Day 3: Mirror Mirror

Okay horrible picture of Tanky..

I came out on Sunday with a totally different attitude. I decided to play with a little of the Horse Speak book. I went out without the idea that I would catch him. Although I did want to give him some feed, when I went into his paddock I didn't try and catch him, just have a conversation.

Well it was much easier to have a conversation with Tank's pasture mate. We did the greeting, mirrored each other, and I explored some of the "buttons" mainly, the move your head out of my space button. I have to admit that it worked really well with him. But as I was doing that, Tank got curious and came over.

Although it was not as easy to have a "conversation" we did have a greeting but he was not into mirroring. At least not into mirroring my behaviors but he is a perfect mirror for attitude.


With a attitude, of " Hey let's get to know one another," he was much more relax. He even licked my hand. Okay that made me laugh. It has been a long time since I was licked by a horse. After a long time of just talking and petting (and licking) he let me halter him. I took him out to eat some feed.

Our walk was calmer. With a gentle pressure, he was willing to follow. He even was okay with me digging my car. I do love the way he doesn't spook. If something bothers him he stops and looks. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head.

Everyday is just learning what Tank knows and what he doesn't. And sometimes what sets him off.

On a side note, as much as I love this purple halter, it has to go. It is just too big and probably why he isn't responding well. He came with a halter already, so it might be back to that one.

But how could I stay annoyed with this face for long!

Days 2: Who's the boss?

It's Mr. Tank to you.

Sorry that picture just makes him look so full of himself. Not to say that he isn't.

Weather gods were shining favorably this weekend, so I took full advantage of that. It was nice to have a horse to go see. I am actually figuring out how to get down to the barn and back without getting lost.

Yea! Progress!

Tank is a work in progress and I am still evaluating him. His whole known history is only 6 months. I wonder often what happened to him from the time he was captured to until he found himself with a one way ticket to Mexico.

Over the weekend I did a lot of stuff wrong, and a few things right, Saturday was mostly wrong. Saturday, catching was a problem and then I had groomed him just outside of the paddock. I have no place to tie him up except in his paddock, with two horses lose in there I didn't want to do that. He stood really well while I was on his left side, but right was difficult.

He was trying to walk through me and I was doing my best to put him in his place. Eventually he had a temper tantrum. Tank stepped away from me and started pawing. He lifted his leg way up. He pawed the air two or three times, when he realized that he was not hitting the gate. So he moved to make sure he got a few good swats in on the gate. Is he a brat or what!

Getting him to back was next to impossible, he just was not going to give to pressure for anything!

By that time I figured what did I have to lose. I wormed him. OMG ... he didn't care about that. Stood there and ate it all. Didn't even try to spit it out!

I did take him for a walk around the farm, which is part of our routine. Just trying to getting him use to the sights and sounds. He hates going in the barn, but we went in anyway. He is pretty good once we get in there but he is nervous.

As we were leaving the barn, I was working on him not rushing past me. We would back, but he was not going to. At the door he really wanted to rush past me, I tried to block him. Choice to back up to rush through the garbage can. He chose to take out the garbage can. I was a little perturbed.

I ordered a rope halter and I changed my attitude my attitude for Sunday.

A quick visit before more belch!

Man this is a wet year! Forecast for tomorrow includes rain and then through the rest of the week snow. It was a now or not until the weekend day to see Tank.

I love the place that he is at, but ... it is 30 mins away on a good day. Chicago being Chicago, it is 40 -50 min during rush hour. Today I wasn't able to get out of work soon as I wanted. It was a race against the sun to get down there in time to have a little day light.

I also got smart about my phone and just turned the dang thing off until I needed a few last minute directions. When I got to the barn I took some photos so I have a few new ones.

Surprise, surprise Tank was really curious and came up to me right away. You can see he is finding his carrot cookies. I was amazed at how he just walked up to me and was letting me rub on him.

As you can see, he had no problem getting up close and personal.

    Isn't that a cute little nose?

              Well, that lasted until I took out his halter.

                    Then it was off to the muddiest part of the paddock.

He is out with a little guy about his size. That horse was trying to be helpful. I swear he was biting Tank in the butt and telling him that his mom was here and he should go up to me. Tank wasn't having any of it.

Great thing about Tank is that once you have a rope around his neck he stops. He is fine then. My lead slipped though the halter during all my walking to catch him. He was fine as I fiddled to get in all straighten out.


Training with Tank right now is getting him used to me and being handled. What I think I am seeing is typical mustang behavior. Doesn't trust really easily at first but has to warm up to you.

In Tank's paddock is a shelter and it has a ring for tying, so I have decided to use that instead of taking him into the barn. He is nervous in the barn, and I have no place to straight tie. Seeing that he has no problem trying to run though the halter, I am not confident that he would do well on cross ties yet.

While grooming, we played the pressure/ release game. He gets nervous with being handled around his back legs. Actually anything past his the middle of his barrel is iffy. Not that he is bad or dangerous, he just starts to swing from one side to the other. So I go up and rub on him just a bit and turn my back on him. Do it again, so that he learns that if he just stands there he will get release. He picked it up really quickly and was standing quietly.

I started to do a little ground work but they were coming around with grain and I didn't want to do that him. After I released him he actually followed me around and say "good bye" before getting his grain. Awww! What a sweetie little man!

Day 1 with Tank ... AKA Booger Brain

Yesterday Tank arrived. It was totally love at first site. He is just a sweet boy. He is not a really big guy, but I knew that and am totally fine with it. I just want him and to have fun with him.

I didn't do much more than let him look around a bit at the property and took him out to his paddock where he got to meet the two other horses that he will share the paddock with. He was amazingly quiet, as in not calling out. He did a lot of looking and thinking. When approaching anything new, I could see him taking it in. He would stop and look. After turning him I tried to take a few photos, but my phone hates this barn. It just acts up as soon as I get on the property.

The people from the rescue were wonderful! I really enjoyed talking to them. They shared a little more about his story. Thankful doesn't even beginning to express what I feel for all the people that put up money, time, and energy to pull this boy out of the kill pen. It seems that everyone that comes in contact with this boy say the same thing, "there is just something special about it." And I couldn't agree more!

Today I went out to see him and spend more time with him. And today he earned the moniker: Booger Brain.

To be fair, it wasn't really his fault that he was so hard to catch. He doesn't know me, this place, and everything has been changing in his life a lot lately. The pasture he is in right now is a mud pie.

Nothing makes catching a new horse more difficult than having to do it while being suction cupped to the ground. Oh wait! There is! When another more dominate horse, who is also a huge pocket pony keeps getting in the way!

Actually I owe a lot to the 16hh pocket pony, for one I was able to grab on to his neck a few times to keep from falling in the muck. I can't wait for drier weather!

In the end I put a a few treats in his feed pan and he was suckered in. HA!

Booger Brain ... I mean Tank ... was pretty good in all but I did learn a few things about him.

1. He definitely likes being outside rather than in. He was really nervous walking in the barn, and then in the barn as well.
2. We need to work on leading. He tends to get "stuck". As I was leading him he would get to places where he just didn't want to move forward.
3. We need to learn to give to pressure. While he was nervous he wanted to run though the halter. What made matters worse outside is that the footing was so bad that I really couldn't work him properly. In the indoor he I could move him around a bit better.
4. He is forgiving. I was not at my best today and there were times that he could have taken advantage of me and he was not interested in doing that. Not always cooperative but never dangerous or mean. 

I am really going to like working with the horse. Next step, make a rope halter for this boy! 

One more day!

Arg! It has been a hard week to get through. Between the weather, my job, and my excitement, I can barely wait!

My mind is spinning.
     ...  Money ...
                 ... Time ...
                           ... Health ...

So many other issues ...

And yet ...

        Another horse. Another friend. Another adventure.

What will we do this year?

So two days ago I made a list of things I wanted to before I kicked the bucket. This is a list of what I want to do this year with Tank.

1. Work though all the steps of the Horse Speak 
2. Teach Tank to stand, lift his feet, and ground tie
3. Teach Tank to target 
4. Establish a bond .. not sure how I will decide when that has happened but ...
5. Ground drive Tank
6. Braid his mane and tail
7. Keep a log of what we do
8. Find Tank's favorite place to be scratched. 
9. Ride Tank at walk and trot
10. Make at least 1 video a month of Tank
11. Get Tank to put all 4 feet in a hula hoop
12.  Trot exactly 10 steps, walk exactly 10 steps 4x's in hand 
13. Teach Tank to come
14. Discover is Tank is right or left handed (hooved?)
15. Teach Tank to lower his head
16.  Pick out your horse’s hoof from the opposite side of their body.
17. Write a poem about your horse.
18. Knit or crochet an amigurumi that looks like Tank
19. Hug Tank
20. Place buckets with a single horse treat inside randomly around an enclosed space. See how long it takes for Tank to eat all the treats.

Many of these are from this list of 214 Things to Do with Your Horse

Mustangs: part 2

Now that we know where mustangs come from I wanted to learn more about them as a partner. Talking to a number of different people about them has been interesting. I learned some super things about these symbols of the west. Many will agree that a horse is a horse, but a mustang is different.

First of all, mustangs are hardy horses with healthy feet. Horses that get sick or have bad feet don't live to pass on those genes. These horses have tough as nails hooves and tend to be healthy in general. They live off of what they find on the range, which is not always the best forage, so they are easy keepers. In captivity, they retain these traits and are easy to care.

Even just looking at a mustang, you can see the thicker legs, slightly larger feet. They have an all around sturdier build that I like to see. Americans love to breed for exaggerations and so even good stocky horses of old, like the quarter horse, are now being bred with tiny feet. 

Mustangs grow up on a variety of terrain. Every day is an endurance trail experience, averaging 18 miles a day.They know how to navigate natural obstacles, like logs, water, and rocks. It isn't going to pay to spook at stuff that isn't really a threat. Sure footed and able to read a trail, they know how to move and are sensible on the trail. This makes them ideal trail partners. But they are't just trail horses! They can be found competing in all levels of dressage, hunter/ jumper, and western sports. 

Another trait that was mentioned over and over again by owners is how intelligent the mustang horse is. They tend to think about situations. Owners describe their horses are learning faster than other horses they had worked with.

Finally, part that I am most excited about is how mustangs bond with their owners.  Since that is my primary goal of owning a horse this time around it makes sense to choose a breed that excels in this department. . Many of the people that shared their stories spoke of a deep bond with their horse. Often it was chalked up to mustangs that were raised in a wild herd have learned the language of the horse and tend to do a better job reading the body language of a humans as well.

Darn near the perfect horse right?

Although most of the people that owned mustangs loved them, there were a few that said that they had one that was difficult.

They are wild horses. These guys did have to live by their wits and defend themselves against predators. They had to fight for their place in the herd and themselves against other horses. Finally, they were chased down by a helicopter and trapped. For some, they just can't get used to life if captivity. Especially if they were captured later in life.

Their intelligence can work against their owner, if the owner is not at least as smart as the horse. Seriously, this can be problem when the horse ends up training the human. Mustangs, like all horse, are herd animals. They if you are not going to tell them they you are boss, they will just assume that they can take that role.

All in all, most everything I learned about these horses as partners was really positive. Some described them like your average horse, only more. I can't wait to meet Tank and get our partnership started.

Bucket List

This is a bucket list of horse related things I would like to do. It seemed like a good post to make as I am waiting for Tank. 3 more days.

Horse Related Things

1. See a herd of wild mustangs
2. Watch the Lipizzaner Stallions in Vienna, Austria 
3. Ride on the beach
4. Camp with horses
5. Teach Tank at least 10 tricks
1. touch
2. fetch
3. bow
4. leg up
5. Spanish walk
   
6. stand
7. come
8. head down
9. hold your foot up
10. back up
6. Teach Tank to ground  drive
7. Run a barrel pattern
8. Enter a photo show
9. Ride Tank
10. Take Tank on a trail ride
11. Ride upper level dressage movements: pirouette, passage and piaffe
12. Ride a Norwegian Fjord
13. Drive a Norwegian Fjord
14. Drive 4 in hand
15. Win a blue ribbon
16. Have a professional pictures taken of my horse and I
17. Attend a fun show
18. Ride side saddle
19. Ride bridleless and saddleless. 
20. Be in a breed demo at the Midwest Horse Fair
21. Teach a horse to paint
22. Learn to throw a lasso
23. Play with horse soccer ball
24. Ride a dressage test, at home or at a show
25. Use body paint on my horse
26. Watch the Kentucky Derby at Church Hill Downs dressed to the nines
    
27. Share a bond with a horse that is deeper than words ... again
28. Have the courage to do that right thing by my horse, even when it is difficult
29. Ride a cutting horse
30. Attend the clinic of an equestrian icon
31. Watch a polo match live
32. Own a mustang ;)
33. Curl up with laying down horse
34. Crochet or knit ear fly thingy 
35. Make a knit/ crochet amigurumi of Tank
36. Attend Pony Penning Days in Chincoteague

More items will be added as I think of them.