Park Ride

This evening Maria hopped on for a ride out back and we ended up crossing the street and going around the park a couple times.  Maddie did well and they looked great together.  Maddie kept her head up a bit more than I'd like to see, but she listened well and never did anything goofy.

Too much excitement

Had a wonderful short ride on Maddie this morning.  She is able to canter a 10m circle now in my small arena and her overall impulsion is improving.  That sticky half-pass to the right is starting to free up.  I'm really pleased with her progress.  It's really gratifying to have her at home now where I can do quick schooling sessions and work on small, fun stuff.

Last week Maddie reverted a little bit in her overall comfort level here.  I was working in the pasture behind her and startled her, causing her to bolt and jump out of her mud lot!  She took a bit of the fence down with her and gave herself a small scrape underneath her left shoulder.  She went 10' and stopped to eat grass.  For the rest of the day she was nervous and I felt a little discouraged.  Previous to this I had been letting her graze near the house and in the side yard, and I thought she was really learning how to be a quiet domestic horse.

To help things out, we put Sebastian back in the front pasture where they would be divided by a single low fence.  This is two weeks out from Sebastian's gelding and he seems less interested in getting to Maddie now.  Anyway, he did his job of calming down Maddie and she is now back to her old self.  We are thinking that they can be together pretty soon.

I have been goofing off with a tarp hanging over into Maddie's mud lot.  She is able to be directed through it very well and it did not take much work.  I think there is something brilliant about a hanging tarp: the solution is for her to 1) lower her head and 2) go forward.  This is pretty much exactly what I want my horse to do when it is scared of something.  Yesterday evening I hopped on bareback and we rode together through the hanging tarp, and this morning I was able to get her to back up through the tarp (from the ground).  This is fun quiet work and I really think it will make her a better horse.  For this kind of thing I just grab her for 5 minutes when I am walking past the barn and quit when she makes a little progress.

I was lucky to make an acquaintance with the EMM phenom Obbie Sholm over facebook this week.  (http://www.obbieschlom.com/)  Obbie offered to give me some advice about Maddie and we spoke over the phone for about 10 minutes yesterday.  Obbie gave me some of the same advice Byron did concerning Maddie's spookiness: She needs a lot of experience (shows, travelling, etc)  to get over it, and I need to wait for her to come back to me when she spooks.  All mustangs have an advanced self preservation mode, and Maddie just has a  little more than her fair share of it.  Anyway, i was blown away at Obbie's offer of help and very grateful to be able to consult with her.  Obbie will be competing next year at Road to the Horse and Maddie & I wish her the best of success.

Settling in quickly

After a few days Maddie began rapidly acclimatizing to Anarchy Acres.  As of today she has been here 7 days.  I still can't saddle her up due to her wound, but we have both been riding bareback.  In addition, I have pushed her hard from the ground to get over the flies and the new environment.  Overall, she has responded incredibly.  She is a sweetheart in the stall and stands well in the barn aisle.  I have trimmed her feet and every night I scrub out her wound with iodine.  I trained her to pick me up off the fence and have ridden a few times without the bridle.

A few times we have let Maddie and Sebastian up front where the grass is taller.

On Friday we hosted a cookout with friends and everyone made friends with Sebastian and Maddie.  Maria also hopped on Maddie briefly and did a mustang demonstration.  I'm really pleased that they both handled these strange people so well.

Moved to Anarchy Acres!

A lot of excitement this week.  On Sunday afternoon Andrea called and informed us that Diego, Maddie's only pasture mate, had been sold and she was moving him in a couple of hours.  Since we did not want to have Maddie alone at a barn where we could not monitor her, we made immediate preparations to bring her home.  Tracy met us at the stable within the hour and Maddie loaded without incident.  We were prepared to ride her home if she had not loaded, but she actually did very well in the trailer.

We showed her around the property and threw her in the mud lot.  Sebastian, the stud donkey, had arrived only 3 days earlier.  He went to live with the goats and we cautiously introduced him to Maddie over the fence.  This all went well.

More excitement was in store soon, though.  Monday morning was Sebastian's date with the vet to get cut, and the procedure went poorly.  One of the blood vessels could not be sutured and Sebastian would not stop bleeding.  He had to be given a second shot of ketamin and the the vet tech was sent back to get more sutures.  Maria and I were holding him down to the ground and watching in horror (he kept waking up).  It was hot and we were all covered in flies.  Finally the vet was able to stop the bleeding and Sebastian stumbled to his feet.  After this, the vet knocked out Maddie and scrubbed out the wound on her front leg (the one she got on the driveway the week earlier).  So the vet left us with two groggy equines.

Sebastian spent the next day sulking and listless.  By Wednesday he was feeling better when Maria noticed he was bleeding again.  The vet rushed out and checked him over, deciding it was primarily drainage.  Sebastian got another dose of antibiotics but finally seems to be on the mend.  Later that day Maria & I both took the first ride on Maddie at Anarchy Acres.  Until her wound heals more we are limited to bareback rides only.  The girth seems to rub into the wound when she moves.

Maddie is nervous and pushy at the farm, getting goofy over the flies and walking all over both of us.  This is a real opportunity to revisit her ground work and get her more solid overall.  I pushed her hard in a couple of sessions so far and will continue to do so until she can stand respectfully next to me regardless of the heat or the flies.  We're over the initial moving in period now and we can get back to work soon.

Changes and excitement

Some excitement at the barn recently, and a few changes are in the works.  Maddie's buddy Jordan was sold last week and he left on Friday.  I was out of town when Jordan was loaded but apparently it was an ugly scene.  Lots of whinnying, screaming, and calling for each other.  Diego (the other gelding Maddie lives with) took the opportunity to beat up on Maddie pretty good, too.  No one was happy about separating Maddie and Jordan, who have been inseparable since Maddie moved in.

A day later Maria and Sarah took Maddie on a walk to help calm her and Maddie tore away from them after spooking at a passing truck.  Maddie gave them all a show as she bolted around the local fields, terrified.  Maria finally caught her eye and Maddie ran up to her on the driveway, only to slip on the new blacktop and go down, hard.  She gave herself one deep wound and one shallow one, and left a remarkable skid mark on the driveway and several tufts of fur ground into the blacktop.  Maddie!

I was still out of town when this happened and Maria was understandably concerned for Maddie's physical and emotional state.  We went straight over to see her when I got back a day later.  Maddie was defensive about her wounds but let me put some disinfectant on them after a little work.  She lunged out fine and I persuaded Maria to hop on her bareback.  Maddie looked fine, although a little caution was in order as one wound is on the right leg close to where the girth goes--easy to hit with a toe.

The next day we went over and I took a little video of Maria cantering her:

Anyway, we are now getting ready to move Maddie to Anarchy Acres.  We want to get the barn cleaned out and find her a temporary buddy for the transition--preferably a miniature horse.  We are concerned that Maddie would not do well alone in a strange place with only the goats for companions.  We'll see where this all leads!