ask horses to do weird things, hopefully for their own health and safety so they can live in this human environment and thrive. Why adopt wild horses in the first place? That’s a whole other discussion but you may find information here. Both my boys enjoy regular, quality feed plus water whenever they’re thirsty. That’s not so easy in the wild.

Back to the idea of bathing and saddling Bragi. Bragi has an itchy tummy as he’s allergic to a common biting insect. Fly spray offers some protection but the saliva from the biting fly lingers and makes him itch. Ideally I will be able to bathe at least his tummy to remove that saliva offer relief.

Bragi doesn’t seem to mind the hose as much as Odin does. Odin acts like spray from water is acid on his skin. This morning I introduced a rag to Bragi. He didn’t mind at all. Some horses will shy away from a rag simply because they haven’t seen it before. He let me rub his shoulder and neck with it, ball it up and scratch his tummy, then flop it over his back as if it were a saddle pad. Tada!

The key to training horses is introducing new things to them kindly, patiently, and at the speed they are ready. If Bragi had jumped away from the rag, I would’ve backed up and introduced it to him from much farther away then approached him if he didn’t react. Then repeat. Ad nauseam.

When the Veterinarian Says the Horse is Too Fat

When the veterinarian visited in November to vaccinate, examine, and do dental work on Odin the Mustang, she commented that he was a bit too “fluffy” for his own good. She gave me the weight tape, which estimates weight based on girth measurement, and advised me to replace alfalfa hay for breakfast with local grass hay. He could continue to have alfalfa hay for his evening meal but to check his weight every couple weeks to see if the morning meal adjustment was moving his weight in the correct direction.

When I first used the weight tape, I’m not entirely sure I was using it correctly, as it wouldn’t meet at an actual number; instead the first measurement was at a letter in the phrase “Weight Tape” at the top of the tape.

Oh dear…

The second time I tried, the tape closed at a different letter in the phrase which seemed to indicate that Odin’s weight was going in the correct direction.

By this third measurement, shown in the photo, I noticed that his silhouette seemed a bit slimmer and maybe the fat pads near his shoulders were a little smaller. And it appeared that I definitively figured out how to use the weight tape.

Feeding an overweight horse, also known as an “easy keeper”, is actually harder than feeding a “hard keeper” in my opinion. For a hard keeper, you can add alfalfa pellets, soaked (or not) beet pulp, pelleted rice bran, even vegetable oil to their meals and give them as much hay as they’ll eat. And make sure their teeth are in good shape. The constant intake of food is beneficial as their stomachs produce acid constantly so they need the buffer of food to keep them healthy. Horses have evolved over the last million or so years to graze constantly.

Managing the diet for easy keepers is more difficult because to lose weight and prevent metabolic diseases such as laminitis and others, you’re supposed to restrict their food intake. Which can have digestive as well as psychological implications. Neither make for happy horses.

Exercise can be an important factor as well and this time of year in the Pacific North Wet, the footing is slippery and dangerous plus the weather is less than inspiring. I let my horses have as much space as possible to roam and play.

Fortunately Odin seems to be responding well to a simple replacement of one type of hay so he’s able to get the daily volume required to keep his digestive system happy and fulfills that primal need to graze all day.