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Sep. 18th, 2005 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickWell, today was a wash. It started out well enough. I got over to La's at a reasonable hour. I caught the IRH and took her out of the field.
La could not catch Mezcal. Could not. COULD NOT. She walked after her in the field for two and a half hours while I stood there and hung out with the IRH waiting. Finally, La was like "Go catch Naughty, Chessa, and Chablis -- ride them over to Odie's, I'll come pick you up after I've caught Mezcal." Right. So I put the IRH back in the field and caught Naughty, Chessa, and Chablis (three broodmares, all rideable, whose babies needed to be weaned -- we left the babies behind and rode the mares away). Trys and I got them tacked up and Liss, Trys, and I rode the three of them over to Odie's. *sigh* I did not get to put any miles at all on the IRH. I got to ride a skinny broodmare somewhere north of twenty (Chessa -- but Chablis is just as broke AND rough like ten miles of bad road (this is why nobody keeps her for a personal riding horse) and Naughty isn't any smoother or more interesting than Chessa) who chugged along in a trustworthy and responsible manner. *sigh* Whatever.
At least at Odie's, I got to visit Meatly, who looked very broodmare. I hate what having babies does to her belly. The baby is cuter than I thought it was but still not something I really want to own. It's also still pretty much untouched by human hands, though I did touch it about four or five times while I was there. It's not what I'd call tame and it does not lead or tie. I don't think it's ever been caught.
On catching horses: We are morally opposed to suckering the horse with grain. That is not an option. We are also morally opposed to cornering the horse in the barn with six people and catching her that way. We expect the horse to stand still and allow herself to be caught, with the halter and lead plainly visible and without any treats or grain to hand. I do not catch the IRH with grain. I do not catch Meatly with grain. La does not catch anything she rides with grain. The horses shall stand to be caught and on the rare occasion that they do not, we walk after them, halter and lead in plain sight, no grain or treats, until they stand to be caught. At least once per horse, this takes a while, and by a while, I mean several hours. I've never had one try it to the same extent again after I've walked her down the first time.
So it was today. Today was Mezcal's turn to be walked down. La reported that she finally caught Mezcal after about three hours. She took her out of the field, fed her a can of grain, and put her back in the field without working her at all. The general feeling here is that Mezcal will now go "Damn, that was a lot of work for no good reason. All the intrepid La was trying to do was feed me a can of grain. I should let myself be caught sooner next time." That's the pleasant interpretation of what goes on in the horse's mind. The other option is "Oh, hell it's her again, The Terminator. She just keeps coming and coming and she Will Not Stop until I am caught. Might as well get it over with now." I don't really know what option the horses actually use and I don't much care. Whichever line of reasoning they use, after you walk a horse down once in the field, it does not go for that try-to-get-away shit much ever again. The only thing to remember is that if you TRY to walk the horse down, you have started something that you damn well better finish or the problem will only get worse. Walking a horse down isn't impossible, but it does take a while. It's best if you don't have a huge area to work in, but if you *have* to work in the field, it's best to pick a warm, sunny day. While you're walking the horse down, stay close enough to the horse that it cannot stop to eat or drink. You don't want the horse running about wildly, but it should keep moving if it's not going to let you catch it. There is no time for snackies or for standing around. The horse must either walk away OR stand still while you approach. Them's the choices that the horse gets. Eventually, all domesticated, reasonably tame horses make the "stand still to be caught" choice. Just... sometimes it takes a while.
La could not catch Mezcal. Could not. COULD NOT. She walked after her in the field for two and a half hours while I stood there and hung out with the IRH waiting. Finally, La was like "Go catch Naughty, Chessa, and Chablis -- ride them over to Odie's, I'll come pick you up after I've caught Mezcal." Right. So I put the IRH back in the field and caught Naughty, Chessa, and Chablis (three broodmares, all rideable, whose babies needed to be weaned -- we left the babies behind and rode the mares away). Trys and I got them tacked up and Liss, Trys, and I rode the three of them over to Odie's. *sigh* I did not get to put any miles at all on the IRH. I got to ride a skinny broodmare somewhere north of twenty (Chessa -- but Chablis is just as broke AND rough like ten miles of bad road (this is why nobody keeps her for a personal riding horse) and Naughty isn't any smoother or more interesting than Chessa) who chugged along in a trustworthy and responsible manner. *sigh* Whatever.
At least at Odie's, I got to visit Meatly, who looked very broodmare. I hate what having babies does to her belly. The baby is cuter than I thought it was but still not something I really want to own. It's also still pretty much untouched by human hands, though I did touch it about four or five times while I was there. It's not what I'd call tame and it does not lead or tie. I don't think it's ever been caught.
On catching horses: We are morally opposed to suckering the horse with grain. That is not an option. We are also morally opposed to cornering the horse in the barn with six people and catching her that way. We expect the horse to stand still and allow herself to be caught, with the halter and lead plainly visible and without any treats or grain to hand. I do not catch the IRH with grain. I do not catch Meatly with grain. La does not catch anything she rides with grain. The horses shall stand to be caught and on the rare occasion that they do not, we walk after them, halter and lead in plain sight, no grain or treats, until they stand to be caught. At least once per horse, this takes a while, and by a while, I mean several hours. I've never had one try it to the same extent again after I've walked her down the first time.
So it was today. Today was Mezcal's turn to be walked down. La reported that she finally caught Mezcal after about three hours. She took her out of the field, fed her a can of grain, and put her back in the field without working her at all. The general feeling here is that Mezcal will now go "Damn, that was a lot of work for no good reason. All the intrepid La was trying to do was feed me a can of grain. I should let myself be caught sooner next time." That's the pleasant interpretation of what goes on in the horse's mind. The other option is "Oh, hell it's her again, The Terminator. She just keeps coming and coming and she Will Not Stop until I am caught. Might as well get it over with now." I don't really know what option the horses actually use and I don't much care. Whichever line of reasoning they use, after you walk a horse down once in the field, it does not go for that try-to-get-away shit much ever again. The only thing to remember is that if you TRY to walk the horse down, you have started something that you damn well better finish or the problem will only get worse. Walking a horse down isn't impossible, but it does take a while. It's best if you don't have a huge area to work in, but if you *have* to work in the field, it's best to pick a warm, sunny day. While you're walking the horse down, stay close enough to the horse that it cannot stop to eat or drink. You don't want the horse running about wildly, but it should keep moving if it's not going to let you catch it. There is no time for snackies or for standing around. The horse must either walk away OR stand still while you approach. Them's the choices that the horse gets. Eventually, all domesticated, reasonably tame horses make the "stand still to be caught" choice. Just... sometimes it takes a while.
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Date: 2005-09-19 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-19 01:17 am (UTC)See, we expect the horse to stand there and be caught. Lassoing the horse would not teach it to stand there and be caught... it'd be like catching her by suckering her with grain or chasing her into the barn and cornering her, you'd have to be able to do it every time and that's great if every time you want the horse, you (have grain, can chase it into the barn, have your lasso and room to throw it) but real life isn't like that. What if someone other than me wanted to catch the horse? What if she got out of the fence and some samaritan types were trying to catch her before she got hit by a car on the road? What if I was out riding the horse and we got kicked by that bitch Mariah and I came off and the reins broke and my horse was wandering loose along the road and me on foot without a lasso? Wouldn't having a horse that knows how to stand still to be caught be a good thing in some of those circumstances?
So, we walk 'em down. Standing still to be caught is a good thing for a horse to learn.
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Date: 2005-09-19 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-19 09:59 am (UTC)(above modified from one of our horses deciding hes had enough lunging (sp) and ripping the rope out of my wife's hands then jumping out of the ring (who knew he could jump 4'?) then running with 20' of line attached to his halter around the paddock)
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Date: 2005-09-19 11:13 am (UTC)On ropes, our horses get to wander around in the yard wearing a rope halter with a 12' lead attched. (These are the all-rope, no-metal-hardware deals.) This is so that they can step on the rope and catch their heads and learn not to blow up about it. It's actually a pretty good way to spend an afternoon... get a horse or two, outfit it as above, and turn it loose in the yard to graze. You get a cold beverage and a lawn chair some distance away so that you can watch the action. (You don't go save the horse or anything. You sit there and drink your cold beverage. You can catch the horse if it looks like it's heading for the hills, but this generally isn't a problem for us because the OTHER horses are still in the field and the horse-being-trained does not want to abandon his or her buddies.) In the process of grazing, the horse will eventually step on the lead rope and discover he or she cannot move his or her head. Depending on how reactive the horse is, this can be pretty funny. Since we mess with kind of boogery Arabs and Arab crosses, the first three or four rope-steps are rodeo-like. After that, they get the general idea and stop blowing up. After three or four sessions of this (about an hour each, or until the horse walks on the rope four times) they aren't any fun to watch anymore because they either (a) will NOT walk on the rope anymore or (b) will calmly lift the proper foot to free the head and then proceed with the grazing portion of the program. This exercise just makes them a little more willing to *think* and a little less likely to explode. Also, when they've got this skill, you can hand them to anyone to hold because they, themselves, will watch to not step on the rope or not blow up if they do. It make them safer to be around, it's dead easy to teach, and it'd be well worth the time even if it weren't fun to watch them blow up the first three or four times they stepped on the rope.
IMPORTANT: The lead rope just drags loose. It should not be tied to anything. Picketing a horse with a rope is not beginner material. Do not start with that unless you really like treating rope burns. Horses need to learn to drag a loose rope and to solve the "help, I've stepped on the rope" problem without excitement BEFORE they get tied out on a picket.