Aspire's Injuries

As my earlier post said I moved Aspire to a new place on Wednesday. The first night I kept Aspire in a pen with hay and water that is adjacent to the arena with Dusty, an older gelding. Phoenix (the dominant horse), Rosie, and Gray were all left out in the pasture with the arena gate open so they could come in and access the automatic water that is shared between the arena and the pen and allow Phoenix and Gray to meet Aspire through the fence. The following day I put Aspire, Rosie, and Dusty out to pasture so she could get a feel for the terrain and learn the fence lines. Phoenix and Gray went into the pen for the night and most of the day on Friday. Friday afternoon we let Phoenix and Gray into the arena and closed the gate so they had room to run around and still meet over the fence if they wanted before letting them out to pasture with Spy. We let Phoenix out first, keeping Gray in, and he ran straight over to her and began chasing her around. He ran her pretty hard, nearly into a fence a couple times, but eventually stopped. Aspire was at one end of the pasture (which is about 20 acres) and Rosie, Dusty, and Phoenix were in the middle when, after about 10 minutes of peace, we decided to let Gray out as well since all seemed to be going okay.

Gray ran over to Aspire to check her out and Phoenix followed. The two of them began chasing her again. She was running her little heart out trying to get away but they kept on her, biting her and kicking at her if she slowed. She began running down one of the fence lines approaching the corner where the arena meets the pasture fencing. This little corner is hidden behind the tack shed and we couldn't see it from where my friend and I were sitting on the fence observing the horses. All of a sudden we heard the screech of wire and the fence break and Phoenix and Gray running away. We took off across the arena to find Aspire upside down with her feet tangled in the barbed wire fencing, her completely on the other side. It looked as if she'd got her two front feet through the fence and got pushed to try and jump or run through it then somersaulted and flipped over the top, twisting the wire around her feet and tangling her so she was trapped laying down on the other side.

As we approached we were worried about her flailing and hurting herself worse but she just laid there. I'm pretty sure she was in shock, which was a good thing for us since it seemed to be keeping her still. I knelt over her neck in case she tried to stand while Jamie worked on freeing her feet. After she was freed, she laid for a couple more minutes before standing up. She just stood with me, let me halter her, and lead her into the pen that she had stayed in the first night.

Her injuries are mostly superficial, lots of cuts and scrapes. She has one cut on her upper and inner forearm on the right with a big flap of skin hanging (flap is attached at the top so hopefully it will keep it's blood supply and not dry up) that looks pretty bad and one long scrape going down the outside of her tendon on the left front that doesn't look bad but it's swollen, as was her left knee today. She let me doctor her up by myself yesterday and today. She's such a trooper.

She's never been hosed before, and I only had 3' of hose to work with that's in that pen today to try and clean up her cuts. She wasn't crazy about it, but eventually did stand to let me hose her a little (of course she had to drink from the hose first). For a two year old, with such minimal handling, and with all the stress she's under and the pain, I was so impressed with her letting me do as much to her as I've had to for doctoring purposes. I'm going to bring ice packs to hold on her knee tomorrow to alleviate some swelling if I can since I don't think she'll stand long enough for cold hosing and because of the tiny hose I don't have a lot of room to allow her to drift and help teach her to really hold still for now. I'm optimistic about a full recovery, minus some scars possibly, but am still going to keep a close eye on everything until I know more.

I'm not really sure what the plan is next for keeping her there or moving her. I'd love it if we could help them get long and create an environment where they could work it out but I don't really know how to do that except possibly put Phoenix and her in the arena and have people with flags in each corner to help them from getting stuck, and let him chase her around. Anyone with opinions or thoughts on this?! I'm not willing to sacrifice her safety again.

My heart is just bleeding for her right now. She's lonely and every time she sees me nickers and calls to me, and when I leave she paces the fence and gets anxious. She has made pretty good friends with the goat, Kaluha, and Gyro the sheep who's recovering from a broken leg and is in the barn attached to Aspire's pen. I opened up the barn today so she and Gyro could get better acquainted since Kaluha is always roaming around and Gyro doesn't move at all. Aspire loves the goat and I hope Kaluha will start sticking around with Spy more. I wish I could just take her home and keep her in my front yard, I feel terrible about the whole thing. I know we did everything to cover our bases for this introduction but I still feel badly about it... I've never seen a horse run another horse like this in my entire life and I've seen a lot of new horse introductions to already established herds.

I'll probably take some photos tomorrow of her injuries to track her healing. Keep her in your thoughts for a full recovery!

Moving Aspire

On Wednesday I moved Aspire from the feedlot to a big pasture at a friend's place...and she did WONDERFUL!

It came up that the boys needed all the pens in the feedlot to sort cattle on Thursday so I could either move her to a pen with a lot of junk in it that she could hurt herself on or I could take her over to Travis'. I figured I'd try and load her, if she got in and was confident I'd move her out of the feedlot, if she wouldn't get in or was nervous than I'd figure out the pen thing later.

I backed my trailer up to one of the pens and tied the door open on one side and the pen gate to the trailer on the other side. She had plenty of room to leave if she didn't want to be near the trailer, but she couldn't squirt out around the trailer. When I brought her home from Hamilton it took four hours to get her in the trailer and we wound up loading her at liberty, creating pressure when she was thinking away from the trailer and release when she thought toward/in the trailer. She did go in on her own twice but when we got to Dillon she wouldn't get out. It was getting dark so we did have to encourage her out with a butt rope...not ideal but that's the best we could do given the situation (you can go back to my trailer loading post to read about it). She'd gone in okay, but the ride to Dillon was long and the unloading wasn't so great. I was a little worried that she would see the trailer and think, "no way, I'm not going back in there!". But, very much to my surprise, after I got everything all set up I let her into the area I'd set up with the trailer and she walked right up, smelled it, and put her two front feet in! I had to go to the bathroom, I hadn't expected her to get half way in, so I just left her there to sniff around and get in or out - whatever she wanted. When I came back she was outside the trailer, looking at it and looking at me, casually nibbling on some hay around the trailer.

I walked up and rubbed her with my stick, pet her, sat with her for a minute - more for me than her. I wanted to keep myself from getting too goal oriented and just immediately trying to send her in. When I did ask her to step in, I pointed at the trailer just like I do when I send on a circle and gently tapped her hindquarters with the stick. To my shock and amazement she just hopped right in - CALMLY! She got all four feet in, stood for a minute, then walked all the way up to the front of the trailer to eat the hay in the manger. I left her in there, doors open, while I began packing up all my tack and other stuff I had around the place, just letting her hang out inside. She turned around and walked to the door, looked around, and just stepped out! Again - shock! I mean, that was huge for her given last time we had to make her come out essentially. I rubbed her and continued packing up stuff, after a few minutes I resent her in. Same thing, ate some hay, hung out for a couple minutes, came out. I did this about 5 times to really cement in her that she could go in and out, understand the step, and make sure she could handle the noise of the trailer rattling upon loading and unloading as well as me tapping it all over with her inside.

Finally I shut the door and off we went! I got to Travis' and pulled into the arena (which is adjacent to the pasture). I penned up all the horses except Rosie since they know each other and tied the door open so she could come out as she pleased. There wouldn't be any forcing her out today. I brought a snack just in case it took a while to get her out! But she hopped out in a matter of minutes and went off exploring!

I really, firmly, truly know and believe that the only reason all this happened the way it did is because of the relationship we had built. Granted we did develop more communication and language between us, so we had tools to use to facilitate a conversation about loading... but if she didn't trust me and have a relationship with me where I'd never betrayed that trust I doubt she would have loaded herself the way she did. This experience really speaks to the value of Natural Horsemanship and how important and necessary it is to make sure all the foundation building blocks are in place so you can build on it and have continued success.

We turned her loose in the pasture yesterday afternoon after leaving her in a pen overnight to get adjusted to the new place and she LOVES it. It's the first opportunity she's had to really stretch her legs and be a horse, let alone a colt, in a long time! I can't wait to build our relationship in a much healthier and happier environment for her.

I will get more pictures of her soon but here are some from the trailer loading!

Flagging & The Relationship

Yesterday I decided to introduce the flag to Aspire. She took one look at it and bolted, snorting and spooking. I just did what I've been doing with the stick and string, walking away from her and rhythmically raising and lowering the flag in a relaxed arc. When she relaxed I slowed down and when she offered to get a little closer and look curious I stopped. It only took a matter of minutes before I think she identified the pattern between the stick-string and the flag. The only right answer is to stop moving your feet and to look at me. Pretty soon she wanted to smell the flag and let me rub her all over with it. I made the mistake of accidentally letting the flag fall over to her other side and she caught sight of it on her off side and shot straight toward me sideways. I dropped the flag and moved back and away in an arc toward her hindquarters bringing her nose to me and her hinds away. Oops. I began over again rubbing her all over with the flag and eventually built up to swinging the flag toward her and away. After accomplishing this on both sides I began adding some noise to it, which bothered her a little but every time she relaxed, made a change, or offered to connect to me I stopped what I was doing and rewarded that effort on her part.

I really believe that that is what makes her different from other RBE horses that haven't had any relationship built with them. In my colt starting class right now there are a lot of students with extreme RBE horses, some like Aspire and some much more extreme. It is apparent that none of these horses have very much trust in their human, no rapport or relationship has been developed, and in class there is no emphasis on building one. It's all about the end goal of having horses hold still and tolerating the flag or bag or saddle but not about the horse wanting it, wanting to be with the human, seeking out comfort and safety in their human leader. Aspire was just like many of these horses when she first came to Dillon and her tendency and nature is to revert back to that when afraid. However, because I've spent so much time valuing her emotional health and our relationship I think she finds it easier to become LB and trust that I won't hurt her and that I can provide those things she needs most - safety, comfort, and play. In example of this, my flagging exercise was really bothering the other two fillies and they began running and bucking around in the pens. They took off and Aspire wanted to go with them. She reared up and flung herself backward and then kicked toward me. I let go of the rope (I'm not going to try and hang onto that mess on a 12' line!) and she ran off to the corner of the pen to be with her friends. Instead of getting mad I thought "how interesting" and took a moment to evaluate why she'd rather be with them than me. As I was thinking about the situation Aspire looked over at me and made a decision. She decided that rather than be with her friends she'd come back to me! She walked straight back to me and put her head down against my side and took a deep breath! This moment was so rewarding! I've been stimulating her with the flag, doing something scary, her friends are tearing around the pens, and she'd still rather come back to me and continue playing. Any other horse would have been glad to be free of their human, the flag, the pressure, and be with other horses.

I can't say enough how important this relationship is with the horse. If the horse wants to be with you and understands that you're benevolent leader than everything else becomes so much easier. Even with a challenging horse. Some days I really wish I could have Aspire in the colt start but I don't think that this class is the right environment to nurture a relationship with her. The horse I am using, Rosie, is so much simpler and confident that I can maintain rapport with her and keep up with class requirements at the same time. I simply couldn't do both with an emotional horse like Aspire. I wish that the class format was more focused on this than on just getting horses further today than yesterday with the bend on a circle or the flag regardless of how the horse feels. I feel bad for these RBE horses in class that are so confused and afraid and for the students because they're not learning strategies to handle horses like these. The students don't get why a longer rope might be a good idea or how to identify what's broken and isolate, separate, and recombine anything.

Anyway back to my day with Aspire yesterday... I ended the day by sitting on the fence and flagging her with a lot of snap and noise to the flag. She wasn't sure about it in the beginning but she really is looking to me for comfort. Her first response a lot of the time is to move her feet and leave but you can see her trying to think and then she'll decide on her own to come back and wants to just rest with me. I am surprised at how fast I can progress with her given her nature. I'm very cautious of overloading her or pushing it and really try to read her each day I come out to play to see how she felt about me the day before. And everyday she's always greeting me at the gate and offering to put her head in the halter for me. :) So rewarding!

My goals for the next couple weeks for her are to continue flagging and introduce the bag on a rope, more girthing simulations, the needle simulation on her neck, spraying her with a squirt bottle, and de-worming simulations with apple sauce. Also trailer loading so I can move her to a nice big pasture with Rosie! :)

Touch It - Zone 5

Ah, I forgot to post in my last "Many Firsts" post that yesterday we also played a very successful game of Touch It from Zone 5 on 12' line for the first time. :)

Many Firsts!

Yesterday was absolutely awesome! For starters it was the first sunny day in a while with little wind so that was very motivating to play with horses all day. Aspire was great, such a fast learner! It's been a couple days since I've really done much with her and I could tell when we first starter playing - she was much more hyper-alert and RB than normal. I took an extra couple minutes to just stand with her, lead her around and having her follow me while I rhythmically slapped the ground with my stick and string, just allowing her to feel things and adjust herself emotionally. Finally she sighed and put her head down so we went forward.

We played with a lot of things yesterday and she noticeably improved on her Stick To Me game and was much more relaxed than she has been with this in the past. I played the Squeeze game between me and a raised area of the pen that she has to walk up on and over and then down (total raise and lower of about 6 inches maybe). She normally walks going the direction where it's more uphill and then trots and tries to canter/leave on the downhill. Yesterday she really got the idea of send, allow, turn/face/wait on her own. It was great. So I decided to up the ante a bit and send her to a barrel. I always allow her the option to stop, knock them apart and walk through, jump, whatever she wants because it isn't about the jump it's about her confidence. She normally will take one send/allow to go up nose the barrels, step one leg over, take it off (think the Hokey Pokey) then I'll yo-yo her back and resend and she'll walk up and jump, generally land in a trot (I'd prefer the walk) and turn face, and really shows effort in her draw back to me. It's wonderful. This particular exercise causes her to ask me lots of questions and want to come and check in with me.

So our big first yesterday was in the sideways game. I know this is far beyond the level we're working in, but she's so sensitive and perceptive I just wanted to try and see what would happen if I asked her to sidepass toward me. Since I've never done this before, nor seen the teaching process of it (I've seen Pat do it in many demos and on his L4 DVDs) I tried to logically break down the teaching steps and what problems I'd run into if I asked for it and it didn't work. I first decided to ask her to step her hindquarters toward me while I was standing perpendicular to her (as you would in most sideways games), with me on her left side. I had a 12' line on her and had it on her right side and draped over her back so I could hold the tail of the rope and gently guide her nose away from me and to the right to help encourage her hind end to step away from her nose and toward me if she got stuck. I raised my stick in the air and gently started pushing on her personal space over her hips, then gently began tapping her right hip, I could see her thinking and trying to figure out what to do. She tried to take a step forward, I allowed her to make the effort/mistake before gently guiding her nose around by putting feel on my rope. Her nose bent in and she stepped her hips over and then all the way around so she could face me! Now, I don't want to teach her to make full circles when I ask her to bring her hips toward me but that was a great first step! After a good release/friendly I set us up the same way to ask for it again. She took a step, I didn't need to do nearly as much this time to get the step, then started rubbing her and following her until she stopped trying to face me before stopping everything and becoming quiet. The third time I asked her all I did was influence her personal space and she took two steps toward me with her hind end. I was SO excited! I couldn't believe how quickly she picked it up. I was absentmindedly playing with her tail while I was basking in our moment and she must have thought I was cuing her to back up and she took a full, nice, solid, three steps back toward me, then looked over her shoulder at me like "ya, I know I'm smart". I was just elated! I've never gotten such solid steps backward as those before either. To finish out the little sideways toward me session I asked her shoulders to come to me - same process as above, but with the rope on my side so I could help tip her nose toward me and take that step if she got stuck. About the same as with the hips, a little enthusiastic about moving her feet in the beginning but after two tries or so just took a nice, solid, step and stopped when I stopped pushing on her bubble. WAY COOL! :)

We even got 4 laps at a walk on the circle. Sometimes she needs a lot of drift and sometimes she needs a shorter length of rope because she'll get too RB on a longer length and start running around like mad. She really fluctuates on the circle as to what length helps her on any given day depending on her emotional state. It doesn't really help we only have a square pen with irregular footing and that weird raise/dip I talked about earlier that I used for our squeeze game. I like having obstacles and varied terrain for teaching, but it really isn't what we need right now when I could use a nice round pen to help our circles. I'm working with what we have and it's alright but I need a better place to help her learn to circle calmly and have a safe area for her to be RB and running around in than the pen we have now. That little raise is cement and I worry about her slipping or hurting herself some other way. Regardless, the circle yesterday was great! She was calm, collected, and really ready for the bring back with a great attitude and draw toward me.

I just help but me so impressed with her! She's really teaching me a lot about myself when it comes to patience and lightness. I just don't want to dull her or be too clumsy for how elegant she can be. I see a great future for this horse - she's so athletic and bright!

Hopefully I'll have some more photos up soon - she's shedding out like crazy and I think she'll look phenomenal this summer!

Happy Birthday Aspire!

Today she officially turns 2 years old! Birthday photographs to follow. :)

At The End Of The Day

Aspire and I have been playing really well together and she's coming along so nicely. She whinnies to me when she hears my truck pull in and is always meeting me at the gate. Part of this is because she's hungry and is ready to be fed and watered but even after that she's always following me around and hanging out. She's been laying down a lot more which I feel is expressive of her growing self confidence and she's always happy to have me come over and rub and scratch her when she's laying down. This especially makes me happy because she's not viewing me as a threat at all and is welcoming the attention in such a vulnerable position.

Lately at the end of a play session I've been taking her halter off in a sitting position. Just to practice head down and get in good habits of really asking her to stay with me while I'm compromised by sitting and not leave as I'm trying to remove her halter. Which has never really been an issue but I like to do different things to keep it interesting. When I take her halter off she just stands there with me and I have been taking this opportunity to rub her face, scratch her mouth, play with her gums, rub her ears, scratch under her jaw - everywhere that feels good and she LOVES it! She will start to do a lot of licking and chewing, yawning, head shaking, deep breathing - all signs of relaxation... I have a couple thoughts on this.

One being that I hope that she isn't holding a lot of stress and tension during our play sessions (btw: she's stopped doing that weird sleepy eyes / introverted thing) and can only release it when all the pressure is off and I'm just loving on her at liberty. I hope that she doesn't need me to do that to release the tension - because while I'm happy to help, I don't want to cause that in her while we play. My other thought is that it could just be that she's fine the whole time but simply really loves that bonding time after we play and I'm rubbing her head. It could just mean a lot to her and really relax her. She'll often just stand with her head hanging over me while I'm sitting, eyes half closed, leg cocked, just enjoying my company. I really like this time we spend together and I feel it is really important and means something to her. The other day I was sitting on a barrel and lay back on it and she just bent down and rest her chin on my chest and twizzled her top lip against my neck and took a deep breath. We sat that way for a while until her head started to crush me as she kept relaxing into me. Sweet though. :)

Thoughts anyone? I really appreciate the feedback.