Mustang Camp

The USFS chapter is about to end

2011-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Jicarilla Ranger District is terminating its management of the Herd Management Area and passing the responsibility to the Bureau of Land Management. The transition will be in place on 1 Oct. 2011. We are working our tails off to get the last of the horses trained and adopted before the funding goes away.

We are taking the challenge to scale up and prevent any horses from being sent to Long Term Holding in the midwest.

Directors Report 2 July, 2011

2011-07-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

We survived a tumultuous spring and are now fully engaged with the 2011 horses. The interest in adoption remains very high as we come to the completion of our USFS adoption contract. We have more adopters than trained horses and we are not sure if we will be awarded another contract. The government likes our work, they are just reluctant to commit the money. It's the result of some short term thinking in the office now that Anthony has gone on to be District Ranger in a different district. It would be nice to have some security for our program.

We will change over to BLM horses if we can't get paid for the adoption because we can't survive on the training fees alone.

We have had quite a few interns over the spring. They have mostly been from Chicago and Germany. We had a large number of applicants that did not come though offered a position. I believe that this is an effect of the way that I am keeping track of them and that only a quarter of the potential interns have ever arrived, but now it is apparent because it shows up on the calendar I am keeping. Right now I have a wonderful intern, Teresa, who just graduated from medical school in Austria. She is training one of our mustangs (Kalispell) to be ridden. She wanted to start with a freshly wild one and see how far she could get in the two months she is here.

The USFS accepted our online adoption form. We have yet for anyone to use it, but it was a fun project to build and test. It takes an adoption application form and mails it automatically to the USFS.

I finally wrote to the Canon City prison to see about taking some of their trainers on their release and having them come saddle train the older animals. So far the program director has not responded, but we hope something positive will come of it.

Directors Report 3 April, 2011

2011-04-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Mustang Camp, the non-profit entity, has been on hold for a while. We estimated that we would be able to fund it with proceeds from the adoption contract, but despite having gotten 20+ horses adopted, we have yet to see any money. This highlights one of the problems with trying to do service contracts for the federal government: their hands are tied to a crazy system and you have to adapt to it. Right now we are glad that we have the flexibility of personal ownership of the business.

Fortunately the employees we intended to take on, never arrived to start their jobs. We would be very stressed if we had to find money for paychecks. We have had volunteers for most of the spring.

We have taken two privately owned horses in for ground schooling. Wilbur (a PMU survivor), and Max (an unhandled mustang languishing in an adopters corral). We are charging $350 per month for ground school services. We don't have the personnel to ride them but we get them ready for riding by all the basics, driving, saddling, mounting, etc. The main thing is that we are getting them to have an interest in working with the primates. We would like to team up with another trainer who can do the saddle training.

During the last week of March, we had the first wild horses of 2011 arrive. We are naming the bands alphabetically... the band stallions names set the theme. So this was the A band, the stallion was named Austin and the theme is Texas towns. His son is Tyler, his mares: Odessa, Marfa, and Dallas. Or.. Dallas Alice. I may try to stay with town names.

There is a batchelor band in the USFS pens and they should be named B names (Benson and Bisbee?). Since they aren't my horses, it's not up to me.

I finally got a laser jet printer and chapters of the Mustang Camp Manual are starting to emerge from cyberspace.

Directors Report 10 Feb. 2011

2011-02-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Camp Directors Report 10 Feb. 2011
Submitted by Patricia Barlow-Irick

Accident
I was trying to feed a foal and mare, when the mare bit me. She took off the tip of my finger and my fingernail. It looks bad, but it doesn't hurt. It was a good safety lesson.

Hiring Help
I ran ad in Yard&Groom for an assistant trainer. I felt that I needed an assistant to handle all the horses that I would be trying to get adopted with the adoption contract that the USFS was offering. I will be paying my assistant with money that I earn on the adoption contract and not through Mustang Camp until Mustang Camp has money. I got about a dozen applicants, and it was very difficult to make a decision, but I selected a woman by the name of Krill. She was to start on February 15, but has been delayed till the end of the month. I became apprehensive about the situation and started thinking about hiring another person, but we will see if Krill actually makes it here. A second person named Terry impressed me with her application. Terry lives near Santa Fe, so I e-mailed her to come interview. Kerry will be here on Thursday of this week.

Adoption Contract
I was awarded a contract to get the horses adopted that were in the USFS holding pens. There were 21 horses, and I started advertising on Craig's list, improving the website, advertising in the local weekly shopper, and notifying the
people on the New Mexico Horse Friends FaceBook page. I had a very good response, and I've got 12 horses adopted including two half blind horses. We've been providing free delivery, which seems to have helped the adopters. Most of

the horses trained at Mustang Camp have been adopted. We hope to have all of the 2010 USFS horses adopted by the end of February. A 100% adoption rate is something to brag about. We will be emptying out their holding facility on Saturday when we take the last three horses to train.

BLM Invitation
I was worried about running out of horses, so I sent a letter to Dean Bostadt of the BLM inquiring about getting them directly from them, rather than going to TIPs. I received a call from Sally Spence with the Wild Horse and Burro office
in Washington. She and I had a nice conversation, and I directed her to the Mustang camp website. She was very interested in what we were doing. I talked to her about the three missions for Mustang camp and said that we needed horses and funding for education and research. She invited me to send her a proposal.

Google Advertising
Google has been offering free coupons for its AdWords, so I decided to try it to advertise the Mustang camp internships. I set up the variety of key words focused on Mustangs, wild horses, New Mexico, in horse training. I restricted my ads to Europe and Australia. As of Saturday the fifth, we had attracted 13 viewers through this program, but the analytic tools show that they are spending very little time on our website. We since changed that by making an adventure vacation webpage for them to land on. This seems to attact them into looking at the rest of the site, but I have had no conversions (inquiries about booking). Our viewers coming to us from other ways are spending an average of 12 minutes on our website. They're probably looking through the slide show of horse pictures for horses to adopt.

Soso created a new video for us and I placed it on the front page. I have to create another page with all of our mustang videos linked on it.

Adoption Mania

2011-01-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

The USFS awarded me the contract to do mustang adoptions and I hit the ground running. We are advertising in a diversity of locations. The Rural Electrical Association newsletter, the Enchantment, hit the street today and the phone has been ringing all day long. Craigslist continues to bring us a lot of inquiries especially now that our ads say FREE DELIVERY for 3 or more horses. We've got a real great group of adopters that have already found the mustangs of their dreams. It's exciting to see our trainees go to good homes. We are also placing horses trained by Tim Jobe and horses that are totally wild. I am stressing to the adopters that I did not train these horses. I don't like having anything to do with them really because I am worried that they will be difficult and people will think our mustangs are like that. The wild ones will be coming to Mustang Camp for training in a week or so.

Dr. Carla sent a donation to Mustang Camp. You may remember her from the Zekey saga... she has been a longtime supporter of the equids in Largo Canyon. It's the first revenue in the Mustang Camp account, so it's time to open a bank account. We have to have the money to file with the IRS and to pay for insurance to get the non-profit on it's feet.

I advertised for a training assistant on Yard and Groom and got a great one. Krill Birdwell will be joining us in early February. She has an AA in Stable Management and has experience in Parelli style training. We are going to make a dynamic team! Watch out world!

While I was advertising for Krill's position, I found out how many people out there expressed a desire to work with mustangs, so I added a position for internships and have had quite a few inquiries. Once they inquire on Yard&Groom, I send them to our Intern Application. I screen them there and then add them to the calendar. It's going to be a very busy summer!

We will also be hosting a group exploring the Dinetah on the 20th and 21st of May. They are a botanical group out on an archaeological field trip.

In the News

2011-01-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

I got a letter full of questions from someone who is writing a magazine article about mustang training. Here is my reply to her.

I don't know if I have time to write a book for you!!!! I think it would be best if you came out here and experienced it. You should at least come for one week when we are going to start some new horses. Or... come to our Mustang Intensive that will happen in April
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=177996928896580

1) You mention in your ad that one doesn't need any horse experience to be a part of the program - but obviously having a passion for horses is helpful to really being successful there. Aside from passion for horses, what characteristics have been most important in a person really learning how to bond with a horse, particularly if they come to it with no experience?

There is being successful here and there is bonding with a horse. They are not the same. I don't think people "bond with horses", I think they just fall in love. What does it take to fall in love? You can fall in love with a horse and not be able to train it ..... these things are totally unrelated.

Along those lines, what would be the most important things to tell someone with no experience on day 1 of your program?

Follow directions, stay out of the pens and watch. SAFETY IS NUMBER ONE CONCERN. People with no horse experience have a lot of ground to cover.

2) During training, is it primarily a ratio of 1 trainer to 1 horse, or do the horses have multiple trainers?

These horses are going to people we can't even imagine, so getting all the "trainers" to handle all the horses is important. That way the horse is more likely to generalize to all humans. When I am here by myself, it is very difficult, because I can't train them to accept other people without other people.

3) What are the most important safety concerns that you must take into consideration?

Wild horses are primed for flight or fight. Either is very dangerous. I don't let my human trainees into situations they can't handle. They will get fearful and the horse will respond to their fear by getting fearful. It snowballs fast. Horses are dangerous whether they are wild or not; the things they do to each other almost casually would kill us.

4) I've been doing some research, and some of the materials I've referenced have discussed pen construction - that the horse is placed in a round or square pen, tall and heavy in construction so he (or she) can crash against it without causing damage or going through the boards. About how big a pen is best, size-wise, for effective training? How does one humanely get the horse in the pen to begin with, if it's not yet gentled?

A pen 20x20 is what I like, but I have already dealt with some of the need for the horse to run away before it goes into the training pen. From the first morning it is here, our new mustangs are handfed. Someone is sitting out alongside the fence letting the horse find out that if it comes to the human it gets fed. Many horse trainers are opposed to this in principle, but the most honest part of our relationship is this: "Horse, you are now in the human world, we will ask you to work for us, but we will promise to keep you always fed, watered, and cared for." We are making a promise to feed that animal for the rest of it's life, so why not put the relationship right on that basis? We keep handfeeding the horse until it is quite relaxed to be near us. Within a day or so it is calling to us when it sees us. The need to run away from us has been obliterated. I then open the gates from the intake pen to the alley along the training stalls. I put hay in the stalls and give the horses a day to explore the system as a group. Then I start noticing when one is in a stall alone and I just shut the door. Soon all the horses are in the stalls. The stalls are pipe fencing on the south and heavy lumber walls on the north. The top rail of the fence is 7 feet. We never want a horse to be crashing into a fence -- it is easy for them to break their necks! Sometimes things will get a little "western", but it is a situation we want to avoid. We don't even go into the stalls for days... we just feed and train them through the fence panel. They feel safer with us out of their pen. When we finally go in, we are already friends.

5) Is there a daily routine for your program that remains the same each day (ie up at 5, to the pen by 5:30, etc)? What would that look like at its basis?

The most sure routine is that we sit down together for meals and talk about the plan, the horses, etc. We have to adjust our schedules according to the weather. We feed when the light comes over the eastern ridge of the canyon, and again when it sets over the western edge of the canyon. I don't wear a watch.

6) About how long does it take to get the horse to be comfortable with human contact? How long til you would consider it "gentled"?

Depends on the horse. Some are pretty well done in 2 weeks, others might never get "gentle". They are usually coming up and touching the human fingers to get hay by their 4th day here.

7) Once you've gotten the horse comfortable with contact, do you consider it then important to train it for additional purposes (ie work, show, etc)? What is your sort of "bare minimum" before you consider the horse trained well enough, say, for adoption?

The USFS contract stipulates that you can pet the horse on both sides and it is accustomed to the halter. We take that a lot further because we want to insure that the adopter can succeed with the horse. Our mustangs learn to be lead around the yard, to be groomed and have their hooves cleaned, to be good to catch, to load in a horse trailer, to stand tied, and to be sprayed for flies in season. We actually have fun teaching them other silly tricks when we have time, like chasing a flag, standing on a pedestal, etc.

8) When working with someone who's never been around horses before, do you find that it is helpful or important to accustom them to a domesticated horse before introducing them to one that's less trained (or not yet gentled)?

I have a very reactive pet mustang named Cisco that I use to teach my students pressure/release in the round pen. He understands it very well, isn't going to form a negative opinion about people, and is going to really mirror the degree of energy the people have. He teaches them to be calm and in control. I would not want to teach students this on a wild horse because it has to be done very well and very precisely to work without frustrating and scaring the mustang.

9) What's the most difficult experience you've had with a horse? The best?

I am working with a partially blind mustang now. By far the most challenging horse I have tried to tame. He probably won't ever be safe for an adopter, but he is extremely engaging for me. I've had him a couple of months and he has learned to calm down on command. For him it was a giant leap forward.
The best is when the adopters call me up and tell me how much they love their horse and all the things he/she has learned already and how they've been out riding around... and it's the best horse they ever owned, etc.,etc....well, those calls are the answer to my hopes and dreams for the horses. I fall in love with all of the horses I train too and to hear they have a good life means so much.

10) What made you decide to start your training program? Did you grow up with horses, or come to work with them later?

I grew up with horses. I trust horses. Mustangs are at a disadvantage in the world. They deserve a chance to just be great horses.

And finally, if there was one thing you really wish that writers or filmmakers would get right that you always feel is missing or done wrong in the projects you've seen/read about horses, what would that be (if anything)?

Writers and filmmakers focus on the romantic image of the cowboy. If you wear a hat and boots, well, you must know something about horse training. There is a scientific approach to animal training that could make a big difference for the good of the animals.

Did you watch our video series on YouTube?
http://www.youtube.com/user/patriciabarlowirick#grid/user/222011413433A144

Patricia
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Patricia Barlow-Irick Ph.D.
PO Box 620
Blanco, NM 87412
505-419-2575 cell

Winter

2011-01-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

Winter horsekeeping is a struggle to keep liquid water in the buckets and troughs of the herd. We combined the Mongolians with the Seniors so they could have equal access to the heated trough, with its electrically warmed water. The question of whether Dobie, Osiris, or Timugen would take command has provided a reason for careful observation. Who takes the first bag of food, and who does Trinity (the only mare) stay with?

Osirus is one tough dude. He might be the oldest, but he is definitely not taking any argument from those mere mortals.

Hiring Help

2011-01-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

I got spoiled this summer by having good assistants/interns. It's about 100% safer to have someone to work with. I go get John to help me with the dicey stuff like lifting the hind feet for the first few times. The only time I am really worried is when there is standing water on the ground and I could drown in a puddle. I don't know that it goes a heck of a lot faster, at least until the assistant is "up to speed", which takes about 3 weeks. I've had a few calls and I stress that they should study the website and watch the videos. It's not natural horsemanship... it's more like training marine mammals. If they think of themselves as budding natural horsemanship stars they are going to be so unhappy here.

I turned the Mongolians in with the senior pen. Osiris and Timugen haven't figured out who actually rules their universe. I pulled open the panels so they can get back in their normal pen, but they have access to the heated water trough now. The Mongolians are done except for getting Timugen comfortable about getting in the trailer. I don't like to practice with the trailer as long as their is snow balled up in their hooves. Ultzy has turned into this total love-hound and follows me around in hopes that I will scratch him. He is more like a Labrador than a mustang.

We moved the domestic's water trough to where we could reach it with a hose. The pipes that go out to their normal faucet froze and broke in the greenhouse. It can be fixed, but meanwhile carrying water is tiring.

Announcing Big Changes

2011-01-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

In December we started working towards reorganizing our existing business into a non-profit organization. Now, in January, we are in a state of transition. This blog will be where you can get all the gossip about what the mustang peeps are up to.

We managed to talk a great group of people to sitting on the Board of Directors. We will soon be publishing their profiles on the MustangCamp.Org website. We are still a bit kludgey with the group software we are trying to master, but the by-laws have been approved and we are well on the way to having our non-profit application submitted. It has an $800 fee that has to be attached! Yikes!

We have an opportunity to get some work placing the backlog of USFS mustangs. It is going keep us hopping for a while. We will be showcasing these horses on The Mustang Horse Connection (MHC). The MHC and this page show up as sub-elements in the Mustang Camp website.

Our FaceBook page Mustang Camp has been really busy. Through it we made connection with Jill Starr's Lifesavers. They have a lot of mustang foals they are trying to find homes for. We have agreed to act as a pick up point if she can find adopters willing to come this far for one.

Almost Free Trick Horse Prospect

2010-11-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

Some horses love to practice their stuff. Osiris is one of them. I can set a basket of hay on the ground in front of him and ask him to perform one of his favorite behaviors (target one of his body parts to my hand). He does the task and when I give him the bridge signal, he dives his head into the basket and helps himself. Then he returns to ready and waiting position for the next command.

I think he is enough of an Animal Entrepreneur that he would make a very fine trick horse. And, you could buy him for only $25.

Yr Okay Corral Video Series

2010-11-26T02:43:00.000-08:00

If you haven't watched the video, well, you should...YouTube Playlist

When the phone rings, answer it.

2010-11-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

The phone rang this morning while I was getting ready to go feed. It was Pete who adopted Isis, Set, and Prince Loren. He has been riding Isis and has Set working on the gyp line. He just wanted to brag on his kids.

The Essence of Taming

2010-11-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

When you break it all down, the only thing that counts in mustang taming is being able to walk up and catch your horse. I've come back to this basic concept after a long hard contemplation of the ups and downs of this mustang gentling. This week we set a new rule. Halters are required for breakfast.

King Arthur on his first morning at Mustang Camp

2010-11-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

I sure was proud of King Arthur and Lancelot today. It was their first time on a lead rope. I had changed some protocols and kept them for almost 2 weeks in the training stalls. They learned to put on the halters and to follow me at liberty targetting a green ball so they knew the basics already. When I clipped on the rope this morning, King Arthur just started following. We went around the stall a few times, then out into the alley and down to the round pen. He wanted to sniff and snort at Trinity, but a little bump on the lead rope got him back with me. It was as good as most domestic horses ever get and it was the first time on a lead rope. Lancelot did even better. Yep, I am proud of those boys.

Morgana has been in the trailer training pen and is now quite happy to jump in the trailer for the piles of grassy hay I keep at the front. Merlin is not so sure about the noisy accommodations. I still don't trust her, so we haven't started with the halter. When I can touch her without her biting at me, then we can risk getting that close. For now, she is okay.

November 2010: the Update

2010-11-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

I ended up staying at home and training horses all summer. I still have a dozen in the pens, with four of them being here only 10 days. I took in four at a time once or twice a month for the whole summer and fall. I got some adopted out from here and some of them I just returned to the USFS facility when I was done with them. There are still four of my trainees up for adoption in Farmington. I finished about 30 some horses. Dan is not trapping horses now so I don't know how close I am to being finished with Forest Service horses for the year.

Sometimes I feel very successful and sometimes I feel very inadequate. I guess that is normal for an occupation where one is pushing the envelope and trying to work out something totally new. You realize where something is not working and you figure out how to change it. Hopefully, there is an improvement along the way.

The horses were showing resistance once they started being led, it was time to try something else. So, I changed protocols for these latest horses, which I call the Camelot Kids: King Arthur (an elder stallion), Lancelot (his 2 year old son), Morgana (the evil mare) and Merlin (the colt foal). I did targeting with them through the fence panels: nose, shoulders, sides, through a rope loop, then into the halter. Today we had a funky end of the bale of hay for treats and no one would work for funky hay. This was very disappointing to me. They wouldn't even put on their halters. You can demotivate a horse in +R training pretty easy: feed them too much or give them "off" hay. Once they know the behavior and have been thoroughly trained, the food motivator isn't so critical. It's nice when petting becomes a reinforcement.

My last helper, Alan, and I used an interesting form of reinforcement last week. The reinforcement was the presentation of a cue for a behavior they already knew. Using a second request to reinforce a first request is using the Premack Principle. It worked well to keep their minds occupied through a behavior where they might have gotten nervous.

I would very much like to deepen my own understanding of animal training by going off and working with an excellent trainer this winter. I need some mentoring if I am going to make any progress.

I'm working on a plan to turn my operation into a non-profit organization with the main reason that it is hard to contract gentling and adoptions and this would provide a way to do cost-sharing. Furthermore it would legitimize the education and research component of my work. It's a bit expensive to buy the right insurance and pay all the costs, so I don't know when I can get it done, but it's in the works. If anyone would like to review the business plan for the Mustang Camp, please let me know.

My video and camera are getting repaired, so soon we will have photos again! Meanwhile, let me hear from you!

The Problem

2010-05-22T07:45:00.001-07:00

There is a looming problem on my horizon. Dan Elkins is all geared up to catch horses in July so the USFS is likely to have a bunch. I want to train them, but I really don't want to go back to the Browning Ranch.

TOP 10 REASONS TO STAY IN LARGO

My garden will die.

My dogs will be a problem.

My equids will be a problem.

There is no shade and it's hotter at that elevation.

There is no shower.

Have to use a port-a-potty.

The noises there make it hard to train horses.

Have to fight with Bob to keep him from messing up the horses.

It's like Grand Central Station with people always distracting me.

It's a hard place to have people come learn how to train horses.

I really wish the USFS would let me take 6 at a time up here. The USFS work is a lot less money than the Trainer Incentive Program from the Mustang Heritage Foundation and when you add it all up, I only make about $5/hour on the local horses because of all the non-training stuff like helping with gelding and dealing with adopters. But I love working with the horses and finding them good homes. It's a problem. Some kind of solution will emerge before then.

Objective One: habituate to humans

2010-05-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Our goal today is to be able to hand feed the boys inside their pens. Everything goes in stages and is rewarded with positive reinforcement.

Stages in Habituate to Humans

Look at human

Turn body towards human

Take a step towards human

Come near when human is sitting

Eat from hand when human is sitting

Eat from hand when human is standing

Eat from hand from active human

Move around pen to eat from hand

Eat from hand from human in pen

Follow human around to eat from hand

As of 11 a.m. we are just starting task five. This phase of training is time intensive and I just have to spend my day next to the pens. Lucky for me the biting midges (aka sage gnats) are not biting too hard. I am chewed up from the last few days. It was totally stressful until I found the last drops of skin-so-soft in the tack shed.

I tossed a few beet pulp pellets into their feeders last night. The pellets were left in the bottom with some tufts of moldy hay this morning. Here I am once again fighting the problem of having no non-hay treat items to reward the 'stangs with. There has to be a sensible solution, but I have tried so many things with no success. Nevertheless, I'm going to toss a couple of horse candy chunks into the troughs just in case they want to experiment.

The names have been chosen: Big Mike and Gus. Big Mike is the picky eater with the black face. Gus is the one seeking gustatory pleasure.

Gus has a broken off pinyon twig sticking out of his eyelid. It doesn't seem to be bothering him, but my goal for tomorrow is to have my hands on that guy and get it out of there. That will require another set of objectives.

2010: The Year of the Mustang?

2010-05-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Anthony called me on Monday afternoon. He had a couple of mustang studs in a horse trailer and was driving west. Was I interested in gentling them?
I couldn't say YES! fast enough. Bring 'em on! A couple of stallions sounded like a challenging project, but I've been scraping by waiting for some mustangs... no, I take that back, it hasn't been "waiting" at all, its been too intensive to call it "waiting".
For the last month John and I have been improving the corrals and pens. There is an almost completed Mustang Receiving Pen that attaches to an alley along the mustang stalls. When it is finished, the mustangs can be released from the trailer into the round Receiving Pen and then sorted into stalls. The receiving pen is 40ft in diameter and is made of 44 rail road ties (about every 2 feet) tied together with solid metal rods. It could be also used as an elephant receiving pen, if any elephants need that service. It's not quite ready for the two stallions, but my stalls are.

So early Tuesday, Anthony showed up with the studly beasts. I was shocked to find they are just ponies, skinny ponies of a lovely roan color. One is a black faced roan and the other a bay faced roan. Classic looking mustangs, but tiny.
It doesn't matter how tiny they are, Cisco has been guarding the fence to make sure these boys don't challenge his herd or try to steal his mare, the lovely Paisley.

Back at the Ol' Home Place

2010-03-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

I spent last fall and winter in Farmington, NM training mustangs for pay. It was a great thing to do and I thought I would pick it up again, but the spring was too muddy to catch mustangs and now it's foaling season so they won't start catching again until July. Meanwhile I am working very hard to really read the literature of training, the applied animal behavior literature, and see what I can learn and put to use. The result is quite a few new things in my training toolbox. I thought it was time to pick up this blog, dust it off, and record what I am learning.

I have been spending my afternoons working with animals. This afternoon I worked with Cracker Joe and Tobiah. I want them to be ready to sell if need be. Cracker is on the verge of being a pretty nice riding hinny, finally coming into his own as a cowboy dressage animal. Tobiah is getting a nice reining handle on him as well. I'm also riding Paisley (now named Shamu) and Electrolux (aka Lucky).

Cracker has been studying collection, but I am not doing it with bound up impulsion, instead I am just using +R to get it. He's got a roughly collected posture at a stance, but collection happens in motion, so now it's time to let it refine itself on the lunge line. It's interesting how first he had to develop some flexibility in his poll, then start bending contrary to his ewe-neck. He started getting the idea at the walk last week. Then we had to take a detour to confirm that, yes indeed, he does have to do what I ask on the lounge line, now we are back with a trot and today I saw him venture into a tentative passage step, which is a slow elevated trot. He did it for maybe 10 feet each time and it did it maybe five times altogether. This is extreme for this normally strung out fat boy. Then he seemed tired and we retired for the afternoon. What was also interesting about the session is that he lifted himself into a canter depart motion at the walk-trot transition. I cannot help but think that is the result of him wanting to find collection.

Tobiah now goes where I ask until he decides he wants to do otherwise. He is really soft when he is listening and cooperating. Today I tried just responding to his show of full donkey resistance by jumping off and asking for a few trotting circles in a halter driving exercise. That seemed to impress on him that if he attempted to mutiny, there were consequences he didn't like. We finished our ride nicely. Asking a donkey to trot on the lounge is not exactly a good show of ones prowess as an animal trainer. I am glad no one is around to watch.

------- Update-----
Electrolux is driving well. He understands walk on, whoa, gee and haw so I don't know what more we can get done before we ride. The groundwork is complete. I worry about his back and not having a saddle, but I might try putting a blanket on him. With the sway on his back, I doubt that he could buck very hard. Maybe tomorrow.

Cisco Kid is also driving, but not so calmly. Will he ever just settle down? Tonight we worked in the new mustang roundpen, just driving around the perimeter. I am hoping to work on whoa enough that it becomes a conditioned reinforcer. None of my animals wear bits much. I thought about putting one on the Kid, but I am ambivalent, so it doesn't get out of the thinking phase. He will yield his nose with just a slight tug on the lead rope and halter. He will stop and back on voice command, but the problem is that voice command is not the same as yielding to the necessity of stopping when he is in panic mode. I am thinking about riding him with a double outfit... his rope halter as the main direction, and then a narrow snaffle, which he would have to be thoroughly conditioned to totally respect. I don't like the idea of using a tool of force, but he has to respect my command to "whoa" unconditionally or he will never be safe to ride. This may or may not get past the "thinking about stage".

The Girls Left Behind

2010-01-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

Nina, Lucinda, and Katrina are still down at the mustang facility. They are nice horses but they haven't captured anyone's imagination. Katrina and Lucinda are a matched team. Anthony says he will be taking them to Kansas this week to long term holding. I've put them on Craigslist in Farmington, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Western slope Colorado. I've gotten inquiries and sent out photos. My fingers are crossed.

I wish I had enough hay to bring them home, but as it is the horses I have here are costing me about $12 a day and they would put it up to $18. I am never going to sell enough mustang taming sticks to afford them.

I want to build carts and harnesses and train mustangs to pull them. It's my dream right now. John says he wants to build the carts. Would people buy them?

Magic Mustang Taming Stick

2009-12-17T06:20:00.000-08:00

On a much less depressing note, I would like to draw your attention to one of the tools I use in taming mustangs. Watch this video:

Then here is where to buy one of these magic tools:
Doc Barlow's Magic Mustang Tamer stick.

No Tears in Horse Heaven

2009-12-17T06:02:00.001-08:00

I have not been keeping up with this blog for months now, but that doesn't mean things weren't happening. Lately it's been crazy evil things where I cried to see Thor and Jacob loaded onto a truck that my gut instinct told me was a kill buyer. Suddenly I find out who is honest and who is not. Who cares and who does not. And I find out that there is no way to stop it from happening. I would have adopted them myself rather than let them go like that, but by the time I knew what was afoot, it was too late.

Maybe it wasn't a kill buyer. Maybe it was a loving adopter who just took the horses without looking at them, without being interested in what they were trained to do, without caring that they were crammed too tightly in the back of a giant stock trailer and were fighting. Anthony doesn't want me to be blogging about mustangs being sent to slaughter, so I am not. I am blogging about wishing my gut instincts were wrong and hoping that pregnant Angelina is going to have her foal out in her new home. That Jacob will be like a giant teddy bear under saddle. Maybe where they went to will be like horse heaven.

postscript: It's a month later and I have heard that the buyer realized he had a couple of good horses in there. Nothing is for sure, but it's a hope to hold on to.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.9

2009-10-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is a series of posts on a discussion forum. There was not enough activity on it to have a conversation with anyone, so if I am going to write to myself, I might as well put it in this space so you can find it. The first one is lower down or on the next page.

Go onto YouTube and search. There are a couple of interesting things.

I sent away to Australia for three Jeffery related DVDs last week. I recently got paid for a bunch of horses so I was feeling flush. I will tell you if they amount to anything. The other DVDs I sent away for were one from Allen Pogue on trick training and Ryan's DVD on bolting. I sure wish Ryan had actually demo'ed with a bolting horse instead of Dylan. A friend of mine wanted to watch the Allen Pogue DVD and loaned me "In a Whisper" in return. That was fun to watch... a colt starting competition between Parelli, Craig Cameron, and Josh Lyons. Craig should have won, but they gave the prize to Josh. Tonight we are going to check out Karen Scholl. Lucky for all of us, horse clinicians exist. We would get so bored otherwise. I might save up some $ for Ryans series... hmmm.

I've got to whine about something.... hmmmm. Well my co-trainers... KC has the swine flu and Bob went to Texas for the weekend. Can't complain about them if they are gone. Hmmm.. the mustang facility seems to be the Starbucks of the local equine scene. Everyone wants to hang out here. It makes it hard to get my work done. Got two more 'stangs adopted this morning and I have adopters starting to show up to help gentle their own mustangs before they leave the facility. Right now they get a laundry basket full of hay and a chair outside of their horses pen.

I'm hand feeding the new bands. I have a good trick when they are super wild. I get one of my personal riding horses and I let it eat along the fence where I want to feed the mustangs. I am with the riding horse in the alley. It's feeding along the bottom of the fence and I keep shoving hay under the rails to the mustangs on the other side. They come up and eat because another horse is eating. They ignore me at first and then they get accustomed to being hand fed despite their ambivalence toward humans. I expect that tomorrow I will be able to feed about half of them without having to hide under a tame horse. You need to use a REALLY TAME horse since you will be sitting under it. Of course I don't let the adopters get under my horse, but I have tied domesting horses near by their chairs with good effects. The main thing is to remove any suspicion that we are predators.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.8

2009-10-17T18:31:00.001-07:00

Dan, the mustang trapper, brought another nine horses in this evening. It was one band and they let the stud go because he is black and beautiful. They will return one of the mares also because she has very distinctive markings. They PZP the distinctive mares (birth control for 2 years). If they used PZP on the plain bays they could never study what happens to them.

So we are up to 18 new mustangs on top of our resident 7. This is when I start hating life because we don't have pens to keep them as individuals. Have you ever tried training a herd? The behavior of the herd sinks to the level of the most fearful horse. You have to isolate them for them to act like an individual. I had isolated the ones that arrived yesterday but there is absolutely not the pens to isolate many more. I also put my domestic horses in some of the pens with the most bothered horses.. It seems to keep the horses from feeling too sorry for the way their freedom was ripped from them. I do think they suffer from emotional shock.

Hand feeding is problematic in this arrangement.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.7

2009-10-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

I just came in from negotiating the fight. I get all the mares and foals to work with. When we separate them, Bob will take his horses to the roundpen with this long rope. If by chance the horses are already separated, well, he wouldn't need to take mine. I think its time to open some gates and let the animals roam around.

Bob is one heck of a cowboy really. He is 84 years old and trains mustangs everyday for fun. We are able to talk about our philosophical differences but he just doesn't get the physiology of learning. He gets hung up in mans responsibility to be a leader which I have no problem with but I just think we can be a smarter leader.

The other trainer is 19 years old. He is a Navajo who is interested in vaquero style horsemanship. He did a summer on the King Ranch breaking horses when he was 17. He is a good vaquero style cowboy. His mustangs stay hard to approach but its not a problem if you throw a 60 ft riata good enough. I would say his horses are good for cowboy adopters.

We get a lot of cowboys wanting studs to fix the weak part of their quarterhorse stock. We adopted two studs yesterday just for that purpose. Lucky dudes.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.6

2009-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the big fight starts. We let the mustangs just hang out on the first day. Training starts on Day 2. We each are supposed to have our own animals, but ol' Bob likes to run them under the rope on the first day while they are still in their bands.

In all honesty, running them under the rope is a very brilliant training protocol. You hang a 50 ft rope on the side of a 60 ft pen and you start very slowly pushing them back and forth under the rope until they realize that you just stand when they are under the rope, so they figure out that being under the rope takes all the pressure off. Having a rope across their neck, back, etc. becomes a source of comfort to them.

I don't want to do it because it requires "chasing" them however mildly and I am totally focused on decreasing flight distance. I want to hand feed them instead and get them to touch me. I think if we get them to start approaching us its better than using their flight distance to habituate them to the rope. I would rather let them go under a rope because I indicated to them I wanted them to go under the rope after the bond of trust is solid.

But Bob cannot understand why I would object. And if I was to say, "okay," then he would take that as a green light to do what ever he pleased to my horses. One day he went into the pen of recently gelded horses, of which about half were horses I was working with and he started tossing his ropes on them. I was furious. Finally I just went and opened the gates on the pen he was in and let all the horses escape into the alley, saying I was taking my horses out. He was left with one pitiful looking old gelding that I had clicker trained to put his head in a rope loop. Bob kept tossing his rope on the old horse for a minute not knowing quite how to respond to such a bold move on my part. The horse did not seem to mind.

We are each allowed to take five horses at a time. I am here 24/7 and I put the most time into my horses. Bob is here about 3 hrs a day, and KC is here about 1 hr a day, so when we don't have enough horses I think they should be mine. We have to decide how to handle that tomorrow. The problem is that the horses can get adopted out from under you before you get them to pass inspection so you can get paid. I was going to try to take five of the new horses and let the others divide up the other four, but adopters showed up and took three of the ones I was looking at. It's better to train the old ugly ones in a way as you can really make a difference in how adoptable they are.

I wish the contract specified an at-liberty flight distance rather than pettable on a lead rope.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.5

2009-10-17T18:28:00.001-07:00

Women are at a disadvantage in upper body strength making some kind of pull back consequences attractive, but if such is necessary I would rather use a stud chain than use a rope halter with knots on the pressure points simply because a rope halter looks so innocuous -- why not just honestly admit we are training with pain? The point blank existence of a stud chain will put the communication problem to where it is staring you in the face and force you to keep looking for a better way.

I like using the squeeze halter when I start out. I make it with a thick cotton rope. Then I end up mostly just using a rope around the neck.

The mustangs we have left from the last adoption are getting some special training now. They are getting led from what ever pen they happen to be in at feeding time to another pen waiting for them with hay. This means they have to be caught and led before each feeding. They are coming around fast to the idea. I just have to be careful when catching them that I don't let them practice running away. I put the rope on with a stick that can reach over their backs. Some of them will follow the feel in the rope with it just draped over their necks, not even made into a loop. I like giving them a reason they understand to get caught and go with me.

The mustang trapper caught two bands last night so we are awaiting the arrival of our next 10 mustangs this afternoon. We are going to get them on YouTube right from the start.

Your acquaintance who chased her mustangs around gave them plenty of opportunity to practice the flight response. One of our trainers here uses round-penning methods and you can't catch his horses when he is done. The other trainer is more likely to put them in the chute, or a tiny pen, and just let them get over the fact that he is going to touch them. It gets a little western sometimes and he doesn't make any equine friends that way, but at least they don't get practice running away.

If Ryan and Andrew are right, the less they practice the flight response, the better equine companions they will be. I'm betting with them.

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.4

2009-10-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

I figured it was something like that, but no amount of refreshing brought back the post... sigh...

Anyway I catch a lot of flack for not using typical western horse methods of training. No one thinks what I am doing with the horse at the time they walk up is really training because the horse isn't mad, angry, frightened, or exasperated. The other trainers specialize in Learned Helplessness around here saying that the horse is a master of accepting the inevitable. They see me and think if you aren't using a rope halter, how could you possibly train a mustang??? They put rope halters on the horses in the chute and leave them and I take them off as soon as I can get my hands on the mustang in a pen. No one came around today when I was here so I have nothing specific to rant about (but someone dumped a pair of old white ponies on me while I was doing laundry.) I am sure to have something to complain about soon as this place is like Grand Central Station.

I am studying Kel Jeffreys and Billy Linfoot. I would like to know if Dr. Linfoot could catch his horse the next day. My current quest is for approachability.

Yrs,
Patricia

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.3

2009-10-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Sticking to Principles

wanted to journal about resisting peer pressure to train with "Natural Horsemanship" or other such methods. I wrote a long post about it the other day, venting really, but then the forum program just said I needed to log in and it lost my posting. I am wondering if that kind of behavior from the forum program is why people don't post to this forum. It's extremely discouraging at any rate. It also did it to me when writing about pasture dynamics. If I wasn't like a bulldog, I would have already given up.

Grrrr....

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.2

2009-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

This one was a reply to the only comment I got about my introduction.

Thanks for your great reply.

I tried teaching the Behaviorist-style "Go Forward" to a sweet-tempered mustang this afternoon and noticed that the horse was a little bit claustrophobic when I had him against the rail... he did better in the center of the pen. I had to stand out to the side much further than with a domestic horse because me just being in that space made him unlikely to step into it. He doesn't want to violate the boundaries of my energy bubble and when I pressured him to do so, he jumped over it. He backup up perfectly right from the beginning. This was a horse with very little experience of leading. If you tried this style of go-forward, you could be giving your mustang conflicting signals if its flight distance was greater than zero.

The funny thing is that our mustangs are very mannerly compared to most horses on Ryan's television program!!! None of them strike, rear, kick, or bite unless you do something truly horrid to them.

Yrs, Patricia

My recent posts on the Connection Club No.1

2009-10-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

I tried a little range into Ryan Gingerich's discussion forum called the Connection Club. You get a 30 day membership when you order one of his DVDs. Well, I was about the only one posting anything. I wasn't connected to anyone anywhere, so I decided to just put them over here where they belong.

Greetings from New Mexico at the Mustang Facitlity

I work as a horse trainer at the USFS mustang facility in Farmington NM. We do pre-adoption gentling to help get our horses adopted and get the horses started on successful paths into domestication. I am always looking for new techniques to facilitate this transformation. I have been a big fan of Andrew McLean for years and so was really excited to find out about Ryan. We need some science in the crazy world of horsetraining!!!!

There are two other trainers at the mustang facility and we do not all share the same training philosophy. I have to constantly defend my position on not chasing or adrenalizing these animals, so it was really helpful for me to go watch Ryan at the Horse Expo in Ignacio, CO a few weeks ago. It reminded me why I have to stand my ground on these issues. One would think that the results would speak for themselves, but the fact that my animals can be managed on a lead rope rather than herded is dismissed by them saying categorically that I "spoil" the horses.

The areas that I feel like I need improvement are helping the animal stay calm under duress and more yielding to pressure cues (since I use positive reinforcement so much, response to pressure cues are something they don't automatically understand). In watching the Behaviorist TV segments, the go forward cue is probably where I need to focus. Of course this has to be done in a manner that will not send the mustang into flight. To this date, I usually start them turning in response to lead rope pressure and hope that it will generalize to go forward. Hmmm... seems obvious... something to work on!

There are recently made videos on our pre-adoption gentling program:

CHALLENGE COUNT DOWN: 13 Days to go.

2009-09-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

The new hay arrived. It is green and smells like a grassy field. Very lovely! The odd thing is that mustangs are very conservative and don't like to switch what is working for them, so it takes food deprivation to make them decide to even try the new hay. The domestic horses, in contrast, chowed down on it.

This unwillingness to try new foods is a big problem for me. They won't try rolled oats, omolene, horse candy, alfafa, carrots, cheerios, or cantaloupe. I need a better reinforcer than hay. They like rock salt.

The new band is a providing me with a mixture of success and frustration. Grandma will follow me around and let me pet her. Studly DooRight wants to kick me out of the pen. Feather and RainDrop are growing more and more comfortable with being handed food and I expect to be touching RainDrop in the next session. Tawny Shawnee touches me with her nose with little hesitation. I desperately need a way to work with them individually, but I have to just figure out how to make the current conditions work. Its a challenge.

I really feel frustrated with the other bands of horses. They are stuck on the trust/fear point. It hasn't helped to put them in the squeeze chute and hurt them (freeze branding and gelding). I think it would be possible to work through this fear thing if my co-trainer and I always had a definitive "right answer", where the horse could know it was doing the right thing. But we don't have that paradigm working for us. Bob is much more focused on desensitization by flooding and it is counter-productive for creating trust. If it can be done, I would like to see it.

Mustang Challenge: Day 1

2009-08-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I set up a challenge for the next band of wild horses that were brought in. I told Anthony and Bob that if they would leave them alone and not herd them, brand them, castrate them, etc., I would have them ready to be freeze branded like a domestic horse on a lead rope in 15 days. Bob just totally doesn't think its possible and Anthony is merely dubious. They don't understand the power of "Yes!".

The challenge on Day One is to get them eating out of my hand. We started our work with breakfast. So far the stallion has taken hay from me twice and the black colt once. They will all eat hay from near my feet. This is quite an accomplishment for a band caught less than 48 hours ago. I had help from the Model Mustang brigade. I tied some halter broke horses to the fence around the new herd's pen and just went around and fed the role models. I let hay fall through the fence and I offered it over the backs of the models. Mustangs are smart. If I was a horse predator as they had suspected initially, I would eat the mustangs on the fence, not feed them. Hmmmm... they were eating at our feet in no time. Barb, who wants to adopt the black colt, was helping me. We made it a point to chat and focus on the Models not the wild ones. This method really broke down the barriers to them accepting humans quicker than normal.
.......
I wrote that at midday, now it's late at night and I have just come in from the last feeding of the day. At lunch, they would eat from just across the fence from me and now they readily take food from out of my hand except for the one I call Grandma. The others don't let her join them at the feeding frenzy and she is pretty shy anyway. I am not sure what to do about her as she is not getting much food. Might have to figure out how to get her in a separate pen tomorrow. As if the Forest Service would provide me panels to make a separate pen.

The USFS is not totally on top of their mustang program. Moldy hay, no personnel to take care of them specifically, a lack of pens. Many of the horses are sick with a respiratory infection (probably caused by the hay) but there is no one trying to medicate them - you have to feed them the drug with their grain, but they won't eat grain. The recently cut geldings need some exercise, but Anthony just makes them run fast around the roundpen for a few minutes and destroys any trust we had created in them. I gave back the night feeding chores to Anthony yesterday, but he must have forgotten it's his job tonight... don't worry I fed them all. The USFS is supposed to get some contracts awarded for the facility, some new hay, and a stall cleaner/feeder, but the contracting officer is ignoring the situation. I requested some training pens and Anthony told me that the contract for gentling doesn't mandate provision of pens. Hmmmm.... odd, where are we supposed to train?

Settling In

2009-08-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

Things kind of settled down as more horses kept streaming in. The contract pays by how many we get to where you can catch, halter, and lead, so I've tried to just stay focused on that and let the USFS clean their own pens.

Feeding is a different story. The hay feeder persons are agitated that I am feeding them since they have contracts specifically to feed. I don't care. Collect for your contract, help me for five minutes and call it a day, just don't feed when I am trying to train, don't use the moldy bale of hay, don't throw the hay into the far corners of the pen so the mustangs don't have to eat near where I sit with them. The hay feeders bug me. I wish they would just go away. They severely interfere with the training process. They leave dirty water in the troughs and throw the horses moldy hay. It's a depressing situation.

I am working on conditioned relaxation with the studs. They spend about 4 hours in the chute where I use negative reinforcement to teach them to look sleepy. You can teach a mustang to look sleepy in about an hour, but it's getting them to look sleepy while I bathe them with a wet rag that takes another 3 hours. Tomorrow we are going to video training Waylon to do conditioned relaxation... that is the "bad" stud who is eating out of my hand otherwise. It might take 5 hours for him, but I suspect that after the first hours he will have totally accepted his need to just relax and enjoy life.

Rip Van Winkle is a 15 year old battle-scarred stud with a ugly parrot mouth. We tried doing some more traditional training, Kitty Lawman style, but he kept trying to attack me and I had to wack him a few times. It was agreed by all that he wasn't worth risking my life for. But when there is a challenging problem, I get interested in finding a novel solution. Now my buddy, Rip, will put on his own halter if I hold it out for him. The secret to our success is that Rip has a fondness for grain, so I clicker trained him. He will come put his head in a rope loop as well as put his nose through the halter. Today I was working with him and he nuzzled me like I was his only friend in the world (probably I am.) I will take him home if no one adopts him. He would make a good Trail of Tears sort of horse. War paint and feathers in his mane.

Rip withstanding, there are sure some fine horses here and this is a premium time to stop by and pick out the cream of the crop. I will take Rip perhaps but there are maybe six that I know I would be a fool not to adopt as they will be exceptional horses. We have a nice band of gaited horses with stocks and blaze faces.

Well, back to the Rip story. Guys stop by looking for some work training these horses and Bob probably would put them to work, except that he and I have an agreement to work as partners 50/50. He brought a young Navajo man to meet me. The boy told me how he trains them in this confrontational style, so I took him on a tour of what I had going at the moment. I figured he could realize how his methods would mesh with ours by seeing what was going on. We stopped by the chute where Magellan was just hanging out. I explained to the young man that I was training the stud horse to relax. He said he never want them to relax, he wants them to move their feet. He thought getting a horse to relax was weird. So then I took him to Rips pen and showed how I was training the dangerous wild animal. Rip is quite affectionate when he was training that that is when he reached out and rubbed my face with his nose. The young man just turned and walked away. There weren't any horses to play bully with here in facility, sorry guy.

Stephan got here from Largo School today. He is staying in my tent on the other side of the facility. He neglected to bring any camping gear. It would be better for his development to let him sleep on the ground with no gear, but instead I let him use my stuff. I talked to him about thinking his momma was going to be around to take care of him. He knows he has a unique opportunity here and that after 4 weeks he will know a lot about training horses.

I am living now in a vintage airstream trailer that John pulled down to here from Navajo City. It's a major improvement from the horse trailer. I even have power to plug this computer in.

Browning Ranch Mustang Facility & the Angry Supervisor

2009-08-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

There was a red-tape problem with releasing mustangs to my facility but I was invited to come train at the USFS facility in Farmington, NM at the Browning Ranch. When I got here on Saturday there were 11, and today (Tuesday) there are 34 horses. They are stacking up and we are about out of places to put them. The next set will have to be housed in some new and creative way, although we have arranged for adoption for 4 so far.

One of the problems with releasing them to me to train at my place is that they have to have a vet geld and take a coggings test, and they have to be freeze branded before they can even be shown to be government property. This, however, is an incredible learning opportunity for me to be here. Working with Bob Browning is really and education and totally engaging. He is so extremely knowledgeable and has so much experience that I am gifted to have him as a co-trainer/mentor. He is doing some of the steps in the gentling process and I am doing others. He's given me suggestions to improve my process and sure enough they were good ones that made it easier on the horse. Bob doesn't do too much "chasing" horses in a round pen... his style is to introduce rope to the whole herd by moving the horses to and fro under his rope, which is hung from a wire off the round pen top rail.

On the other hand, I've brought a focus on spending a heck of a lot of time in the pens hand feeding the horses, sitting near the pens, and getting them used to and interested in human activity. I was out one night until almost two a.m. just going up and down the asile doling out hay bits. Now they nicker when they see me coming.

Kimberly just stopped by on her way home from her job at a local restaurant. She is a mustang aficionado.... we had to fill up the wheelbarrow for a late night snack for the herd. She is feeding her special mare while I finish this blog.

The bands come in as a unit and we try to put them into pens as a unit, but if the studs are too protective, they keep the mares from eating or approaching us. We had to separate the one we call Bad Boy from his six band memebers and as soon as we got him in his own pen, his mares started eating out of our hands. He is still next to them in a separate pen. Some of the studs will let the mares approach us and we allow them to stay with their herds. I am not sure why, but Dan got quite furious with me for having moved the Bad Boy away from his herd today. Dan had warned us not to go into the pen with this stud as he was dangerous, so we were extremely careful to move the horses without ever putting ourselves in the same space as Bad Boy. We try to move horses at a walk rather than letting them get excited and charge around. Bad Boy and his mares went into the roundpen calmly, and then on the way out because BB goes in the lead, it was easy to close a gate behind him and capture the mares for separation. We managed to get the job done without upsetting any horses.

So when Dan was angry we had moved the horses, I was shocked. We don't have room for more horses now so we can't really just put some of them on hold and not do anything with them for 10 days. We have to get them processed and ready to go to adoptive homes. We have pens to keep clean and have to move horses out of pens to get that job done efficiently. I was ready to quit or to cry after getting yelled at and told that he was bring them in with pure minds and the trainers are only on an ego trip, I wanted to just pack up and leave , but I thought about it and decided to let it go.... the horses are what matter. If I wasn't here these horses would get fed once a day on the gray-green musty grass that makes them cough. They would still be running from the fences where humans pass by instead of nickering when they see the humans coming. Dan can say I am not gentling them if he wants, but that's not what the horses say.

Mustangs going South

2009-07-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Nicky called me yesterday. She is the Mississippi State highschool girls champion roper and had space to take a mustang home. It turns out that she is doing mustang training as a Senior Project for highschool. They wanted to come out and take a look so instead of going to Gobernador and fixing some fence as I had planned, I hung around and tried to fix the welding machine.

I was deciding that my screwdriver selection was not sufficient to get the carburetor apart without stripping screws when a truck went by. Hmmm. You recognize strangers just by the way they drive. They went on across the bridge to Ice Canyon. Hmmm.... but then suddenly they were back at that gate by the barn.

A family of four Mississippians emerged from the truck. I loved their accents. I showed them the two older geldings then said, but the horse I want to sell you is over there. They followed me to where Chaco was eating. Nicky immediately fell in love. Hey, he was a wild horse once. We let him finish eating, then led him up on the porch to get saddled.

I put that nasty Wade on him. It doesn't fit him but it looks so good. He was cranky as a result. Mistake, but it reminded me of why to not put that saddle on that horse. He acted up a little bit and I was kind of embarrassed, but he didn't buck or run out. Poor Chaco! But that didn't keep Nicky from wanting him.

When it came time to talk price, I wanted Chaco to go with this Rodeo Queen. I have him advertised in the paper for $1000, but I told her I wanted $750. She immediately quit petting him and I could see her wanting for him retract. I asked what she could afford. She didn't want to say. She had come looking to get a $125 mustang.

Then we looked at all the other equines. Cisco acted like a real idiot. He made the mustangs look so tame. I never let him just run off and get away with it. I had to follow him around until he finally gave up and let us catch him. I showed them how you could create a gate for him by just laying a rope on the ground.

They started debating whether to take Ocho or Trinity. Trinity has better confirmation, Ocho has a better attitude. Mom and Dad wouldn't make a decision for Nicky and she wasn't happy to have to decide. Then she asked me what is the lowest I would take for Chaco.

Well, I started asking questions. Who is paying for the horse: Nicky or parents. Nicky has to pay them back with the money she gets from working. She works for a company that does landscaping. I imagined that was not a nice job in Mississippi in the summer. I asked her what she gets paid: $6.75/hour. Hmm. That would be over a hundred hours to pay my original asking price. I thought fifty hours was okay, but I wanted more than $350, so I told her $400. She jumped at it.

The next hoop was getting a Coggins test done on him in time for the trip back to Mississippi. We went in the house and started calling veterinarians. Not possible to get it done before Monday. The USFS mustangs already had Coggins. She was going to check around at the rodeo and see if anyone had an alternative possibility.

This morning she called. They are taking both Ocho and Trinity. No need to decide between them. The family went down to the Farmington holding pens where Anthony and Dan were unloading the first captured band. They filled out the paperwork back at the USFS office and Anthony called me to give me clearance to release them. Ocho and Trinity are going to be southern mustangs. Yes'um.

Waiting..... and meanwhile

2009-07-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Dan Elkins is out there catching some new ponies for me to have fun with. With his Magic Mustang Mix, he baits them into a pen with a remotely closing gate. The current plan is that after they are caught they will be hauled to the Browning Ranch where they will get their freeze brands and gelding. Then I can take them home to Largo. I have to get my trailer in tip top shape. Some work to do on the pens as well so I can take up to five at a time. If you think I am not excited about the project, you are soooo wrong! Having to spend my mornings being a waitress at the cafe is really hard when I would like to be out in the cool of the morning getting things ready..... it won't be long.

Meanwhile Ocho and Trinity might get trained to drive as a team. Might as well while I am waiting for someone to adopt them. I filmed Trinity learning to use the hoof stand, but I haven't had the time to work through it and edit it down to 10 minutes. Let's just say he starts out fearful of the mean green hoof-eating machine, but by the end he figures he might as well just keep his foot there and eat cookies.

Waiting for Adopters

2009-07-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

These guys are so ready to be adopted. I gave them a bath the other day. The only thing I haven't totally done is trim their hooves with the angle grinder. So today I started out with the prerequisites: keep a leg on the hoof jack and not mind the sound of the grinder. Hoof stands are strange concepts for the boys.

I used positive reinforcement. We started rewarding for just lifting hoof and standing relaxed while I held it. Then we rewarded for touching it to the hoof stand. Then we just started building duration on the hoof stand. When I could just stand next to the mustang and bridge him every couple of minutes while he rested with his hoof on the stand I counted the session as a success.

I only had time to work Telikos and Ocho today. Telikos was hard because he was so overly enthusiastic. He wanted to paw. It took a lot of time in the hot sun to get him to calm down and relax.

Both of these horses want to get up into my lap. I don't know why but they want to be right on top of me. If I wasn't training something that puts me so close to them I would train them to step away from me. I think it might be because I interact with all three of them at a time and they have to compete with each other to get close to me. We interact when I feed them or when I stop by to visit them during the day. I usually ask them to back up or something so I can give them a reward. Telikos and Ocho always are pushing to the front. Trinity is much more reserved. When it comes to being his turn to learn to stay of the hoofjack, I doubt that he will be in my lap.

In the Round Pen

2009-07-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

I don't like round penning equines except as a punitive consequence of them being disrespectful, but I needed to working on getting Ocho and Trinity to work on the lunge line without coming in to me. I've spent a lot of time teaching them to come up to me, so it's a little bit inconsistent to suddenly be sending them away. Chasing a mustang is a pretty questionable thing to do in any case.

So I got help from the trained horses. Ocho worked with Chaco, and Trinity worked with Cisco. I had the trained horses (both older mustangs) doing roundpen turnbacks and whoas at the slowest calmest pace we could get (not too slow at first) and I rewarded both team members after each whoa/stop with a horse cookie. Pretty soon the young mustang was stopping quick and staying out on the rail where he belonged. Then, both times, the trained horse decided to join up with me. I couldn't bear the thought of chasing them back out to the rail when they were just trying to be loyal creatures. Despite my best intentions, suddenly I would have a young mustang on one side of me and an older mustang on the other. We would be walking and trotting, stopping and turning as a trio.... all a lot more fun than what we set out to do. Made me feel kind of like Lorenzo, the flying Frenchman.

ps. feeding treats and roundpenning are totally conflicting activities. A horse cookie totally negates all benefits of roundpenning as a leadership discipline practice. Not a good mix when what you want is a punitive consequence.

Telikos

2009-06-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

From

I wrote to Dr. Deb Bennett about any kind of physical therapy we could give to Telikos to help prevent a sway back. I was suprised by her response:

Patricia, thank you for posting this image and for the question. The answers you are asking for can be found under the same reply I gave to RobV in the thread "starting an elk-necked colt right."

As to your apprehensions about the horse's appearance: he is not swaybacked. You turn out to be the lucky one here. Do not let this colt go; he should become your own riding horse, unless you're just so full up that you don't need any more class-A horses. This animal will grow up to be handsome, proportionate, durable, fast, and athletically capable of just about anything. His head is noble and the temperament will probably match.

So take your time with him and have a care, because great horses like this do not come along just every day; and if he has the kind and generous spirit that I suspect, then you have double responsibility because the animal will actually hurt himself trying to please you.

Concerns over unattractive appearance in a case like this only to go highlight, to me, how mis-educated, I mean TOTALLY mis-educated, people have become as to judging horseflesh.

Good luck with this and please do write back with any questions. I would also highly appreciate receiving photos of this animal periodically -- taken at 6-mos. intervals would be ideal. One reason people have difficulty "seeing" young horses is that they do not have the experience to FOREsee how he's going to look when mature. This is a question I get practically weekly, and you could, if you are willing, help everyone out there. So we hope to hear back about this horse's progress on a regular basis.

Thanks very much. -- Dr. Deb

Wow, and you could adopt this wonderful animal for just $125.

Internet Problems and Hoovered Mustangs

2009-06-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

My USB modem went out last week so the blog hasn't been updated lately.

Our goal for the weekend (if no potential adopters showed up) was to get the 'stangs where we could run the shop vac on them. Clair calls it being hoovered. I started out grooming Ocho and rubbing him with the detached vacuum hose. He liked that well enough. Then I set the vac up on the other side of the yard (15 meters away). Then we (Lucy, Clair & I) walked the horses up to the vac. When they got their mustang nose over the vac, the boys got a horse cookie. Pretty soon they wanted to be at the vac.

Then we went back across the yard. I would turn on the vac and each horse would get a cookie. We were making the sound of the vac a conditioned reinforcer. It wasn't long until when the vac switch was flipped on, the mustangs were expecting cookies. Then we moved the 'stangs closer to the vac. After a minute Ocho and Telikos were standing around a running vacuum cleaner watching us flip the switch. Trinity was must more dubious and would only stand about 2 meters away.

Today we took Ocho out just before lunch and rubbed him with the hose again, once with it off, and then with the shop vac screaming away. I started vacuuming him and he seemed to like it, though he wouldn't just come up for a full body hoovering. Later we will be hoovering the others.

We measured these boys and they are 13hh tall now. They have grown, but they have a long way to go before they are filled out.

I got quite a few calls from our mustang advertisements but most of the callers want kids horses (already broke to ride) and one of them wanted a horse to eat (YIKES!!) One man called and wanted a mustang to ride while he was herding his sheep. I thought that would be a good life for one of the boys, but the man didn't show up over the weekend, so perhaps he changed his mind? We will start breaking them to ride when they get a little weight on, but meanwhile they can learn to drive.

Mustang Camp for Juniors

2009-06-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

This week we have a class of seven kids and their attendant teachers here to learn about mustangs. Mostly junior high and high school kids, all incredibly bright and focused. Of course they don't know much about training mustangs, but they have been out all last week talking to all kinds of horse people. Horse therapists, horse rescuers, mustang handlers. They may not know how to put on a halter, but they are all game to try and my animals are all patient with the little people.

Today we started out with halter driving. We practiced on "horses" made of two people. The kids thought they had it down until the real animals presented them with permutations that were quite unplanned. Things fell apart but they kept trying. I stayed out in the far pen with Dylan, Maya, and Cisco. Dylan is quite enamored with Cisco. Cisco is more than 16 hands tall, Dylan is about 4 feet all and only in the 6th grade. He is the youngest of the campers and this is his first time away from home. Cisco did not want to let Dylan on his right side, so I had to step into the circle and help push Cisco into place when it was time to go clockwise. We practiced and practiced and Cisco improved bit by bit. Maya could pretty well manage and Dylan did very well for his size....

Then it was time to bring everyone together and let them show their mastery by halter driving their steeds. Dylan went first and was disappointed by his steeds performance. Chaco made his handlers look proficient. Cracker, Chester, and Tobiah all worked to highlight their handlers deficiencies. On a couple of the demonstrations, I instructed the handlers to unclip the lead rope and show the animal at liberty. The animals generally worked better without a lead than with one. The last person to go was nominally Maya, she showed Cisco to be passable and then unclipped the lead at my request. Cisco followed every move perfectly. Then, realizing the potential of the moment, I instructed Dylan to return to the ring and show Cisco at liberty. The horse and boy went round the ring as a synchronized unit. It was perfect harmony with an awestruck audience gasping at the fluidity of the turns. Mr. Dylan has responded to his newfound equine handling prowess, by losing some of his self-conscious shyness and starting to talk to his peers. He is so loveable that we are all rejoicing for him.

As Dylan was finishing his performance, Anthony Madrid and Jessica, of the USFS, arrived to give a talk on mustangs. Anthony talked for more than an hour because we kept him going with so many questions about the USFS mustang program. It was facinating to hear about Dan Elkins, the mustang herd, the bands, and the land they live in. We heard about the ins and outs of horse adoption. No stone was left unturned, we even talked about mustang birth control drugs and castration. Finally we could ignore lunch no longer and we stopped talking mustangs long enough for some hotdogs and jello.

Maddy has been cooking for the Mustang Camp. She is phenomenal. It might be hotdogs, but with Maddy at the helm they are hotdogs with a flair and the yummiest hotdogs known to human kind. I did not realize that she had such a drive to be a camp catering cook. Her talents have been revealed.

After lunch, we caught up the young mustangs and had them standing tied when Anthony and Jessica came to inspect them. They were quiet and let Anthony come up and pet them, then lead one around. They held up their front feet when asked for them. They weren't perfect, but I was proud of them. The USFS officials seemed impressed. Then
Anthony drove his bale of hay around to the barn and we pulled it out of the truck bed by tying a strap around it and to the barn poles. He drove the truck out from under where the giant bale was tethered. I asked if there was any funds available for gentling mustangs and Anthony assured me that there are. Dan has the contract, but does not have the time to do the job himself so it is very likely something can be worked out if I am seriously interested. You bet I am! May it be so.

POST BY SARAH:Touching Telikos (part one...)

2009-06-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

Written by Sarah:

I think Pat must be a person-whisperer as well, because when I got into the stall I easily out-scared Telikos. Getting ready inside, my suspicions were raised when Pat lent me her 'flak' jacket and a helmet. Yesterday Pat led a group of six of us training Telikos to come to 'target' and outstretched fingers, and rewarding him with hay. But it's easier when there's a group of you, and the worst the horse can do is get stubborn while he chews his last mouthful. Today we were working on getting Telikos to let us touch him, and there was no hay.

Pat entered the ring first, with her 'arm extension' (a 10 foot plastic pole). Telikos backed into a corner and watched her from the corner of his eye. When Pat reached out with the pole, my knees went a little wobbly as Telikos flung himself around the Pen, crazy at being unable to get away from Pat and her stick. Pat stuck in the middle as Telikos flew into the walls and fence, following him around and keeping the pole resting on his withers. Eventually Telikos stuck reluctantly in a corner, watching Pat out of the corner of his eye. Pat gently started to use the pole to scratch his withers, and work it slowly up and down his spine. Every time the pole touched somewhere new, Telikos would be off again, around and around the stall, backing up and turning around, trying to work out how to get away from this strange lady and her stick!

Pat switched Clare into the stall. Telikos skittered a little when she put the stick on his back, and Clare followed him with it, until Telikos stuck panting in a corner with the stick resting on his back. Clare started to work the stick up and down his spine a little, and Telikos eventually tolerated it as far as his ears and his tail. On Pat's advice, Clare kept on moving around, so Teliko gets used to humans moving around near him.

My turn, and Pat came back into the stall, so I could hide behind her. On my turn, I accidentally poked him with the tip, instead of resting it on his back, which spooked him a little. By now though, Telikos was calmer, and would generally just pant in a corner of the stall while we touched him with the stick.

The most unexpected thing, was that after Telikos got so calm he seemed almost to enjoy having his spine scratched, when we tried the same procedure on the other side it was like started all over again. He flew around and around the stall, and I resumed my position hiding behind Pat, as she followed him around with the stick. When he got calm on his flighty side as well, we tried to move the stick to new areas.

We took it in turn; Clare and Pat worked for perhaps an hour to bring the tip of the stick down from his withers, over his shoulder to the top of his leg - but Telikos was having none of this, and would run from the stick when it moved more than a few inches from his spine. Eventually, with this gradual method not showing much progress, Pat stepped in and placed the stick directly against his chest. This time Telikos flew around the stall again, but settled down quicker than earlier in the afternoon - perhaps he was beginning to trust us, or to recognise there wasn't much he could do to avoid the stick, or perhaps he was just getting tired...

Over the afternoon we got Telikos comfortable with being touched with the stick all over, and not too bothered when we moved closer to him. We could have reached out to touch him, but he didn't seem calm enough yet. To encourage him to pay attention to us, and to give him a sense of control, we began to reinforce him turning to look at us by removing the stick when he faced us. We didn't do this all the time- for instance when we were trying to get him used to having it on his legs, but behaviourists reckon on partial reinforcement being stronger anyway. When the stick was on his legs and he began to kick it off, we made sure we held it on, so as not to reinforce kicking.

When he turned away again, we placed the stick on his withers again. At points, he was so chilled out, his eyes and lips were drooping, and we could move the stick to areas where he was scratching at himself. He seemed to enjoy that. At one point when he was very relaxed, I moved closer and eventually my hand was holding the stick so close to his back I could 'accidentally' touch him. Too much for Telikos, who was off around the stall again. We had been out with him for around three hours, and I think we were all getting tired. So we worked with him until he was relaxed about the stick again, and ended today's session when we were ready. Touching him will have to wait until tomorrow. But by the end of the day, I think Telikos and I were a lot less scared of each other.

Snubbing to the Human Bulldozer

2009-06-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Snubbing is a funny word. In the world of bronco equids, it means tying them up short and letting them work out what confinement by rope means. In the old days, folks didn't have round pens nearly as often as they had snubbing posts. When I worked for Davy Sanchez 40 years ago, we snubbed them to a big strong post set in the middle of the corral. That was in the days when it was also not unusual to "choke them down", so he had a lariat on the bronco and the bronc pulled until it basically passed out. Then it was over. We never had to do it twice. Was it a bad thing? I don't know. We don't have to do things that way much anymore.

Then there are "snubbing horses". You snub your bronc to the saddle horn of a good neck reining (snubbing) horse and start taking him for a walk around the pen. This method is much more common these days. In his mustang training video, Monte Roberts snubs the mustang to a gentle horse. Roberts is a staunch advocate of gentle methods. No one seems to compare snubbing to a post vs. to a horse in levels of equid abuse. It seems to be because the snubbing point moves.

I watched Richard Shrakes' mustang video last week. It's kind of odd. He says it's a step by step plan for gentling your newly adopted mustang, but it seems to require some very specialized heavy equipment -- like a mustang safe bronc chute. Not available at many barns. But after he gets his mustang haltered, he opens the chute with four big men playing mustang tug-of-war. The horse goes crazy for a minute or two. But in about 3 minutes the horse is almost gentle. Hmmm. Mighty magical ... might as well try it.

El Ocho had pulled away from me a couple of times the other day. Didn't want him to learn a new habit, so I gathered up everyone at Mustang Camp and we turned into the best snubbing machine ever invented. Watch the video:

I would shake your hand, but the phone is ringing.

2009-06-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

It takes about 20 minutes to train a horse to pick up its front feet for you... even a mustang, providing that you have their favorite horse snack as a treat. Sarah was shocked at how easily she got Trinity to flip up those hooves. Sarah is kind of spooked by hooves, so she thought Trinity would be spooked by hooves too. Once I convinced Sarah that she should actually stand next to the horse, Trinity got serious about up his rate of reinforcement. He was in charge of that and he knew it. He is funny because he will do most anything for a cookie or a good scratch, but he doesn't really think he might "have" to do something, just because. He knows how to resist when he wants.

I was doing a short video with El Ocho when the phone rang. It was Claire calling from the hostel in Albuquerque. She had arrived from Ireland earlier in the afternoon. She was excited to be in sunny New Mexico and had a great flight next to another horsewoman. We are just getting ready to head down to the bus stop to pick her up. Zeph is coming over to take over my place as Waitress and then we are heading to town.

Three or four other people are on their way to Largo to work with mustangs. We are set to have some fun around here.

Cool News

2009-06-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Letter to Anthony (in charge of the mustang program):

Anthony,
Our blog is at www.mustangcamp.blogspot.com
our videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/patriciabarlowirick

El Ocho and Trinity graduated to a new paddock yesterday since they
will come up to us and let us catch them. They are kind of
leading..... kind of sketchy still.

They still have to learn how to let their feet be worked on and to
load into a trailer on a lead before they can leave, then we will let
them go to new adoptive homes on the condition that the new adopters
leave them with us until we have another set and they pay for their
feed. AND that they come out and learn how we are handling them. You
set the price. I hope to have those tasks mastered in a week.

Can we arrange to get our next ones as soon as Dan catches them
instead of having them go to Farmington? They could get their vet work
and brands after they are tame.

Patricia

Anthony called. I had a rough connection and I was busy being a waitress, but I stuck to the phone. Would I take another horse? His last horse in the USFS corral is the little swayback yearling that I turned down for El Ocho and Trinity. I asked if he could help us with some hay..... he can give us two tons. Yep, we can certainly take the little guy. He will haul him out with the hay later this week. Wow!

What is a good name for the Last Mustang. El Ultimo? He's got to be a cart pony not a riding horse, though Anthony said he would grow to be about 16 hands. Hmmm... somehow I doubt that. He will become Claire's personal project horse. She arrives from Ireland on Wednesday. Trinity is Sarah's project horse, and I am obsessed with El Ocho. Karen gives the more domesticated animals more attention.

More mustangs! More fun!

Living in the Moment

2009-05-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

Mustangs live in the moment and over the years I think I have learned the same habit. It isn't always a good thing. A set of goals and a good organization list are really the only way to make efficient progress, but they are useless when you live in the moment.

I stop by the mustang pen for a quick pet. Three hours later I realize it's time to feed and I am still playing with El Ocho. Its a game of how can I influence him to relax, to move, to follow me, to go away from me... etc. He's getting quite used to "the human companion". He understands working for positive reinforcement and has learned to hear my conditioned reinforcer sound as a sound he wants to happen. I think he will make someone a very cool steed.

With the mustangs leading now, I will put them up for re-adoption on the condition that they stay here in training until the end of June. Karen and Sarah are much more reluctant to think about the impermanence of mustang foster care. Enjoy them now ladies... We have some work to do this week in getting the wild ones to let us clean their hooves and starting to lead over obstacles, but it doesn't take long when you are just living in the moment.

El Ocho and Trinity meet Mr. Halter

2009-05-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

After working the boys with just a rope around their necks, I fastened it into a make-do squeeze halter, and asked them to start turning for me. Trinity thought it was an excessive request. He reared up and then stood his ground, pulling against me. I just waited. At first you might have to release just for a lean in your direction, but it's only a matter of time until the mustang is following.

The Virtues of The Itchy Mustang

2009-05-26T03:45:00.001-07:00

Haven't had time to upload the videos so I haven't posted to the blog.... dumb! What was I thinking???

The best kind of mustang to train is an itchy one. These guys go into paroxysms of rubbing back against our fingers or jutting body parts out to us to get a better scratch. The interesting thing is that you can leave the corral and come back in five minutes and they will be scared to let you touch them as if you never had. Of course it takes less and less time to convince them to give it a try.

El Ocho is the most itchy and the most fearful. I stand next to him and scratch with both hands. His poor coat is so rough and filled with gray dander, it must be quite uncomfortable. His upper lip stretches out as I scratch. I watch it like a gauge to how much he is enjoying my fingers. With fingers in the mid section of his back, along his backbone, his lip is out about 1.5 inches. Right above his tail, the lip-ometer goes to a full 2 inches. He twists his rump around to aim the top of it directly at me. His tail rises. He is suddenly like the most domestic of horses.

I stop and step back. He looks back at his body as if considering how he could scratch himself with his teeth, then he steps toward me, knowing I will do it for him. For a moment he is bonded to me, but he will forget this moment and only remember humans are scary creatures next time I come to the corral.

The body condition on these guys is pretty bad. They must not have been getting what they needed from the USFS hay. Their backbones stick out, their hipbones stick out, their ribs stick out. I would expect horses in captivity for six weeks would be in better shape. Horses down at that elevation should have slicked off. All the horses in the USFS pens were still shaggy beasts. Perhaps they were near starvation when they were captured?

The short summer coat has started to appear on Trinity. He is a dark bay with red highlights. Trinity is less timid. He is a horse that goes his own way and he might not want you to approach, but he doesn't seem truly afraid. I showed Sarah how to get him to join up with me where he follows me around the pen. It takes a certain boldness, but it is not magic. Then I ask him to let me scratch him. Ahhh... the virtues of the itchy mustang!

Day One & Two

2009-05-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday after lunch we headed into town to pick up the mustangs. In the pens there were maybe five older geldings, two younger mares, a yearling gelding, and two four year old geldings. The mares were small and would only ever be ponies. The yearling male had a sway back and a roman nose. Since we are anticipating re-adopting our mustangs out, we chose the two most adoptable of the boys, the pair of 4 year olds that Bob Browning had called a "matched set" when we saw them on Saturday. Number 33 and 38 were similar to each other indeed, but 33 has a long mane and 38 has a mohawk, naturally almost roached. It hurt to leave the others to fate, but two mustangs was as much as we could feed. They jumped in the trailer and looked relieved that the gate closed between them and the humans.

Sarah and Liz were in the truck behind the trailer and they reported that the boys rode well. This was their second trailer ride, the first being from the forest where they were captured. It is about 50 miles from the holding pens to our pens, 26 of those miles being a bumpy dirt road through the oil field. The drive gave me time to think about their names. I didn't know anything about their personalities, but I still felt like I could name them.... the only thing I knew about them were their numbers.... hmmm. Trinity and El Ocho, that would work. Trinity has the mane.

We cleared the pens around the gate and drove into the yard. I backed up to the pens and we all went to work. Liz and Sarah turned some old wheelbarrows into feeders by stripping the wood and hardware off. I filled up waterers. They brought some extra panels and we built a chute between the pens and the trailer. I opened the door and we waited. It took a long time before they finally decided to venture down and out into the pens. They took little heed of Roy, the border collie, who is the friend of all E. caballus and enemy of all E. asinus.

They moved like a school of fish, always touching, so we didn't even try to separate them on the first day. We just threw them a barrow full of USFS hay with a sprinkling of greener alfalfa. They never tasted anything so good!

Wednesday morning (Day II) the Students of Horsemanship had an assignment. Get Ocho and Trinity to eat alfalfa from their hands and spend as much time as possible sitting outside of their pen. The students were to announce "EX" as the mustangs reached for the food. This was make this word into a conditioned reinforcer. I came home from work and the girls were outside the pen handing clumps of alfalfa to the boys. The mustangs are very underweight and could benefit from a little extra feed. We moved panels around and connected two pens together so the boys could be separated. We left them and went in to watch Kitty Lawman tame some mustangs on a DVD while it rained.

I took Cisco into the pen, Sarah took Marla in. We wanted to create a little bit of distraction and not "chase" the boys. Chasing is not the best thing for a mustang and I was sure they had had too much chasing to begin with at the holding pen, where Anthony was using more traditional methods of natural horsemanship involving round pens and whips. We are going to come back to this issue on Day 3.

The mustangs shifted from pen to pen, then Ocho, who is by nature more nervous than Trinty, sprinted through the chute ahead of his mate. I stepped between them and shut the gate. They could now be treated as independent beings.

Sarah and I set to work to teach the mustangs to target our fingers held in a v, like a peace sign gesture. It was only about 15 minutes to get them going on this. Karen came out and got involved while I went and found the camera.

The Set Up

2009-05-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Over the winter, I had to leave the corral and go to work as The Waitress over at the Roadhouse. It was pretty hard to leave my herd to languish in the corral. I started advertising for some help and the Universe started sending me young folks that wanted to work with horses.

Hmmm... they started getting frustrated that I was rarely home to teach them something.

Hmmm... okay, take turns going over to the cafe, earn some tips, and I will stay home and teach you something on the days when you are home. They jumped at the chance. The Roadhouse is a fun place to work.

Hey, it was a home run! I was home five days a week and had four eager assistants. I gave them reading and DVD assignments and they made a lot of progress. Then as traveling kids are wont to do, they moved on. I updated my ad, and pretty soon I had a handful of applicants planning their summer vacations around coming to Largo.

One of the things that happened while I was at the Roadhouse set up the other side of the equation. Dan Elkins started stopping in for breakfast after his long nights on the Jicarilla Ranger District catching mustangs. If I had a chance I would sit down with him and discuss our favorite topic: MUSTANGS. I will write a whole post about Dan later, but let's just say he got me thinking about using mustangs to teach horsemanship.

I have the students, the school, heck... maybe the Forest Service could provide a couple of wild horses??? I called Anthony Madrid and explained what I was thinking of doing.... maybe.. if any horses were left after the auction?

They had 28 in the pen when I got there on Saturday. Hmmm... there would probably be a few left to choose from on Monday. All of the horses captured this time were dark bay or black. Bob Browning started extolling the virtues of two small geldings in the center pen. The mare and foal were nice. I figured my choices would be the most homely. I studied the older animals who would also certainly be left behind. Well, we'd pick up the mustangs on Tuesday so we could only speculate until then....