fitting and selling class was assigned horses. Each student is assigned a specific horse and holds sole responsibility for that horse until auction day, April 27th. Students where given either a brood mare (still pregnant), riding horse, or a young yearling. I talked to my professor about my knee surgery happening later in the semester and she promised to talk to the ranch manager and try to find the right horse for me.
The ranch manager apparently remembered that I had worked in a special topics class last semester halter breaking some weanling at the farm. The horse I was assigned just so happened to be in the pasture with all the weanlings (now technically AQHA yearlings because all quarter horses have a January 1st birthday). I walked out to the pasture with the ranch hand who was to help me catch the colt. When he pointed out which one we where after, I wasn't to sure which horse it was even though I had worked a little bit with each of the 7 colts out there. All of them had been gelded the day before so they where a little funky on their back end but not sore enough to try to run us over while we tried to catch my colt.
After being kicked 4 times by 2 different horses, body slammed, and breaking one halter, I finally caught my colt, Blade. I kept calm as we proceeded to walk out of the pasture and down the alley way to his new clean stall full of bedding and fresh water. Once we got about half way to the end of the ally way a group of about 10 students loudly walked up and he spooked dragging me back to where we came from. I held on for dear life for fear of him breaking free and running off the farm and into the street pulling to the side trying to stop him and planting my legs into the ground as we went. He stopped when we got to the end, reared up a few times, looked at me and licked his lips (a submissive thinking sign). All the students standing there looked like they where going to start clapping, I was kind of proud of myself for holding on even though it resulted in a few pulled muscles and a sprained ankle.
Blade and I took a few seconds to relax and then slowly proceeded back down the ally way towards the barn. This time we made it there! My professor had a very worried look on her face as she told everyone in the barn to move out of the way because my colt was "new to this". It took a few minutes but we got thru the barn and into the stall. I took blade's halter off and let him relax while I sat leaned up against the inside of his stall. My fellow students couldn't help but make comments about what a fun time I was going to have or "looks like you've got a lot of work to do!". Then my professor walked up to see how everything was going. She hadn't seen the pasture/ally way fiasco and told me to go work him in the round pen for a while to try and bring some of the swelling down from his castration and get him used to me.
I slowly proceeded to the round pen, colt in one hand, lunge whip in the other. Class was technically over at this point but I didn't really have an option of leaving, we had to keep working. We worked for about 15 minutes at a trot, changed directions a few times, slowed down to a steady walk for a while and then he decided to stop, look at me and lick his lips. That's when I decided to end for the day. Last semester I remember watching other students work with him in the round pen during our special topics class. The ranch manager would sometimes have to rope him because it would take forever to get him caught (the roping was unnecessary). I was able to walk right up to him, put his halter on, and calmly walk out of the round pen back to his stall. It was no where near a perfect session in the round pen but it was a great first try. I left the barn that day feeling extreamly accomplished.
The next morning, I awoke to soreness in muscles I hadn't felt in a while. My right leg was covered in black and blue bruises and I couldn't put much weight on my left leg. My knee and ankle where swollen way more than usual. I limped down to my classes and then limped back up for lunch and homework before I went back to the barn.
On Wednesday blade lunged nicely, switching directions much easier than the day before. He seemed tired and sore (just like me) but I made him work a little more than he wanted to help bring the swelling and stiffness down. I worked on leading him down the main path that runs thru the farm and got him over his fear of puddles. By Friday I was able to lunge him safely on a line. Yesterday he learned how to stand quietly tied up to a post and cross tied.
Today he can stand tied up for grooming (which he loves), lunge confidently without a lunge line (not so much with it), "meet up" with me in the round pen beautifully, lead nicely without running me over or dragging me back, and touch the inside of his ears. I'm really impressed by how well he is standing tied up after practicing for just a few days. Today he stood there for about 30 minutes for grooming. I'm still working on getting him to pick his feet up gentle on cue. I don't want to force them up because it will make it difficult for the farrier to work with a horse who can't comfortably have his feet messed with. We are getting closer every day with his feet and I'm hoping that by Friday I can have him picking his feet up for me on command. I also need to get him over his fear of birds sometime this week (he rears up every time he sees one). Typical quarter horse.
Honestly, I was extreamly frighted by him last Tuesday. I thought that I had gotten the craziest horse in the barn and was afraid that the week of class I would miss due to surgery rehab would leave whoever took care of him that week beating him with a whip. Now I feel like I could turn him into a really great high selling yearling by April. It may not sound like a lot of time but judging by how far he has come in a week, I think we have a chance to be amazing. During class today the ranch manager thanked me for how hard I had been working with him and my professor was very impressed with how well he was doing. I guess the moral of my story is, don't let a rocky start scare you into giving up, it can teach you something new and a great horse can emerge out of darkness.
Happy Trails!
Kyia + Blade
Girl and Horse
No comments:
Post a Comment