First Bath and More Saddle Training

This past weekend Calvin and I worked on reinforcing what he has already learned for the most part. Mainly working on one-rein stops, but also learning to keep the same pace at a trot and not take-off both in the arena and on trail. 

We started yesterday off right with a delectable meal! Carrots, beets, and beet pulp! He loved the carrots and beet pulp, but didn't so much like the beets themselves for some reason. This picture was taken right before he spit out the beet stems that he's munching.

I have these very fancy boots leftover from my jumping days. He fits in them quite nicely and I can pretend we are going into a jumping class :) Haha but really they just provide good tendon protection just in case. You might be wondering..why don't you trim that fetlock hair near the bottom of his boot? (called feathers) Well, I'll get into this in a second...

Here is Heidi leading the trail, this was the more difficult trail because off the right it was a steep drop-off, and on the left...a mountain. This was our first time going this direction by ourselves, so slightly more things to spook at. We practiced going slowly downhill and walking the entire trail, he wants to trot uphill and downhill(!) because it's easier...but we are learning patience and to pay attention to our footing. 

Bath time! See the fetlock hair I was talking about? Well it has a purpose, to keep excess water away from the hoof! As you can see the water is draining off the leg away from his hoof, well we used to shave this with the warmbloods and they had all sorts of problems because of the excess moisture. I have to admit though, having a clean shaven leg does look better, but hey why mess with mother nature. 

Wet donkey boy! This wasn't his first bath ever, but first bath since I have owned him. He did really well and acted as though he's been doing this for years. I was even able to spray his face and he just lowered it and accepted the water...basically better than any horse I've owned! 

All dry! Much better looking too, as this ground is flat and he's all shiny.

I let him graze freely while drying, I figured worst case he'd run about 10 steps and start eating again, but he stayed happily eating the entire time. Also he learned that if he stepped on the lead rope, that he was doing this to himself and not to panic. He maybe panicked twice and then learned that it was actually him that was causing the pull. 

Oh but of course the minute I put him back in the pasture he rolls in the dirt. Rolling isn't bad though, it actually itches their skin and provides natural sunscreen. He stayed posing like this for 10 minutes, so handsome! 

We practiced lunging a bit again today. Since he had a hard 3 days of riding Fri, Sat, & Sun I figured today we would just do groundwork. In preparation for a saddle, I wanted to work on worst-case scenario emergencies. Sometimes when you don't tighten up your girth tightly, the saddle can fall to the side, or worse, under their belly! This can frighten a horse into taking off and hurting your saddle or worse, himself. Therefore, we practiced bareback pad slipping today!

"um...mom...this isn't how this thing is supposed to go on!" He stopped on his own and gave me this look, smart boy! 

Slippage on the other side, he stopped again when this one slipped. 

Hopefully this will prevent any panicking if the actual saddle slips, hopefully it won't, but **** happens so it's better to be safe. He was a very good boy and tolerated this exercise very well! 

 *Disclaimer: Calvin was very good with "woah" and lunging in general, make sure to do your homework before attempting this exercise.

Desensitizing, Turns, and Trails

Today was one of those days where everything just clicks. It's hard to describe to the non-horse person, but it's what keeps us riders loving what we do. The best way I can describe that feeling is just being in-sync with your horse. We got so much accomplished today!

The day started with me making an active decision not to give him his beet pulp right away. Normally, I give him his beet pulp during the grooming, tacking, and untacking process. By the time I'm done with him and ready to put him away, he's done with his feed. Today I had more time, so I wanted to see how he was with his hooves without feed. I wanted to mess with his feet and practice so that he'll be better for the farrier (I'm also thinking of switching farriers...but that's a story for another post). I watched a video on Facebook about this topic, many people know him from the adorable video that went viral (if you want your "awww" for the day that's definitely it). If you're interested, his training page is "Justin Dunn Mustang Horsemanship" on Facebook, where...you guessed it...he trains mustangs! So what he did was held his horse's hoof on the stand and when the horse tried to pull away (and succeed), he'd just have them walk in a circle and move their feet, then come back and try again. This helped the horse think about the exercise, get his antsy-ness out by walking, but still learn that he still has to do the exercise. So I don't have a farrier stand, so I used a mounting block:

"Hmm what is this? Looks like something I could eat!"

Pictures don't do justice to this exercise, but this block makes a noise when his foot touches it (hollow plastic). Also, it's about 2' off the ground. These are his back feet pictured, which were the harder ones for him to learn. 

Standing so pretty! I wish I had hoof trimming equipment, or more importantly the knowledge and skill, because I could have trimmed them right then!

Overall, it took about 2 circles of walking for him to learn that his feet weren't in danger and to stand nicely. This is quite an accomplishment because not only is he letting me tap on his feet, put them on the mounting block, and stand still...he's also ground tied (I like this horse's expression, very relaxed!) meaning he's not tied to anything. We'll keep practicing and hopefully when the farrier comes he'll be even better! What a good boy!

Next we practiced arena work. I mentioned before how walking in a straight line is difficult for young and inexperienced horses. Well I watched this youtube video and he was saying that it's actually not that difficult, they just don't want to go where you want them to go. So it's our job to convince them that where we want to go is better! The totally crude way to explain it is that when the horse stops at the arena fence, you make them work so that they realize that stopping at the fence means more work! The video is actually really awesome so if you're interested, please watch it: video.

Anyway, so Calvin and I worked on this technique and wow! He not only turned much better, but he was able to just walk and trot along the railing. I love learning new things so I can continue to grow as a horsewoman, thank goodness for the internet! After our amazing arena session, I decided to take him on a trail to test out these new skills. He was absolutely amazing, we even went on the difficult trail that we'd never been on alone before! He took it all in stride and only snorted and spooked at a few things ;) He definitely earned his beet pulp when we got home!

Here he is in his pasture with his pinto mare friend! They both wanted food kisses! 

How can't you want to kiss that nose? So lovable that I had to post it on Instagram (#calvinthemustang in case you're wondering ;)

Overall a fantastic day, gotta love those Mustang horses!

Teeth Floating

I've been looking forward to this day for a LONG time. Today is the day where Calvin's teeth got floated! I'm not sure why they call it floating, but it basically rasping the horse's teeth to be even and not all pointy and grindy. Super technical explanation, I know. Anyway, this is the device used for floating and what it looks like: floating (note: this is not Calvin nor is it my picture). This device looks medieval, but it just holds the horse's mouth open so you can see everything. It's amazing how long a horses' mouth is, you can almost stick your entire arm in their mouth. Keep in mind that the horse is usually sedated during this entire process, unless I suppose you own a very calm horse who doesn't mind the feeling of rasping. It's not painful, just a vibration, so some horses think it feels weird and others likely don't mind it as much. I had to sedate Calvin because he was also getting teeth pulled along with floating, but I probably would have to sedate him anyway because he's kind of feisty.

So why did I want Calvin's teeth done? Well, it's a process usually done every 12 months and he's never had it done before. I want to train him to take a bit, so I wanted to make sure his teeth were okay and it would be comfortable for him. Also, he has wolf teeth which you can see in this picture: horse teeth. Not all horses have wolf teeth (30% do not!), they are non-functional teeth left-over from the evolutionary process when, millions of years ago, they were larger and used as grinding teeth before horses started grazing primarily on the plains (source). Very interesting stuff! Unfortunately for us, Calvin was one of the 70% to get wolf teeth, which means they had to come out because they will interfere with the bit which causes pain.

Here's an older picture of his cute front teeth, so tiny! (And dirty) Don't worry they still hurt when he nips, just fyi.

Here are his wolf teeth and one baby molar (they lose their baby teeth so this is normal). Sorry if this grosses anyone out but I think it's interesting.

Poor baby all drugged up after the floating and pulling was completed. He had to have 2x the normal anesthetic apparently, according to the vet, "it's like he wasn't even sedated with one" haha. He woke up about 20 mins after this photo and got to enjoy some very soft and mushy beet pulp (if you remember my beet pulp post, it's great for older horses with teeth problems...or in this case young horses with ouchy teeth)

So the deed is done! I was debating whether to have his teeth pulled, but decided that I would for a number of reasons. If I ever have to sell him, he should be bit trained and 2, I would rather do it now than to realize his teeth were causing him pain with the bit. Since the teeth are useless anyway, I'd rather just not risk it and I'd rather have him pain free in the bit the entire time. I'll wait 1.5 weeks before introducing the bit so that he has time to heal. In the meantime, we'll practice more turns and yielding to pressure!

Random bonus picture: on my way out I saw the 2 deer that frequent the property. It's nice to see wildlife since I've been living in the 'burbs for too long. 

Hooves, Walking Outside, and Solo Trails

I was excited for the farrier to come again and try to do Calvin's feet. Slowly, we keep chipping away at his hooves until eventually he'll be okay with the farrier. He's okay with me handling his feet at this point, but the farrier is a different person. So this time, he was able to shape the front of his hooves, see how nicely his front hooves turned out: 

The farrier was unable to finish his back hooves. Calvin gets impatient, as mentioned previously, so it's better to leave on a good note. He wasn't able to trim the frog down (V shaped part of hoof) as he did with the front feet. You can see how with his back feet (below) it kind of looks like a wizard's hat all smooshed, where his front feet (above) it looks more like a V: 

Although his feet look bad, once trimmed off they are still very nice hooves. The overall structure is there, they just haven't been trimmed yet, but he's still very sound. 

 We worked on lunging (lightly due to his trimmed feet, sometimes that makes them sensitive) today, he's great tracking left (i.e. going counterclockwise) but on the right (clockwise), he tends to not follow the circle and want to veer off. Well turns out he was kind of fresh, so he let out a few bucks and squeals too. What I love about the rope halter is that it sends very direct signals to the horse and has better pressure points than a flat halter, so I'm able to stop him easily. I actually like the rope halters much better so that's all I use now. I used to have to lunge my previous horses with a chain around their nose, I just figured that's the only way I could control them and that's what others used. Now that I'm older & hopefully wiser, I realize it's because the horse didn't understand how to lunge properly and respect the halter. The chain was just a shortcut that bypassed training for convenience, glad I have changed my ways.

After lunging I walked him out of the property and down the road. That way he could encounter cars, other horses, dogs, people, etc. Basically so he could get used to seeing new things as this is the way to the nice public arena.

This gate makes so much noise when you open it. He kind of looked at it, then just didn't care and walked right through. 

However this scary pinwheel is a different story! 

I didn't realize this, but because I brought Heidi almost every house we ran across had a dog that tried to eat us. So you're walking along, all peaceful and quiet in the countryside, then "BARK BARK BARK SNARL"at the chainlink right by your ear, it scares the #%$^ out of me so I can't expect the horse to not be frightened. Anyway, he got used to barking dogs (as much as anyone could be) thankfully and I'll remember not to bring Heidi this way again. He spent a significant amount of time snorting but overall it was a good experience. 

On the way back, I decided I didn't feel like walking anymore so I jumped on once back in the property. 

Here's a trail located off the main dirt driveway, you can see a car coming down. This is what I first used to get him used to trails. He's much more confident on trails now, hence why I can take pictures/video.

Here's a short video of our trail. I'm afraid, though, that I created a monster! So I let him munch on grass while on trail as a "hey look trails are fun!" In psychology, this is called operant conditioning, the more you do a desired behavior the more rewarded you get (i.e. positive reinforcement). Well that backfired as now he takes every opportunity to eat! I didn't mind so much because we were casual today. I'll eventually teach him to focus while moving and only eat while stopped, but today is not that day.

 This trail is slightly more advanced, there are some slight hills and branches that touch him. We've been on this one with other horses, but never solo. He was being so good that I decided to just try it. It's really a gorgeous trail, not to mention a gorgeous horse too!

 Here's an obstacle, a tree branch! Calvin didn't seem to mind and stepped over nicely. The upturned tree (not pictured), however, was a different story.

Once back home, he found my water bottle and enjoyed flinging it around. And yes, the light tan specs on his nose are leftover beet pulp. I think he's starting to fatten up a little bit which is exciting! Another great day!

Trail Drama

I went to the barn without having any real plans. I figured I'd go on a trail if others were or work on something else...no pressure. Well, turns out that a few ladies were going to go on trail so I joined them.

OH my was Calvin hyper! He kept wanting to trot and kept spooking at things that normally don't scare him. My halter and reins were basically useless and I kept having to one-rein stop most of the time, which isn't easy on a narrow trail! Now I learned the one-rein stop because no bit is strong enough to force a horse to stop if pulled on two reins equally, Calvin also can easily ignore the pressure from the halter when pulling with both reins. Calvin knows how to flex both ways (like in the one-rein stop picture above) so it isn't cruel and isn't as bad as it looks. So anyway, when he decides to ignore me he gets his head turned to the side. Horses can't take off, buck, or rear when they are bent to the side going in a circle. Therefore, when his feet stop moving, he gets his head back! Simple. 

Luckily we only had to do that a short ways before we were working on trail and his mind was focused enough. He was absolutely amazing on trail again, the Quarter Horse mares in front of him were kind of sassy, pinning their ears and threatening him. He's so good a reading other horses' body language, he would scoot out of their way before I even saw the horse was mad. Just another benefit of having a Mustang who grew up with other horses. 

The trail was nice until we rode up to a huge red rattlesnake (it was not this one, but looked almost identical). Well normally you can scare a rattler off the trail, but since we had dogs with us we decided it would be best to turn around. Thanks to our warm weather and non-existent winter, it's starting to be rattlesnake/tick season early! Now Calvin and I were in the back and we had to turn around on this narrow path, I wasn't sure he could do it! But sure enough, he turned around and we were leading the pack. He's a great leader as it turns out! He just has a very fast walk (especially today since he was feeling his oats apparently) so we had to stop and wait for the others a lot. Another thing we need to practice is walking slowly downhill, he thinks trotting downhill is a more efficient way to travel. It likely is, but it's so hard to sit and then he doesn't focus on his footing, silly baby. 

By the end of the trail he had worked himself enough to be calmer. But I don't have any pictures from the trail because I was preoccupied with keeping wild-man focused. Here are some pictures though from after the ride:

 Eating some grass! Heidi tries to copy him sometimes but doesn't quite see the same appeal as he does in the green stuff. She used to be afraid of Calvin, but she's getting along better. Now she actually follows right behind us on trail, Calvin doesn't seem to mind having multiple dogs trailing his back legs either thankfully. 

I caught Heidi mid-shake! Calvin is trying to stuff his mouth with as much grass as possible as he knows I'll be pulling him away from this and putting him away. 

St. Patty's & Heidi's Birthday

Today was my first experiment with beet pulp, which is derived from sugar beets that are used for table sugar. April, the woman who started Calvin, had given him beet pulp and I want to continue on with this but I had never fed it before. There are a number of benefits to feeding beet pulp: first, it contains a highly digestible fiber called pectin. This has been found to aid in intestinal health. Also, beet pulp is low in starch and sugar content, so they won't cause as much excess energy but it's a very high quality nutritional feed. Finally, beet pulp is used to fatten up skinny horses, hence why I decided to stick with it for Calvin! 

Now Beet Pulp comes in shredded or pelleted form, I chose pelleted because you get more for your space/weight than with shredded. I put about an inch high in this bucket and let it soak overnight. Well, it exploded and ended up filling basically the entire bucket! I figured, there's no way Calvin will eat all this in just the time I tack up, brush, and untack. He can barely finish half a bucket of his regular hay in that time. See, I can't feed him extra when he's with the other mares because they'll push him out of the way and eat his food as they are more dominant. So all extra feeding I do has to be separated from them. What I didn't expect, however, was that he would literally devour this feed. People online talked about how horses often do not like the plain taste...well this guy has no problem as you can see:

His nose hardly moved from this position the entire time. Our green bucket is in commemoration of St. Patrick's Day.

Notice how his eyes are rolled back and dazed? He is in horsey-heaven

Full body shot! The ground isn't even and the angle is kind of weird, promise he's better proportioned. Anyway, I'm glad he enjoys this feed so much because he could use the weight; he's still growing! Also, you can also catch a glimpse of his freeze mark on his neck, it's more visible now that his summer coat is starting to come in.

Here's a shot of Heidi, she's learning how to be a barn dog. It's also her birthday today and she turned 3. She celebrated by following me on a trail ride which wore her out, but this picture was taken before the ride. 

I then took Calvin on a ride in the arena. We practiced our turns as well as more trotting. He's very good at listening to his cues to move forward, but he's not great at following the rail, he'll often turn randomly which causes me to have to pull on a rein to tell him to turn which he equates as stopping. He's slowly getting the hang of things. I took a video of rope desensitization, the first time I'd tried this from his back: 

 Here he is drinking from a bucket in the arena, it's good for him to learn to drink from different locations so that he won't go thirsty if we travel or in case of emergency.

After the arena ride, we went on a trail ride. First by ourselves, then we met up with his mare friend (the one from the trail pictures below) and followed her. This made the trail much less scary ;) Overall, a great day! 

Poison oak! Luckily it's safe for horses to touch, as long as Calvin doesn't throw me into them.

As you've likely noticed, I've posted very frequently this week. It was my spring break, so I had more time for this blog and the horse. In the upcoming weeks, the posts will probably be less frequent, but I'll still try to post as often as I can. 

First Trail Ride

This horse is going through so many "firsts" so quickly! I've only had him for 1.5 weeks and today he went on his first trail ride! Now the property where I'm located has a road thats 1 mile long down to the front gate, like an extremely long dirt driveway. So I've taken Calvin on this road by himself to prep for trail work. Since this property backs up to a Wilderness preserve, there are trails from within the property which is what we did today!

I suspected that he would be very good on trail as long as other horses were with him. He's actually very brave, willing to walk over logs, on tires, over tree stumps, or even inadvertently the mounting block all without issue. The other day, a huge water-truck came within 3 feet and passed us on the road and he just watched, not even one flinch. The only issue he has is when he thinks I'm making him leave other horses. He'll then try to spin and return home as he doesn't quite trust me on his back yet. On the ground, I can walk him on trail and he's very good. So for his first trail ride, I wanted to make sure he had other horses to follow so that it'd be a good experience for him.

Here are some pictures from my point of view:

Baby Calvin strolling happily in the back. Over rocks, up hills, branches touching him, all no problem! 

Tight spaces didn't bother him either! Luckily this mare in front of him liked him because he got up close and personal. He has a great walk though, surprisingly long-strided and could easily catch up to the horses without having to jog, if we ever do endurance or some sort of competitive trail riding, that will come in handy.

Starting to go uphill. There were some points on this trail where there was a drop immediately to our left and a steep bank to our right. Luckily, he paid enough attention to keep on the trail and follow the horses in front, but it made for some "please dear Jesus don't let him spook right now because I might die" moments. 

Overall, he acted like a completely broke trail horse. Absolutely nothing phased him! We even saw another horse & rider way up on the hill and he just watched and didn't spook! The only thing he could work on would be paying attention to where he's going. Babies often get distracted, so on uneven terrain this meant that he would trip or start drifting toward what he's looking at. This is one of those practice makes perfect things, and him growing up will help too. For our first trail ride, I couldn't have asked for a better behaved horse!

After our ride, mounted patrol came to our property. As mentioned above, we back up to a wilderness preserve. Unfortunately, it isn't open to the public, and this includes our horses :( Apparently a few years ago horses were allowed back there, but apparently, horses destroy the environment (sarcasm) and now they closed it off. Therefore, mounted patrol goes up in the preserve's hills to make sure no rogue riders are there (because apparently their horses don't ruin the environment? This is where our taxpayer dollars are going people!). Hopefully they'll open the preserve up again soon, then we'd have so much land straight from our property! 

Thoughts on Pastures

One thing I really liked about getting a Mustang is the ability for them to interact with other horses like well, a horse! Many people (my previous self included) often baby their horses so they never learn how to have proper manners and be in close proximity with other horses. Since he grew up with horses for the first 3 years of his life, he really learned what it's like to be a wild horse (for better or for worse, but mostly better). With the warmbloods, we would hardly let them touch noses because they could squeal and possibly hurt the other one. So with this horse, I wanted to be more natural and let him be in a "herd" and have some company, after all horses are very social animals.

I first noticed the difference a pasture makes when I was training beginners at a hunter/jumper barn. During this time, I had to go fetch a pony from the far fields. I would teach pure beginners on this pony. Now, anyone who knows horses knows that pure beginners can be tough on horses. Their balance is terrible and it's easy to catch a horse in the mouth by accident just because they don't know what they're doing. Anyone who knows ponies also knows that they can be stubborn a-holes because they are just too smart and can dump a kid in 5 seconds flat if they want to. However, this pony that I used was so well behaved and tolerant of beginners. In fact, some kids would use a crop to get her to listen and she'd still behave! I've never met such a well behaved and sweet pony in all my years of riding. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was likely because she had access to a large pasture! Of course, she was patient because she was able to exercise all day long if she wanted to! I could see she was a happier pony because of it, and I wanted that for my next horse.

Since Calvin's so easy to catch, I decided to put him in the pasture with these mares. I wish there were other geldings too, as geldings tend to play with each other and not so much with the mares, but I'm glad he's just with other horses in general. This way, when I can't come for a day or two or 7, I won't feel guilty because he can still get exercise. Another blogger who does endurance tracked her horses with GPS and found that they walk much more in a pasture than a stall, so I'm glad to hear my suspicions are likely true.

Anyway here he is with his roomies! Click on the picture to see full size:

Getting up from rolling

Calvin is on the right. The mare to the left (white) is a total bitch, always pushing him around and stealing his food. But then she'll neigh for him when he's gone...typical woman. The pinto is sweet though. 

You can see where the fencing is, he can run up that hill basically to the top just out of the picture, a very nice space for them.

This pasture isn't perfect, I'd still like him to be in a larger pasture and have all day access to food. While I wish he were with other boys that he could play with, he seems to still stick around these girls and enjoy them. Definitely not a bad place to live by any means. 

Hobble Training

I used to think hobbling horses was mean and cruel, something only old cowboys did to their horses so they wouldn't run away, and it seemed cruel to tie their legs together. However, before getting this Mustang, I did my research and stumbled upon (no pun intended) hobble training. Many people (even advanced Endurance riders) sing its praises because it teaches the horse that if your leg gets stuck, instead of panicking, you just wait and don't move. In fact, one person said that her horse got stuck in barbed wire and just waited to get rescued instead of panicking because he was hobble trained. I'm all for safety training, so I decided to give it a try. As you can see in the picture above, it really limits the front leg movement for the horse so when they take a step, they learn they have to take a smaller one (or they freak out...more on this later).

Anyway, I decided to hobble train today because Calvin is just so touchy with his hooves.  Now, we took many precautions before I just tied his legs together. First, he is 100% fine with a rope running all over his body and on his legs. Second, if I tie a rope to his front leg, I can lead him with it. We practiced this in a high fenced arena and I also watched these two videos on hobble training to make sure I knew what I was doing:

• Video 1, Video 2

So here he is hobbled! I don't have leather hobbles, but this rope (without buckles) worked really well, it's very soft and can't hurt his legs.

It's important, as the videos said, to stay out of their way when you're doing this as they can jump at you/run you over. I took these pictures after we were finished so he was already used to them. 

Here's a shot from above, I kept the excess black rope in my other hand or out of the way so he wouldn't become more tangled. Purple rope is a lead rope to his head, I figured I use one just in case, but other people have let their horses learn by turning them loose.

He reacted well at first, but then he tried to lift his hoof and panicked a bit when he hit the end of the rope (as I expected him too). He looked just like the horse in the first video trying to half-rear and get rid of the hobbles. It took a few minutes of him learning what to do before he just stopped. With me prompting him to walk, he took a few dainty steps and learned the major lesson: if I take small steps, I don't hit the rope. If I reach the end of the rope, I just put my hoof back down. Good boy!

So I tried to pick his hooves and nothing much had changed. I'm tired of him striking out, walking away, and avoiding me cleaning them.  He has learned that he can avoid me by just yanking his hoof away and let me tell you, when a horse wants his hoof back it's difficult to argue with 1000lbs and flying hooves. Well, then I researched one-leg hobbling which typically looks like this. I figured he wouldn't stand still long enough for me to tie that rope so I used physics and jury-rigged this version:

Here he is hobbled with one leg! As you can see, he's standing very calmly. Notice how if he moves his leg, I pull on the black rope under his belly on the left and I'm still a good foot away from him. 

 I've mentioned before how standing on 3 legs isn't a big deal for horses and they can easily do it for short amounts of time. So he panicked again with this one, trying to strike and half-lay down. But now, I had more room to get out of the way but I could still hold the rope (under his belly), I would then put his foot down gently when he calmed down. Before you know it, he learned that being relaxed gets his foot put down sooner and all is well in the world. People can say what they want about how hobbles are cruel or whatever, but what I know is that this horse really understood what I was asking him, and no one was hurt in the process.

I didn't practice this on his back hooves as I won't be hobbling those, but he's still desensitized to the rope back there. Also, when I pick his back hooves, the front hooves are hobbled which makes it so much easier. I'll likely continue to practice this every time we pick hooves so that he learns he can no longer escape hoof picking just because he's bored. Another successful day of training :)

**disclaimer: If you are reading this and wanting to try this with your own horse, please have a professional help you. I also recommend having a second person with you to hold your horse while you tie hooves, that would have made things easier. I've been doing this long enough that I know the dangers and risks that I agreed to with this exercise. While I believe hobble training will help prevent injury in the long run, there is no 100% way to prevent injury to a horse or yourself. 

Mani/Pedi Time!

Yesterday was Calvin's day off and today was supposed to be another day off for him, but I ended up having the day off work. This worked out though because he had his feet done today!  I spoke with some people while Calvin was turned-out and one of the men mentioned that "I shoe all 4 hooves on my horses because we go over rocks and rough terrain" and I said, "well thats nice, but Calvin also goes over rough terrain and he's goes barefoot no problem." This guy was not so sure and I definitely got the vibe like he believed I don't know what I'm doing because my horse is barefoot. I tried to explain to this guy how natural selection works in the wild: if a horse has bad feet and goes lame, it will die sooner. Mother nature isn't like humans, she doesn't care if a horse colics or is ill or has bad feet. In the wild, it's survival of the fittest and every horse for himself. Therefore, generations of mustangs have developed strong hooves and bones in order to run on rough desert terrain. Anyway, this guy can believe what he wants, and I'm sure his horses do need shoes, but this is one of those instances where I go to my trusted quote: "The first rule in the horse world is don't listen to anyone else." It's true though, I've never heard more opinionated people than horse-people.

This thought was confirmed when the farrier said Mustang (and Arabian!) feet are some of the best he's ever seen, with Calvin being no exception. He even said that one other mustang he trims he only has to do the frog on the back hooves once every 6 months (compare to regular shoeing which is done every 5-7 weeks). This is a major reason I chose a Mustang, they are naturally healthy horses! No one can believe how calm and sensible Calvin is for a baby and many are blown away that I'm already riding him after only having him 8 days. But the fact is, he's just a great horse and very intelligent. I recommend people do their research because if I'd listen to the nay-sayers, I wouldn't have a great horse :)

Anyway, so Calvin has never had his feet trimmed without the use of tranquilizers, and for non horsey people this is what a farrier trimming a horse's foot looks like: trimming feet. Now it's normally not a huge deal, horses stand on 3 feet all the time when they're relaxing. Calvin knows how to pick up all four feet, that was part of his TIP training (read below if you don't know what this is). However, he gets impatient and won't hold them up very long and when he can't put it back down (because I'm holding it) he panics a bit and will either half-lay down or strike out. Part of this is being a baby, he's impatient. Part of it is not being used to having his feet up which is normally taught to horses when they're very little and can't injure you easily.

So needless to say I knew that he wasn't going to be an angel. The farrier was able to do his first front hoof fairly easily. Calvin only panicked a few times and had to set it down. The next hoof was a challenge, he was impatient at this point and not willing to stand still. The farrier worked in small bits and was very patient with him, letting him sniff and petting him to calm him down. The farrier said that he was able to do enough on his front feet to be done for the day, he wanted to leave Calvin on a good note and not afraid of him. Being afraid was not the issue, he would sniff the farrier, his equipment, and didn't mind him petting at all. It's more a matter of not knowing what to do with his feet and likely feeling trapped. The farrier said he'd be back in a few weeks and would try again nice and slow to finish up the remaining feet. I really liked this farrier a lot, he was so patient and kind to him. Working with babies can be frustrating and it's easy to think "if I just put a chain in his mouth or use a twitch then I can finish his feet." But as I'd mentioned before, the fast way isn't the best way. So this is much better just taking things slow and doing them naturally. The farrier even said that he doesn't like using tranquilizers unless absolutely necessary, which he didn't feel was this case. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of his feet other than what you can see below. I'll try to take some when the farrier comes out again in a few weeks to finish.

Best laid plans...

Another ride today in the arena working on turns and whoa. Every day he gets better with steering, he's much better bending and turning to the left, so we practice lots of right bends and turns! On our way to the arena, we stopped by the horse-eating shavings:

 Hmm maybe there is food in here...not so scary after all!

So anyway since he was so good after our ride I figured I'd let him loose in the arena and let him do what he wants. So I let him go and he starts getting all amped up and neighing for other horses. He was likely worried because he wasn't within 10 feet of another horse, and perhaps because he was just hyper, who knows. Anyway, so he starts running and bucking around this arena and about the 3rd lap of him running he just straight up jumps out of the arena and up the bank. See, here I though I was done with show-jumping but clearly he has some skill!  Here's a picture of the railing and spot where he jumped: 

How could I be mad at that face? 

 Picture of Calvin next to the fence for scale. He jumped over this railing and onto the bank that you see to the left and yes, he cleared it thankfully. He then proceeded to run to the top of this hill and start eating grass. So yes, I had to hike this hill (which gets steeper than the picture I promise) and go retrieve him. Luckily he let me catch him, but not before getting a few more massive bites of grass. 

Here's the exact place he jumped and ran up the bank. You can maybe see how he pushed the top of the railing behind him. It's funny because today was his first day wearing front and back wraps, glad I wrapped him! I was told mustangs were escape artists, I had no idea! Looks like I'll have to stick to the turnout with the 6' rails from now on. Out of all the Warmbloods I owned, none of them jumped out of an arena/pen even when the height was shorter...go figure.