My Rally girl

 One of the things I did yesterday with Rally was to bring my step stool into the pen so that I could get her used to someone above her. She looked a little surprised at first; remember horses don't normally look above them in close quarters unless they raise their head and are looking for danger. I proceeded to rub and pet her head and neck, then along her back. She was relaxed, so I leaned over her back and rubbed her on her off side. She was fine with that so I put my weight on her as I leaned over her. She was fine with that, which made me really happy!

Today I started on her back feet again- not a lot of progress, but less desire to kick out. 

Then I figured, what the heck, so I went and got a saddle pad to sack her out with. Well that was a non event. Threw it up on her a few times and she looked  at me as if to say, what next?

That pad looks good on you, Rally!

Note the ground tie

Well what next indeed? So I went and got my little saddle. Let her sniff it and check it out, then plunked it on her back. 

Ok, another non event. So why not.... I went ahead and fastened the cinches. 

Well, no problem. Note the ground tie again. So here I am thinking, what will she do when I ask her to move? Because that is often when they blow up on their first saddling. 

Can I just say, I love this horse? I got the distinct feeling that she has been waiting for this for a long time. I like to take things slow with her, partly because it keeps me focused and patient. 

There are lots of things to work on with her, such as getting her to trust me with her back feet, getting her ok with being closed in the trailer as well as hauling, and longeing her saddled. 

I may even ride her at some point....time will tell. 

Next up

 I finally got a decent trim on Rally's front feet. Now I am no farrier just an old lady with a bad back, and Rally is not really foot broke, so it has taken me a long time doing things a little at a time. I found that she is willing to lift her feet much better when I ask with my lariat. 

 

Eventually her feet look like this:

The next day I did clean up the sole with my hoof knife and rasped more flare from the hoof wall. 

A long way from perfect but so much better than this, which is what they looked like the day I bought her. 

Today I started on working with her hind feet. They have been self trimming lately; with all the rain and soggy pasture her feet are pretty soft and some chunks have come off. She wasn't too happy with me lifting and holding her foot so I went to square one, just asking her to lift her feet with my rope- so much easier on my back. 

I did this with both hinds, and when she would lift and set each foot down without kicking, that was enough for today. 

I was also able to send her in to the trailer twice today, yay! She kinda looked at me as if to say, "aren't you coming in?" No, Rally, you are a big girl now you can do it on your own! 

I have also done a bit with Patsy, she is so refreshingly easy after working with Rally! 

I got her started on longeing, she goes over the bridge without any worries, and the tarp work was easy too. 

In fact, so easy that Shayla asked me to introduce her to being blanketed. 

Easy peasy! Patsy also heads straight for the trailer if I turn her loose and has to check for grain in there. One thing I do have to work on with her is backing, both on the ground and backing out of the trailer. 

Always something to do! 

Sunday Silence

 

Some pretties

 I finally have flowers! My new flower garden has these:

Lavatera

The first bloom on the Jackmani clematis

Yellow marigolds

As well as the pincushion flowers and pink snapdragons and pink  zinnias that are a bit faded and need to be pruned to promote new blooms. The two roses are taking their time to bud, guess they aren't fond of the cooler rainy weather. 

My older flower garden I let the calendula and cosmos that reseeded take over, only new stuff in there are snapdragons and my garden peas which are going to be harvestable soon. 

Calendula and cosmos

I enjoy having pretties to gaze upon on my walks to the barnyard!

Rally now leads into the trailer perfectly, so I started working on her feet again. She is getting pretty good with her left front, I have nipped it and rasped it, a little at a time. It needs more but its a lot better. Her right front she is more reluctant with, I did get to clean it today. Every day, a little progress. Good thing I'm not in a hurry! 

The most important thing in their world is grazing! Humans are definitely second place. 

The farrier was here yesterday and did the other 3; she loved Patsy, who was actually pretty good for her first trim. I noticed with Velvet that she cant handle having the farrier put her front feet between the knees for trimming, it cranks her leg out too much angle from her shoulder and her old bones cant take that any more. Velvet is short and wide so there isn't much room under her. I asked the farrier to not do that but to trim her low; it meant she had to do everything one handed as she held the foot but Velvet was much happier. I don't think the farrier was though. 

Sunday Silence

 

Next....

 The last 2 days,  I went to plan C with Rally.  I could see that she wasn't mentally ok with being sent in the trailer, so made the decision to only go in with her until she was really solid on loading without hesitation. Yesterday she had only minor hesitation. She backed out nicely of her own volition, and I loaded her a couple more times, then stepped out and let her dwell in there. Today, well.... she decided that being caught was optional. ( It wasn't.)

Rally: You can't catch me

She led the mares on a romp through the pens. They are currently in a series of interconnecting pens, so I just kept closing gates until I got the other 3 in the small foaling pen, then caught Rally and kicked the mares back in their pasture. 

Then because she was a bit ramped up I opted to do something different with her before the trailer loading. 

Look Rally, it's a raggy old tarp. No monsters lurking. 

Rally: It's more fun than trailer loading

Surprisingly enough she was perfectly ok with the introduction of the tarp. 

This mare is full of surprises, the things I think she will say no to she is perfectly fine with. 

After that, I led her into the trailer, no hesitation. Loaded and unloaded 3 times, no problem. 

So now she gets a break from that and it's time to get back to working on her feet . 

Good girl, Rally!

Rally: I am a good girl!

Lets get loaded

 The last two days have been huge for Rally, although we still have a ways to go. Yesterday, I wanted to focus on sending her in. I got her front end in right away, but after that it was back to the drawing board. A lot of work in hand and all I could get was her loading half her body. As I asked for more, she tried to bite me... that earned her a Come To Jesus moment and a lot of high pressure work on the long line. 

As I went back to asking her to load, I could see that she was close to shutting down, so I went to plan B. The whole goal is to get her loading consistently, and if I can't get the end result of sending her in then it is back to stepping in with her, which I did. It seems that her confidence is in me as she will load if I go in with her. I got her in, and let her dwell in there, then quietly worked my way along her side and stepped out. 

It was a lot of work for her, when it could have been so simple, but this whole deal is about working on her mind. 

She ate her bit of oats, then quietly stepped out. I always love up on her, scratch her itches and tell her what a good girl she is before I take her back to the herd. 

Today again I went to asking for the send in, she immediately loaded her front feet, but that was all she would give me. Every time she stepped back out she got a minimal amount of work before I asked again; load the fronts and half the body was all I could get. So I stepped in again, but this time only to the back of the trailer instead of going all the way in. And she eventually did load 3 feet.

Is this what you want?

So back in with her, but I only went part way in and she loaded all the way . 

She did move that hind foot all the way in because I went in for  moment and moved her up a bit, and she stood there for a long time, thinking about things. Finally relaxed and ate her oats. Eventually I stepped to her head and asked her to back out, which she did perfectly. 

This whole journey with Rally has really been a gift to me. I almost didn't buy her, thinking that at my age I didn't need the challenge of working with a big strong horse that was basically untouched. I wasn't sure I was up to it. However, the first time I went to see her I felt a connection with her. My instinct was that this mare was worth it. She also reminds me of myself; being willful as I was growing up and doing all the wild things that young people of my generation did, before having my own Come To Jesus moment and straightening out my life. Literally. 

I think Rally has a lot of try, just needs to know when she does something right, because she really has no idea of the reasons I ask what I do of her. It is so much easier with baby horses because they  adapt easier to new situations; the oldest horse I previously started was a 2 year old, so still quite adaptable. 

I am looking forward to tomorrows session, I expect it to go much easier. 

Doing what it takes

 Once Rally made the decision to load her front feet in the trailer, with me in there, it was time to work on sending her in. She did, but gave me her worried/puzzled look. 

I worked on getting her to move further in, but that was all she would give me on the send. 

So I reverted to going in with her; sometimes it is 1 step forward and a step or 2  back. She loaded three quarters of her body again  no back feet. I noticed that she got really worried if I tapped her butt for a go forward cue, so back to the drawing board it was. I worked her on the line, making sure the rope sailed onto her butt until she stopped being anxious about it. Then asked for the send into the trailer again, but only got half her body, and her worried look. So I stepped in again, got her three quarters in again, let her rest a bit then went to swinging the rope at her butt to encourage forward with her back feet. We had to go out and back in several times, but she didn't have big evasions, just not wanting to give that last little bit. Eventually, she raised a back hoof and let her toe rest in the trailer. 

Lots of praise and lovin' up on her, and a couple handfuls of oats, et voila!

By George, I think we got it!

She got free choice on the pan of oats then. 

Since I was up in the angled corner at the front of the trailer, I had to think about how she was going to get out. Would she try to turn around and mash me with her big ole but? Would she get panicky if she couldn't feel the ground with a back foot? 

What I did was take her halter off, stay with her being at liberty in the trailer, then step around in front of her and leave, whereupon she backed quietly out. Good girl, Rally! 

I let her stay in the round pen for a bit and graze and relax, as I want her to know it's a good place to be and that she doesn't get to go back to her herd right away after working. 

 Once I can send her all the way in, I will only do this a couple times a week, and get back to working her on giving me her feet and a bunch of other fun things like walking over a tarp, wearing a tarp, and whatever other things I can come up with. Let the fun begin! I may even introduce her to a saddle at some point. 

A breakthrough

 For the last few days I have been working on trailer loading Rally. We had made good progress on the bridge, where I could just send her over it, both directions, so it was time to step things up. 

What I did was open up a panel of my round pen and back the trailer in there, which created a safe area for me to be able to get out of the way, as well as containing Rally if she decided to turn tail and leave. 

The 1st day, after working the obstacles, and taking her to the trailer, she only pawed at the trailer floor, the looked at me.  I read her as saying she wanted to try but it was so far out of her comfort zone, that was all she could give me on that day. She had 3 big evasions where she was leaving, which earned her a lot of work; I stood still and sent her around me in half circles with lots of rapid changes of direction. Eventually she thought better of leaving, but pawing the trailer was all we could do that day. 

The next day I turned her loose in the pen and brought Patsy in. Patsy, of course did all the obstacles and loaded in the traoler like an ole broke horse; what a good mind on that filly!

Sorry about the poor photo, but you can see that Rally was watching. I put Patsy back in the herd and left Rally in the pen for a while, watching her from a distance. She eventually went up to the trailer and finished off the grain in there but didn't go in.

Day 3, it was time to get serious. I started out by a walk through the obstacles, she has the bridge down pat and is learning to walk through the L without knocking the poles. Then I longed her in short circles at the trailer, and let her rest at the trailer door. Pretty soon she was hunting the trailer; when that happened, she got a break, then I would ask for her to put a foot in. She consistently put her right foot in, so I called it for the day. There is only so much she can take before she shuts down, and this was a good building block place to stop. 

Yesterday, no longeing, just a walk through the obstacles and an ask to load. She did the one foot load, then gave me attitude so she got worked in the half circles again. We went through that several times, with two half hearted attempts to flee, then at the trailer, she started to paw with her left front as well as the right front. Hallelulia! She was now thinking with both sides of her brain. 

It wasn't long before this happened:

Her feet make  me twitchy.... soon we will fix them.

The interesting thing is that this didn't happen until I stepped in the trailer. She wasn't going in until I did too. 

I was so pleased with her, this was a huge moment of trust for her. I even had a few happy tears if truth be told. She got lots of love and praise, and actually just stood there for quite a few minutes, checking out the walls looking behind her, and eating the handfuls of grain I offered her, before quietly backing out. 

Today we built on that, same routine and this time  the pawing with both feet, followed by wanting to put weight on her leg, and again once I stepped in she did too with both feet. I encouraged her to step in a little further, which she did getting her hind feet right to the trailer- in essence, she was three quarters loaded. 

Still nervous about committing with her back feet but she did raise a hind and touch her toe to the edge of the trailer, twice. She also backed quietly out and reloaded by following me right in. Some more quiet time in there and that was enough for today. 

Good girl, Rally. 

Back to work

 

Sunset, and a lovely end to Canada day, which I spent relaxing on the couch, watching the Ponoka Stampede on the Cowboy Channel. The recent rains have given us cool mornings, so this morning I worked Rally, and yesterday I worked Patsy. 

This was the first time I asked her to step onto and over the "bridge".  She just is so cool about everything.  I also asked her to follow me into the trailer- she had only self loaded at liberty (there was Food! in there! ) so asking her to step in was a whole different deal. 

Of course it helped that there was a bucket of oats in there, she is quite food motivated at this point.  She is super easy to work with.

I had to take a break from working with their feet; I have had a nasty cold for a couple of weeks and bending over sends me into a coughing fit. Getting better now, so feet are going back on the roster for both her and Rally. 

Today was Rally's turn, and smart girl that she is, she picked up where we left off. My goal today was to longe her over the bridge instead of asking her to come to me in front of her. One thing about Rally, if she thinks she is going to get in trouble she either shuts down or has an exaggerated reaction, so the key to her is taking my time, staying soft and giving timely releases so she understands when she gets it right. Also, she loves to get praised and loved on. 

Really pleased that she offered this right away. 

I had set up the L again too, and asked her to walk through it. A couple times, then I dropped the rope and she ground tied while I stepped back for a photo. 

Good girl, Rally. Next up will be backing through the L in hand.

Then it was over to the trailer for her rest and snack of oats. I am trying to get her to look forward to time spent at the trailer; whereas before she was giving it the stink eye she is now willing to walk up to it and rest. Baby steps for now. 

The other thing I just did was open a panel of the round pen and back the trailer to it, Will have to see how her reactions are and then build on getting her to step in. As I have said before, I am in no hurry, building trust and willingness in this mare is more important than having her conform to my agenda. That being said, trailer loading is super important and high on the list of must haves with her. How I wish I could have had her as a weanling! 

I found this poem on a page I just started following on Fb. If anyone is interested, check out Patrick T Muldoon.