Aside: The Mustang Issue

I guess I had to write about it at some point. What spurred me was reading a letter to the editor in The Horse (a veterinary based horse magazine). The author advocated that the US mustangs should be left alone, untouched and unbothered, and this would solve the current "mustang problem." I have read countless letters to the same tune. Many cite their recent trips to the desert, saying how lush it is and how those "damn cattle ranchers" are ruining it all.

Let me start out by saying that I have a background in animal sciences, which is basically production agriculture. I don't necessarily agree with everything involved in this, and nor do I fully support everything the BLM does every time it does something, but I do believe that our public lands should be managed for the use of all. This includes grazing licenses, wild horses, other wildlife, hikers, bikers, and campers. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of acres available for grazing animals. However, this does not mean that letting mustangs run free without any sort of population control is really a viable option for maintaining this land. I say from experience that horses are extremely destructive to land. In the arid west, it takes something along the lines of 30 acres to feed one pregnant range cow. I would imagine that it takes at least this much to feed one pregnant mustang. (This, among other things, is why it makes more sense to raise cattle on the fertile prairie, where you can feed 3 cows per acre.) Even if all cattle grazing were banned on public lands, there still would not be enough grazing for an unchecked wild horse population. Sage's herd was gathered five years ago, and the population was halved. When gathered again this year, the population was back to what it was five years ago. Adult mustangs have basically no natural predators, and horses are prolific breeders. This means that most mares foal each year, and mares can foal well into their 20's.

I've also heard a lot of talk about the stresses of round ups. While I don't deny that running them with a helicopter and shoving a bunch of mustangs into a trailer raises cortisol levels significantly, I think to help the horses sometimes you have to stress them out a bit. That said, maybe there are better ways to coordinate round ups, but that's a whole different post. Yes, it is stressful to get vaccinated, castrated, put into pens, etc. Yes, I don't deny this. However, using a chute system and treating these horses relatively like range cattle is pretty much the only way to get things done. When you come face to face with an animal willing to fling himself at a seven foot fence, you see that squeeze chutes are quite a humane way to deal with mustangs. I am confident that if Sage had not been chuted into a trailer, her experience would have been a good deal more stressful.

So you can see that I don't disagree with the fact that the initial round up and segregation is a bit hair raising. But the lasting effects? I'm not sure they are so bad, or that they even exist. I can't speak for any other facilities, but the people I saw in Burns were experienced horse handlers. They fed excellent quality hay, water was always available, and once the horses were segregated into their groups, they were not messed with unless they had some problem. In fact, while Patrick and I were there, they separated colts who appeared to be having swelling issues post-castration, and while Sage's herd was brought closer to me for viewing, the wranglers noticed a sick horse and brought her in for observation. In reality, once the horses are in their new herds at the corrals, things calm down pretty fast. The horses are kept in accordance with the standard of care for horses in that area. Actually, what I think is more stressful than anything is trucking these horses to adoption events, but that's a whole other story as well.

Back to the lasting effects...Once again, I can't speak for every horse out there, but I can guarantee you that Sage is in no way traumatized by anything that has happened to her. In veterinary medicine, we are often in situations where we stress horses out a lot. But I think they have a natural tolerance and bounce back quite quickly. I'm not saying to deliberately go and torment horses, but think on this: Sage is not terrified of helicopters (they fly over us all the time), scared of people any more than she should be, extremely scared of gates and ropes, or otherwise any more affected than any horse would be who moved to a new area. She has actually settled in faster than any new horse we've ever had.

I know there are problems. Obviously, there are problems. I know that not everyone can adopt a mustang, and I know that bad things do happen to some mustangs. But the BLM has a lot on its hands. I think there does need to be intervention. I know there's a lot of complicated reproductive physiology compounding the situation, but I think things do need to be done: e.g., "consolidating" HMA's so there are fewer with more horses in each. I don't have all the answers; no one does. But sitting back and letting the horses go is not the solution. It's going to take a little bit of work, a lot of thought, and some ingenuity...and a little bit of working together from everyone!

Trimming and saddling and everything in between

Before I acquired Sage, I read that one of the most difficult parts of mustang training is dealing with your mustang meeting new people. I wholeheartedly agree. Although I have been trying to avoid Sage only becoming used to me handling her, she is noticeably fine for me to do most anything and jumpy when someone new comes around. Combine that with her general unease about her feet, and you have to at least think that her first trim was a bit nerve-wracking. In fact, I had second thoughts the night before about letting my farrier trim her; I even got the point where I could trim a bit of hoof off myself. But her feet were quickly getting out of hand, so I knew I had to let him do it whatever the outcome.

Of course my natural fear was that she would be so traumatized by the incident that she'd never let me touch her feet again--or worse yet, not let me halter her again. I'm not sure why I let myself get so worked up about this, but I did. My farrier is accustomed to working with mustangs, and he was optimistic about her. So while Brandy got her shoes reset, I haltered Sage and let her loose in the arena so she could watch things progress. She was curious, even trying to steal some of the farriery equipment off the arena wall, but she wouldn't let my farrier pet her. She just snorted at him and walked away.

When it came time for her turn, I brought her out of the arena and handed her rope straight over to him. I imagine it must be a bit a like letting your kid go to kindergarten, and watching him interact with his teacher for the first time. Sage did pitch a bit of a hissy fit. She was nervous about him touching her, and she jumped around the aisle and hit the end of the lead rope a few times. She ran into the wall once, and once she turned her butt to him to try that avenue of escape--which was the only thing she got "in trouble" for the whole time.

Obviously, I knew that this was going to happen, and while it was hard to watch, I knew it was necessary. She had to learn, and most importantly she had to learn that this was something that was a) going to happen whether or not she liked it and b) not going to hurt her. I really shouldn't have been so nervous. Being smart as she is, she settled down very quickly. Since she was touchy about his hands next to her feet, he used the rope to sling her foot up and show her what he wanted. Within roughly 15 minutes, my farrier had her standing there (loose, basically), with her foot in his hand, while he sat down on a bucket and started cutting away dead sole, trimming, and rasping. Without much fuss, she let him do both front feet (since that's all we'd ever worked on picking up), and by the end was comfortable with him petting her.

What a relief, and her feet look so good! Now she is even better about picking them up, and she gets them cleaned once (if not twice) each day. Success! Here's what her foot looks like, and although it's covered in shavings, you can see that she'll pick it up quite willingly and let me take pictures of it.



That was last Thursday, and since then she's gotten a bit of a break in "hard" training because of our exam schedule. However, I make a point of haltering her every day (usually in the morning) and doing something--such as reviewing the basics or picking feet.

Today the weather was unusually warm, and so I thought it would be a good day to saddle up again and enjoy working outside. I "tested" her a bit with the jingly cinch around her legs, but she didn't seem bothered at all, so I just saddled up. As you can tell from this picture, she's not too concerned about the saddle at all:



We did several things today. Behind her you can see our little rock/dirt pile hill that I like to use as a makeshift trail obstacle. We went up and down and side to side, simulating a rough part of a trail. Of course Sage is used to rough terrain; trust me, although the sagebrush country looks flat, it's actually quite full of holes and rocks and Patrick and I had a hard time even walking over some parts of it. However, the idea is to get her used to how the saddle feels in all these situations.

We made our usual tour through the backyard and the bushes, and then I decided to take her out into the big pasture by the road. I try as hard as possible to train her out of sight of the other horses. Thankfully she is quite independent-minded, but this can be an obstacle when training any horse. She has to learn to look to me as the herd leader, even if it's just a herd of two of us. If she doesn't trust me, but instead seeks shelter in the other horses, this is counter-productive. If she were to get nervous away from the others, we'd start doing things she knows how to do: backing up, turning, stopping, etc. This would teach her that there are things I can ask her to do that she can easily do, even out of her comfort zone, and will help her build confidence.

I was tempted to walk her down to the road along the driveway, but the neighbor's dog was out, so I hugged the driveway in the pasture, putting two fences between us. He is friendly but gets extremely excited and barks very "aggressively" (or so it sounds) at the horses when they walk up and down the driveway. Since the driveway is basically a tunnel of fences and trees, it can be scary. I look at it as a training aid, as my horses are now pretty much dog proof, but when he comes out of nowhere he really can cause a serious accident. I want Sage to be trained but not terrified.

He did bark at us several times while we were in the pasture, and Sage hardly batted an eyelash. We worked on stopping, backing, yielding to pressure, trail "obstacles", and not pulling my arm off to get to grass. When we got back to the arena, I slung the lunge line over the saddle horn and started to get her used to the feeling of me pulling/jerking on the saddle on her back. I followed this with several jerks and loud motions of the stirrups, as well. I even grabbed the horn, put my foot in the stirrup, and put weight on it like I was going to mount. Once again, she was steady as ever.

Sometimes it seems overwhelming the amount of information I have to teach her before she can be a bomb-proof trail horse (or, at that, a riding horse at all). But training a horse is like a physics problem. You have to lay out all your variables and tackle it piece by piece. If something gets too complicated, break it into smaller pieces. You want to give your horse the chance to be able to answer requests correctly so you can reward them. This will create a horse that's willing to work with you on things. Not once have we ever pushed or been aggressive with Sage. That's not to say that I haven't established my dominance in the herd over her, because being a pushover can lead to a horse taking advantage of you really quick, but it's to say that I've never snubbed her to a post or forced her to do anything without discussing what I expect. I once heard a university horse trainer say that you should, "Expect a perfect maneuver from a horse in training and punish everything else." I feel like this would be a very unsatisfying way to train a horse. I'm sure it "works" in the end, but you'll have a cranky, spooky horse or one that has that look in its eyes that say life isn't really all that much fun.



Sage and Brandy waiting very patiently to come into the barn to get hay.

Before I leave for the weekend!

This week we've been working with the saddle and girth individually, so it was finally time to put things together. Sage says, "No big deal!"



We went for a walk and everything, and it's as though she has worn the saddle every day of her life. She's even started to pick up her feet quite well. I hope to be able to trim them soon. If not at this coming session with the farrier, then I'll trim them roughly myself and wait for our next session in 5 weeks.

She even decided to kick up her heels a little bit with Brandy, and they spent some time running around the arena looking extremely cute. I was glad I had my camera! Today, even before our training session, was the first day that Sage has really looked happy to me. It's kind of subjective, I realize, but I feel that she's been pretty distant. Of course, I would be a little distant, too, if all that happened to her happened to me. But today, it seemed like she really wanted to be with me and involved in things. For a two year old, she's always acted quite mature. It was so nice to see her squealing and bucking a little bit, actually playing!

It's all about the feet...

It really is. Everything that "scares" her is completely related to something near her feet. Take today, for example: She doesn't care that the girth buckles are jingling, or that I drape it all over her back, or that I touch her belly with it...but the second those little buckles brush her leg she's up in the air, trying to run away. Considering you can stand there for hours with a lunge whip trying to make her trot, this behavior is just a little out of proportion.

I've worked on this with her before, and stupidly assumed that just like with everything else, it would only take one session for her to be fine with it. So I started out again today with my makeshift surcingle (an English girth and two stirrup leathers), but I spooked her just as I got started. So we worked with that for about fifteen minutes, and she decided that it wasn't going to eat her, but that she should still be wary of it. Something about anything near her legs/knees/feet just freaks her out--this is despite the fact that I can now pick up her front feet and hold them, which she is starting to understand isn't the biggest deal ever.

When she was good enough to try cinching it up, I realized that my little contraption was a bit long. I traded the English girth in for the western one, which is shorter and doesn't jingle nearly as much. She was a star as I tightened it up (not too tight, but just tight enough to keep it on). When I took a picture of her wearing it, she was looking at me with a silly expression on her face, and I know she was thinking that humans do the strangest things some days...



Then we walked off, took some loops around the arena and the property, and she acted like she didn't even care. Such a star. She doesn't mind being away from the other horses, and walking outside of the arena really makes her lead up well, because she's actually interested in what's doing on outside.

Before I started the session with her today, I saddled up Brandy (in the western saddle), and gave Sage a chance to look at it. She sniffed it several times on her own while I was saddling up and had it slung over the arena wall. No hesitation, just curiosity.

I had quite a bit of fun because I've decided that despite Brandy's lameness issues, she is sound enough to ride a little bit at a time and just at a walk. Brandy is a nice, laid-back little mare and one of the most promising horses I've ever worked with. Just before she went lame a few years ago, she was almost at the point where I would trust anyone to take her out alone on a trail ride. She really loved to go out and work. But physically, she just can't do that. She hasn't been ridden in quite some time, and today she just let me hop up and walk a few circles in the arena as though nothing had even changed.

Sage got a good wake up call watching this happen, and at first she thought something must be terribly wrong. Brandy's steadiness quickly reassured her, but she definitely thought everything she saw today was very strange. Poor little kid--her turn soon! But right now she's out enjoying the sunshine and green grass, not phased a bit by her training. And that's how it should be. :)

Booming sounds of progress...literally

I wanted to take a moment to give a quick update since last week. Sage is finally getting the hang of having me handle her front feet! I have even been able to hold them in the "hoof picking position" for a few seconds each. Although she's still clearly a bit confused at the whole situation, she picks up her foot if I just say the word now. It's not pretty, but it'll do.

We've also been working on leading in a number of different situations. Today we went for a walk all over the property and passed by the duck pen, the garden, all the patio furniture--and even walked through several small holes between bushes, through the trees, everywhere. She was perfect! A lot more motivated than she is when she's in the arena. It's hard to light a fire under her butt in there, which I actually really like. I think she's going to be a really solid horse. However, teaching her to lunge is another story entirely. You could stand there for days clucking and waving the lunge whip and she'll just stand there. A few weeks ago, we taught her by having Patrick walk with her while I stood at the center. She picked it up really quick, but since then she's become a lot less motivated. Oh well. We'll get it eventually. In the meantime, we have a lot to work on. We are always reviewing the basics, trying to create a bombproof horse.

Speaking of bombs, I should mention that for the last month, the neighbors have been shooting off a propane cannon almost constantly (literally 20-30 times an hour). It sounds like someone blowing something up right in the yard. It's loud enough to scare the birds off their grapes and shake the ground beneath our feet. As annoying as it is, I have to say it has helped Sage's training immensely. Sometimes the thing catches me by surprise while we're working, and it's hard to tell if she even notices. She's so used to the constant exploding that she's solid as a rock. I guess I can't complain about the noise as much as I'd like to. :)

Soon I'm hoping to take her on a trail walk with someone else walking Brandy. This will be a big step as there will be no fences and lots of new things to see. I'll try to stay updated!

Saddling, part 2

Since we got out of lab relatively early, and it is pushing 80 degrees outside (pretty much the warmest it's been all summer in consecutive days), I decided to spend a little time working with Sage and the saddle.

Yesterday she showed me that she didn't think the girth was a big deal, even though it makes jingly noises because of the buckles. And she proved me right about being steady as a rock, because she was easy enough to set the saddle on again. We actually got pretty far--she let me put the girth on the right side and flip the girth underneath her belly.

However, remember how she's nervous about her feet? Well, she was consistently unsure about the girth touching them. So we worked on that for a while. She got a bit better, until I decided it was time to pull the girth around to the other side. She was nervous as I was reaching for the girth that I meant to pick up her feet, but she let me rub her belly and pick it up eventually. I was just about to buckle it on the other side when she got nervous again, and I had way too much slack in the rope. She started to walk off kind of sideways, and of course the saddle began to slip. She jumped forward and it fell off.

Let's just say, it hit the dirt a few more times after that, because she became more afraid of it falling off when it got unsteady than it being on her in the first place. Finally, we got back to a point where I wanted to stop with the saddle: I had the girth dangling from the right side and was touching her everywhere with it. In the process, I took off and put on the saddle almost twenty times(not very gently as I'm trying to get her used to feeling it moving).

Then I fashioned a "surcingle" type thing out of the girth and some old stirrup leathers. She was quite obliging and let me "cinch" it up a few times. At that, we started working on things we know: leading, head down, etc. I try to pick up her feet every morning and every evening, too. I'm beginning to see some progress, although it's really the only thing she behaves somewhat irrationally about. We're getting there, though. Now I keep my hand on her leg for 4-5 seconds before letting go, and she's holding it there just a tiny bit less tensely. Overall, things are going pretty well.

Here's a picture of Brandy and Sage having dinner tonight. They certainly are pretty cute.



It's been about a month and a half since we got Sage. It's hard for me to believe how much she will let me do already. She leads anywhere, and her curiosity and excellent mind are just phenomenal. Really, it is extremely unnatural for any horse to accept a saddle on their back and girth around their middle--it's like a predator that just latches on and doesn't let go. Only we can teach our horses to trust us on the fact that a saddle isn't a predator, that it's something a part of normal, every day life. It's catching that trust that's the magical part.

Sage saddles

We've been plugging away. Sage is still not sure about having her feet handled, and while I can't say that she is getting better every day, she is getting better. It's just something we're going to have to work with all the time. Really it's the only thing so far that she has been particularly stubborn about.

To keep things interesting, I decided I would try to put my English saddle on her. Once again, I started out by putting the saddle on Brandy to demonstrate. But this time, Sage pretty much thought the whole process was boring and didn't seem to care one bit. Without so much as a flinch, she was wearing a saddle in just 10 minutes.

I didn't put a girth on and cinch it up, but just having her carry the weight without even noticing was quite amazing. Once again, I can't say anything but good things about her!