I've trained to ride a few horses over the years.
Jerry has 'broke' quite a few more. As a young man in the west, he would break feral range horses, use them as pack horses, ride them on the mountain trails and then after a season, return them to whoever it was he got them from, to be sold as trained saddle horses. I believe that it was a government contract, I'm away from home for a few days as I write this, it's late and I'm not going to call home to ask him, so we'll just say it was a government contract.
He is an excellent horseman, is no nonsense about training, does things a bit differently than I. His way works great. I will however, occasionally offer my personal suggestions, he will listen careful, say, "yes, dear", then proceed as he was.
The colt has been exposed to noise, tractors, animals, and a leaping-climbing-loud human male child. He leads well, stands tied for long periods of time, and in general tolerates all that we humans decide to challenge him with. The goal is to end up with a calm, eager, well broke riding horse that can be trusted. As much as you can trust an animal whose instinct is to flee from danger (scary situations).
This is called 'sacking out' by the cowboys. The saddle blanket is tossed about, flapped at, and rubbed on all parts of the horse until he accepts it and stands quietly. It doesn't take long for the horse to figure out that it doesn't hurt and calmly accepts it. This is repeated many times, any time the horse is worked with, until he accepts it as just a ho-hum part of life. 
Jerry picked up this little beat up saddle for about $5 at a tack sale. He sawed off the saddle horn to make it safer for the horse if during his training he decides to lay down and roll or rear up and fall over backwards. Wrangler doesn't really mind the saddle on his back. Tightening up the cinch around his belly made for a few tense moments.
Leather creaks and slaps and is quite noisy. Here Jerry is slapping the stirrups and the saddle, creating as much leather noise as he can. Wrangler's body language expresses his desire to leave Dodge at this point. He doesn't; and soon accepts the saddle, the cinch and the cowboy messing with him.
First time in the round pen saddled. He ran fast and bucked just a little. Not much of a bucker, this little buckaroo. A few times around and he was ready to settle down.
Relaxing. Jerry scratches his rear leg and Wrangler takes care of that itchy front leg himself.
Second time in the round pen under saddle. Notice Jerry has used his regular riding saddle instead of the smaller, lightweight training saddle. Quiet and calm, not bad at all.
Backing up using voice command.
Heading back down to the barn. Next step - mounting.
6 comments:
Wrangler looks great! He has definitely put on some weight AND some height since this summer. I'll bet he takes to his first ride like it's nothing. What a good boy!
Is that Robert Duvall working with Wrangler? I noticed something dif.with Jerry in other pics. but there was no close ups of his face. The stach looks great. I love that Wrangler. He looks great. I hope he rides well. I think he'll love going on rides with all the others, and not left behind.
Is your cowboy sporting something on his lip? He looks stinkin cool! Think ya got yer own version of Sam Elliot don't ya, a horse whisperer... and yes, the horse looks great too! Actually the horse really does, think you came out good on that deal after all doc. Where have you been? I've missed you.
Your cowboy is good lookin'!!! I don't know that I've gotten to see his face before. What a cool post!
We are going to get some blood work done on Lu Lu Monday. Our vet is really nice and said I could bring her in and a tech will do the draw so we'll just have to pay for the lab work. She acts pretty normal most of the time. She plays with Benny, attacks the fence when the neighbor's dog is out, and eats. She's just getting up and needing to drink and be let out 1-3 times a night and is incontinet. That is what sent us to the vet 1 1/2 ago. She has continued with getting us up all this time but stopped dribbling a long time ago. She retches here and there every day. Sometimes it is bad and she does it for over an hour. She doesn't actually throw up though. The meds they put her on to stop the dribbling made her do that for hours so I stopped giving it to her and they put her on an estrogen pill 2x a week and it hasn't been a problem in months. Now it is more than dribbling.
Part of the problem with her piddling when she's in her crate is that she lays or sits in it. Her fur is long right now which has made cleaning her up near impossible without giving her a bath. I called our groomer to see if I could get her in but she was slammed. She told me to bring her by and she'd shave her bottom and tail real quick. We are getting her shaved on Monday.
We used to make her wear those britches with the panty liners. She hates it! A panty liner isn't enough so I went to Petsmart to look at dog diapers. Good Lord! $18.99 for twelve! It said on the package to make sure the dog doesn't chew on the diaper... well, I figured I could get baby diapers and cut a hole for her tail. I know that if a dog eats one of the diapers it could kill them because we had a dog get into the diaper pail when our kids were little. We took the dog to the vet and he was okay... boy was he constipated though!
Anyway, I bought baby diapers and figured we could put her little jean britches over them. She doesn't eat stuff like that. Getting them on her was not fun. If we can get her to leave the diaper on then she can roam around and not be stuck in her crate. By getting her shaved I can also clean her bottom up with a washcloth.
She does have bumps on her sides... we think it is her kidneys. She also has about 15 little growths about the size of peas... well a little bigger but not as big as grapes. She had one on her eye that we had removed. It was benign and the vet said they are common in older dogs.
I'm having a hard time because I feel like a bad pet owner. We just have so many expenses... all the counseling with our oldest daughter was $100 an hour... both girls are now in college... and I can't get a job because of my voice.
Anyway, I've totally written a novel. My middle daughter got very upset when I talked to her yesterday. She thinks if we put her down that it will be just because she pees (thus my trying the diapers).
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