Introduction to the Girls

With the Vet coming on Monday it was vital that I was able to catch him again.  I went up on Sunday and fed him some treats and tried to get a halter on him again, but he wasn't having it.  He wouldn't let me get close to his head at all.  However he knew he had to put his nose in the halter to get a treat, which he did quite willingly.  I spent the afternoon with him but didn't make much progress.  We are in a much bigger lot now, and not near as easy to stay with him as in a small pen.  So Monday when the vet was due to come I got the girls and brought them to the barn, and Vern came up and went to see if he could get a halter on Shoulda.  He walked right up to him, dropped his head and let him put the halter on without a struggle. I was like, "how'd you do that?"

While waiting for the vet I got them all a little grain, and he did a lot of hollering at the girls but basically stood pretty still. I had no idea how he was going to behave. The first shot he took just fine, the second one he went nuts over.  We asked the vet how old she thought he was and she determined that he must be about 15.  WHAT! Now with his behavior and his age, I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into.

Beings we had a halter on him, we decided we would take him in the barn and work on getting his tail combed out a bit.  I tied him to a post in the barn, and Vern and I took turns trying to keep him calm while one worked on the tail.  He stood quite nicely for it considering. I had read that WD40 was the best thing to use for the tangles and proceeded to use a whole can on him. All we accomplished was the making of two dreadlocks instead of one, and got a little poof at the bottom.  When we were finished I went to take the halter off of him and he was too high headed for me to reach him, so I put my hand on the top of his head and applied a little pressure to see if he would drop his head for me.  I did something to scare him evidently because he reared up and pulled back a couple of times, then he just came to a stand still, dropped his head, and let me take the halter off.  I'm reasonably sure at this point that there is no way I'm ever going to be able to do anything with this horse. Now that I've got him, what am I going to do.  I worried over him every minute.

Since we had all three of the horses together I decided maybe it was time to get them use to each other.  I had discussed this with Julia before I ever brought Shoulda home, and she told me to put them together and get out of the way.  She said it should only take about 20 minutes but they would work it out.  We put Shoulda in the upper lot first and let him go.  Vern led Dixie and I led Gracie. I let Vern take Dixie in first.  He didn't even get the gate shut when she went to kicking on Shoulda with him in the middle.  I thought he was going to get it good. They went at it pretty good, so while they were busy we put Gracie in the pen.  She wasn't nearly as aggressive about it all. We sit down and watched.  Dixie wouldn't let Gracie get close to him, and she seemed to be somewhat curious about the whole situation. After the initial kicking match was over, the girls just stayed away from him.  Now and then Gracie would try to break away and go visit Shoulda, but Dixie would get between him and her and herd her away from him. After a couple of days, I moved them down to the lower lot and I tried to get them to come to me.  Shoulda would come and take a treat, and if I moved ever so slowly I could get a halter on him.  The girls were a different story.  Dixie would keep Gracie away from me and not let her come. I had created a monster.  Her ears were pinned and she moved Gracie like she was a colt. Shoulda was still the outsider. The Kids Together

I decided I needed to separate them, so I got Dixie and took her to the other side of town. I put Gracie across the road, and I left Shoulda in the upper lot where the fence was best.  He threw a fit!  I had  trouble understanding why he got so upset with them being away from him when they wouldn't let him with them anyway and kicked at him every time he got close. After a couple of days I put Gracie back in with him to see how they got along.  They seemed to get along a little better and I didn't see any kicking going on but they would still occasionally put their heads together and disagree. At least that's what I thought they were doing.

Now it's time to get the farrier there to trim this boy's feet.  I had Vern go up with me to the barn and we got him haltered and tied, and I decided while we waited I would just take Gracie for a little ride. Little did I know this paint horse would go ballistic as soon as I rode Gracie out of sight so when the farrier showed up Shoulda was tied to a post rearing and yelling to beat the band, and the farrier thought we had a wild stallion on our hands. I of course came back to the barn as soon as I saw Terry's truck pull up and as soon as Shoulda saw Gracie he settled down, but he had himself so worked up that he was still nervous and jumpy.  Terry promised no guarantees, and we were all quite surprised as to how well the whole thing actually ended up. One more obstacle tackled! We are starting to like this guy better all the time!

Look MOM! I'm riding!

I'm well on my way to riding now. Though I had to learn reining and how to sit a saddle. And I didn't do any of it right.  I thought you just crawled in the saddle and let the horse take you where to told them to go, but apparently that isn't the way it works.  You have to "RIDE" your horse.  I'm still pretty novice at it but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  My main problem was that I couldn't get the girls away from each other to really get any practice in as they are so buddy sour.  I did a lot of reading to see if I could figure out how to over come this and seems I was making a little progress. Gracie was a little more willing to accept a ride away from the lot than Dixie was.  From the beginning, I have been just a little more connected with Gracie than Dixie anyway, so I didn't let it bother me too much.  I just worked with Gracie more than I did Dixie.  But all in all things seems to be coming together, and I was getting out and having a ride now and then and enjoying every minute of it, and standing up to them when I needed too.

Around the end of March I took a visit to my niece, and nephews, down by Cawker City, Kansas. While out at my nephews, we walk out to look at the paint that he bought about six months ago.  Soan told me that he was a good horse but he was a little on the ornery side, and way spooky about things,  and that he just didn't have the time to ride him.  He was a little dirty and needed to be cleaned up, looked like his feet needed to be trimmed, but he was absolutely beautiful. Soan was worried that he was going to hurt one of the kids, and that he needed to look for a gentler horse.  I told him I'd take him.  I've always wanted a black and white paint, and this guy was beautiful.  He has blue eyes, with an eclipse in one, and more black than white, a beautiful mane and tail, though it appeared to be one big dread lock.  He could be a show horse, and I was sure I could work with him enough to get him ridable. From the information they gave me, he was about 5 years old, was raised from a bottle as his momma had died after birth, and that he had been ridden in parades, until sold to a girl who rode him in rodeo's. Soan said that he had gotten his halter caught on something in the barn, and he hadn't been able to get a halter on him since.

I was having the vet come out to give the girls their shots the first of May so wanted to get him home before then so that he could look at this guy too.  I name him Shoulda, as in Shoulda been a Gypsy.  (my dream horse) I figured he was the closest thing to a gypsy as I would ever get. I had a little trouble getting him home, as I don't have a trailer, and everyone I know that has one has a gooseneck. We don't have a truck that can pull a gooseneck. I called everyone in the country until I happened upon Jim. I told him of my dilemma and asked if he had a trailer.  He says he does.  I asked if it was a gooseneck, and he says it is.  So I'm like, dang it, that's my problem, every one I find is a gooseneck and our truck can't pull it.  He says, "Well, I don't let anybody drive my truck."  Now I wasn't born yesterday, I sorta know that! So I explained to him that I didn't want to borrow his truck, but if he could spare the time to run me to Cawker City to get this horse I'd be more than happy to pay for his time and gas.  So he agrees.

I called Soan and let them know I was coming, and they told me that we would probably have to trick him into the trailer, that we wouldn't be able to get a halter on him.  I brewed over it all night.  I was sure if the guys didn't hurry me I could get a halter on him if I was just patient and persistent, so I gave my husband strict instructions not to get pushy with me and to let me do things my way.  I was actually quite surprised when they did just that. I went through a bag of treats, and we did a lot of circling. Thank God the pen wasn't too big.  It took me right at two and a half hours, but he finally gave to me, and the halter went on.  He suddenly looked like a much bigger horse that I thought he was, and he wasn't just a little nervous he was a LOT nervous. I walked him around in circles a few times, and Vern came in the pen and took him to the trailer.  This was our biggest worry that once we got a halter on him we'd never get him in the trailer.  He walked right in like a pro, no problem. That is until Jim went to shut the door, and then he jumped right into Vern's lap!  He calmed right down though and we headed for home.  I was a smiling the whole way!  My Indian Horse!  Just what I'd always dreamed of !  I'm in heaven.

When we got home and took him out of the trailer, he came out a kicking, a dancin, and a jumpin.  I was pretty sure he'd be alright once he had a chance to settle down, so we put him in the lot by himself and took the halter off of him.  I stepped back and watched him.  He was a beauty for sure.  He was going to make me a good horse.

Saddled Up and Ready To Go

So here we are. We're saddled up and ready at the mount and it's time to go for a ride. Oh yeah, but first I have to teach them to stand still so I can get on without them taking off before I get my foot in the stirrup. Gracie caught on to this quite quickly but good ole Dixie gave me problems with that. Oh yeah and lets not forget the day that I'm just sitting on Gracie's back, trying to teach her to stand still and she takes off to the barn with me and no reins to steer her with, only a lead rope. That proved for an interesting little ride as she sidled up to every fence she could bounce me off of saying "GET OFF ALREADY!"  Now, Miss Dixie is the back up expert........unless of course you ask her to. It took a bit of convincing, but we finally got better at it.

So I took some video to send to Julia, to show her what a great rider I was!  Bahaaahaa! I get this comment back from her!

You are a green as grass rider. Dixie is the perfect horse for you. What a good buy you made when you got her. 

The first place we will start is control. 

When you are riding dixie, you should only use the reins when you want her to change something that she's doing. 

The way you are riding her right now, it looks like you are hanging on to the reins for balance. You are always hanging on to her a little bit, just in case she might go faster than you want her to. 

When you tell your horse to go, don't be surprised when she goes. tell her what direction you want, and then let her go there. 

I'd like to see you turn loose of those reins (by that I mean, put some slack in them) for a few strides at a time. Get used to the fact that Dixie will carry you where you want to go even tho you are not micromanaging every step.

And now it is up to Julia to fix this problem! 

Well, I thought that perhaps Julia should meet Miss Dixie Doll in person, cause that horse is not what she appears to be, but man can she act for the camera! Yet of the two of them, yeah, I would trust Dixie on her back before I would trust Gracie, yet I wanted to show Julia that I wasn't totally backward when it came to Gracie, so I saddled her up one cold day and rode her up and down the road to show her that it could be done however sloppy it was. This was Julia's reply:

I am stunned!!!!

Totally blown away!!!

OMGosh, I love you!!! Will you marry me?

Yep, I'm on my way to being a Pro!  Just watch and see!

The Next Step

So now I can pick up their feet, and I can move them back and forth without getting run over so Julia has me to go to work teaching them to lead.  That all went pretty well with Gracie, but Dixie is part mule, I'm sure of it. She absolutely refused to move at times, and when she did she didn't get in any hurry about it.  But I persisted and she eventually came along.  I've got to tell you, I worked in the snow and the rain, and the mud. I was going to win at this no matter what.

Here's a little clip of me leading Gracie.

Now I go to teaching them to bring their butt to me at the mount so that I can get on them without using a ladder.  I amazed myself here.  There were times however that I was pretty sure I wasn't ever going to accomplish it and there was a time or two that I thought Dixie was going to completely mow me down before she finally gave into me.   Here's a little clip of me trying!  Teaching Dixie to line up at the mount. Well, Whoo HoOO I did it.  I actually got them both to line up and stand still for me!  I think I'm about ready to hop on and go for a ride.  Yes?! Well, not quite!

I learned Pick up the Feet.

I don't know how many youtube videos I've watched where they show you how to pick up a horses foot, but I can dang sure guarantee you than none of them looked like the one I just posted.  I'm not sure what Julia thought when she watched that video, but I got a phone call.   She said no matter how hard I worked I was never going to be able to pick up a 1200 lb horse.  Well, how many of you have tried it!.  You ever see that movie with Sandra Bullock in rehab trying to pick up the horses foot!.  AH HA!  Pretty funny until your in that position.

So I'm only a week into my "training" when I encounter this picking up the feet problem. Here's what I wrote to Julia.

Subject: Re: Catching and Haltering

Ok so I haven't even had a chance to try this yet as I have another problem. (this being moving the horses, back forward, side).  Oh by the way the haltering is going well!  This morning, they both came to the barn, stopped "outside" and waited for me to put their halters on!  OH YEA!  Still working with them to wait til I'm ready before they go for it, but it's way better than before so making progress there.  OK back to my problem. Two days ago I went up and noticed Dixie is limping.  The guy I usually call to help me with feet problems is dealing with physical ailments and I didn't want to bother him.  So I decide I've got to look at this horses feet.  Dixie would let me lift the foot on the left (front) but not the right.  I worked with her until I finally was able to get it lifted and cleaned it off a little.  OK so I've decided I need to work with these girls and get them to let me lift their feet.  I have to admit I'm a little afraid of the back ones.  So haven't gone there yet.  Gracie is pretty good with letting me lift the front ones. Dixie fights me on the right everytime.  I don't know if it's because that's the one that hurts her.  Anyway, I could use some help on this. I can actually feel Dixie planting that foot the minute I go for it. LOL Now I know she knows how to do this because no one else has problems with her in this area.  This morning I was finally able to get both the front ones cleaned off pretty good, and I don't know, I think she was walking better when I left.  The thing is I don't know what I'm looking for.  I've watched all kinds of video's on this and read and read and read, as the first year I had the horses Gracie got an abscess in one of her feet and we (my old horse friend that's ailing) doctored it all summer.  Actually we treated her for thrush as that's what my vet thought it was without looking at her, and when my Ferrier was trimming her he hit the abscess by accident and broke it loose and it got better. Anyway, I need some confidence building in this area, messing with their feet makes me nervous.  I know it's something I need to get over.

Ok, now back to the video, So your tapping on the rump to try to get them to move towards you.  What if they won't move!  LOL sorry, but I have that problem!  Now I've worked with them in moving the back end and the shoulder and I think I have that down fairly well, but the tapping to move towards me I'm going to have to work on.  LOL that's what frustrated me to the point of contacting you, lol so I know it's going to be a challenge.  I will work on all of it like you showed though to make sure we are on the same page. 

Susan

Here's what Julia replied:

Ok, now back to the video, So your tapping on the rump to try to get them to move towards you. 

Noooo!!! You gotta get the hind end to move AWAY from you first. The only reason I showed the moving towards me, is cause the paint horse knew that cue very nicely. Coming towards me was a cue he didn't know.

Hind end has to move away from you.

Front end has to move away from you.

Work on this till you can move either end, hind or front, while they are tied up by just lifting a hand or laying a single finger against them.

What if they won't move!  LOL sorry, but I have that problem! 

If they don't move, you tap nicely at first, then get progressively harder... till you are beating the shi* out of them.

Gracie!

Trust me... A time or two of making your wishes crystal clear and important to their comfort will realign those girls' attitude nicely. LOL.

Remember... this is about pressure and release... Pressure starts light and gets harder harder harder... TILL and only till they move. As soon as one foot moves into the desired direction ALL pressure gets released. Not a twitch, not a wiggle, nothing... just "Good Girl".

Now I've worked with them in moving the back end and the shoulder and I think I have that down fairly well, but the tapping to move towards me I'm going to have to work on. 

"I think I have that down fairly well" ain't good enough. Get crisp, attentive obedience. Then you got it good enough. Getting these signals down to unquestioning obedience will fix your "I'm getting run over by my girls" problem.

Remember... one finger, or a handsignal should move either the hind or the shoulder AWAY from you.

LOL that's what frustrated me to the point of contacting you, lol so I know it's going to be a challenge.  I will work on all of it like you showed though to make sure we are on the same page. 

Gonna make a pick up the feet video next.

Julia

Dixie...does she look sorry!  I think not!

She then made me a video that showed me how to pick up a horses feet, and I went to work on that!   It took me about 3 days before I was lifting all 4 feet simply by pointing at it!.  I couldn't believe it.  I'd be a darn liar though if I told you I was comfortable with it, but the fact that I could do it simply amazed me.  I mean I can do the back feet also, and I don't have to double tie the girls up to do it like they show you in those video's either!  I believe I'm on my way to being a pro!

Meanwhile, I'm still working on the getting the horses to move without having to beat them to do it.  Now before you all get in an up roar......I'm simply kidding about the beating! Not that there hasn't been a few times it didn't enter my mind.  I still leave the barn in the evening convinced that these two horses spend the night conspiring against me with what they can pull tomorrow. Meanwhile I spend my evenings watching video's and reading whatever I can possibly get my hands on about how I can make things better, and I go to bed with nothing else on my mind.  I will overcome!  

Demanding Some Respect

Though we are still working on the "catching and putting the halter on" , Julia gives me instructions as how to get the horses to safely move their hind end away from me.  The second day I was to work with them on this, Dixie appears to be lame and it was necessary for me to be able to lift her foot and see if there was anything wrong that I could help with.  I tried everything.  The minute I got close to her legs she stiffened up and there was no way I was going to pick her foot up off the ground.  Now she knew exactly what she was doing.  The farrier had never had any trouble picking up her feet.    I promise you under her breath she was saying to Gracie, "watch this!"  I had seen on a Parrelli video that if you pinched that callous on the inside of the horses leg they with simply pick their foot up and give it to you.  NOT!  I pinched that callous so much trying to pick her foot up that it came off in my hand!  Oh my GAWD! I broke my horse!  I'm really hoping that is something will grow back on it's own.  I hope it's not something they need!  When all failed, I gave up and went home and emailed Julia!

The next day I took the video camera up to the barn with me and I videoed the moving the hind end exercise, and then tried once again to get a look at Dixie's sore foot.  This is the video I sent to Julia so that she could see and understand my problem! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr0imEsCjPs

After you get done laughing, I'll ask you to notice how afraid I am of walking behind Dixie.  She has kicked at me so many times that I take a wide path when I go around behind her.  Also did you notice how far away from her I stand when I'm asking her to move.  I still don't trust her in the least.

So Fall is Now Upon Us

Well, now it's fall and we did take a few little rides, but nothing spectacular and then winter hit and it was a cold one, so there was no riding throughout the winter. As soon as spring peeked it's nose out I was ready to ride!  With the two of them it was just too hard, so I basically just would ride, sometimes bareback from lot to lot as I grazed them.

One spring day in April, my feet hurt and I just didn't want to have to walk a crossed the road to move them so I talked Gracie into letting me jump on her back and bareback her to the gate.  Well, when we got there I had to jump off to open the gate.  I was hanging onto her mane, as I didn't have a halter on her, and when I slid down my hand got tangled in her mane and one finger didn't let go!  Yep, broke the hell outta it!  It'll never be the same, or work right.

Summer came and went, and it was either too hot or too wet to ride, but fall weather was beautiful so I decided I was going to definitely get some riding in before the snow started flying. I bought me a little leather bareback saddle, thinking that if I didn't have to go to all the trouble of saddling them up that maybe I'd be more inclined to ride more often.  I was going to just throw this on them, ride around the pasture a bit every day and get this down to a tee.  I went to the barn and saddled them both up and started working.  Two hours later I still hadn't managed to talk one of them into letting me get in the saddle.  The more I worked the more determined they were to keep me off their backs.  I gave up for the day, I went home and just wanted to cry.  The next day I talked my husband into going for a ride with me.  I just felt safer if someone was with me.  We saddled them up, and went about 5 blocks, Gracie fighting me every step.  I tried to get her away from Dixie just long enough to run around some trees and practice some reining, and she pulled against me until I was about to fall out of my saddle.  I told Vern, "let just go back to the barn, I just don't feel at all safe".    I finally came to the conclusion that I needed some help and if I didn't get it pretty quick, I'm going to get hurt.  I mean really hurt.  I put the horses away and went home and sent an email to Julia.

I found Julia Slater online advertised as a John Lyons certified trainer the year before.  In all my "studying" I decided I liked the way John Lyons worked with horses and did a little research to see if I could find a trainer in my area.  Julia is in southern Kansas, but that was about as close as I could get.  I had called Julia back then to see what it would cost to get her to come and do a clinic, but I wasn't able to get enough interest lined up for it.  While talking to her she told me about her online training and suggested I try that.  I balked at that suggestion because what I really felt I needed was some hands on training.  Now  I'm desperate so I'm willing to try just about anything. Together we decided we would try the online training and see how it goes.

I did my best to explain to Julia where I was with the horses, which was no where.  Gracie had eluded me in putting a halter on so many times that I had started letting her go without a halter and now she was impossible to catch.  Even with a handful of treats she would stay just far enough away that I couldn't catch her. If I did get a halter on her she would run over me.

Dixie would try to kick me for what seemed to me no apparent reason.  If I tried to get on her from the ground she would back up and not let me on.  If I tried from the mount she would refuse to bring her hind end to me so that I could reach her.  If I scolded her she would try to kick or bite me .  I was to the point of "FEAR" in getting to close to her. When I walked behind her I took a wide path!

Julia and I agreed that we needed to start from scratch.  The first thing to do was to try to get the halters on them.  No grain or treats unless they put their halters on first.  So here we go! Getting a halter on Dixie was no big deal.  She would back away from me but sometimes if I told her "whoa" she would stop.  Other times she would go out of the barn a ways and stop, and I could then walk up to her and put a halter on her with no trouble.  Getting Gracie was another story.  I learned that if I got Dixie first and walked her to the gate, Gracie would follow, and usually then would let me put a halter on her.  She would NEVER let me do it in or close to the barn. The first week that's what we did.  I would walk Dixie to the gate put the halter on Gracie, lead them both back to the barn and give them their grain.  HAHHA! That worked for awhile until Gracie figured out that if we went to the gate I was going to catch her, so now she would go to the gate with me and then turn around and run so the chase was on!  Now understand it's the first of January and it's dang cold out there and I'm really not wanting to spend an hour chasing this horse around in the snow.  But Julia said....no halter no grain.  I gotta tell ya there were some days that she just didn't get any grain.  Yet I made an effort everyday to give her the choice.  Soon enough I learned that if I could get her into the upper pasture, and work with Dixie for awhile, by the time I got done, she was ready to put her halter on.  That's what we did for the next two or so weeks.  Then I tried treats.  That was a joke at first.  I tried putting the bucket of grain down and when she got close enough would put the halter on her.  Worked once!  The next  three or four times I tried it she danced around me like an Indian going to a pow wow.  I was to the point of total frustration.  When I would finally catch her I was so mad I wanted to beat her!  However, I knew if I ever did that that she would never come to me.  I mean if someone caught me and then beat me I sure wouldn't be in any state of mind to let it happen again!.

Julia suggested that I make a place I could run her in and shut the gate, a place to catch her.  I didn't have what I needed to do that and with 10 inches of snow and ice on the ground, wasn't in the position that I could get anything rigged up. I did have some fairly long rope, so I thought maybe I could get her in the barn and run a rope a crossed the entrance to keep her in.  I was pretty proud of myself, hey that was easy enough.  So I get a hold of the halter and head for her and she turns around and starts for the entrance, stops and looks at the rope and then me like, "hey what's this?", drops her head and underneath the rope she goes, gives a little skip and kick and takes off across the lot mimicking  "Ha ha, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

  I'm telling you you have to be smarter than the horse if you are going to win at this!