12 July 2009
Mustang Chronicles—Day 0
18/July/09 08:51 PM
Well,
the mustang is finally here. He loaded just fine and
travelled like a champ. He was travelling so well
that at one point Reb asked me if I was sure he was
still back there.
When we got him home to unload, we found an injury on his knee. It's cut up and pretty swollen, but he seems sound and the vet came out right away (thank you, Jennifer!) and said he should be ok. I'm wanting to get him gentled faster, though, so I can take care of it properly. I'm also concerned about working him too hard because of the injury, so I'm taking a very different approach than I had planned.
He's a nice boy, a good boy, number 1150. Smart and resilient. Very handsome, looks like he has some strong Spanish blood in him. He's maybe 14h1, fine boned. We named him Tornado (Tor-nah-do), after Zorro's horse. He has really pretty self-carriage and some nice suspension to his gaits, but could use some better balance. His head and neck are gorgeous, and he's black all over except for the white marks on his face.
I played with him for a few hours, and he lets me rub on his face and scratch him all over with a stick and we're working on ropes and plastic bags. He's doing pretty well with those, but it will take another day or two for him to relax with them. We had some good kicks, and a few front-end strikes, but they were at the rope and the bag when they touched his feet, not at me; they were almost gone by the time we finished tonight. He hasn't shown a single sign of aggression so far and seems to be trying hard to be good and cooperative and respectful. He handles fear well and recovers quickly. I just need to stay out of the way of his very quick feet while he works those issues out.
My mother really seemed to want to pet him, so I brought her in the pen. She stood behind me, and after a few tries he let her touch him and stroke his face. He seems to want to like people, and I think with time he will be a ham.
If his knee isn't swollen or hurting from what we did today, I'll try a bit more tomorrow.
Assuming his knee is ok, I'll be training tomorrow through Wednesday at 7am at my place. Anyone is welcome to come watch or help. If you can't make it then and want to see him, please call and we'll schedule something.
Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and support!
When we got him home to unload, we found an injury on his knee. It's cut up and pretty swollen, but he seems sound and the vet came out right away (thank you, Jennifer!) and said he should be ok. I'm wanting to get him gentled faster, though, so I can take care of it properly. I'm also concerned about working him too hard because of the injury, so I'm taking a very different approach than I had planned.
He's a nice boy, a good boy, number 1150. Smart and resilient. Very handsome, looks like he has some strong Spanish blood in him. He's maybe 14h1, fine boned. We named him Tornado (Tor-nah-do), after Zorro's horse. He has really pretty self-carriage and some nice suspension to his gaits, but could use some better balance. His head and neck are gorgeous, and he's black all over except for the white marks on his face.
I played with him for a few hours, and he lets me rub on his face and scratch him all over with a stick and we're working on ropes and plastic bags. He's doing pretty well with those, but it will take another day or two for him to relax with them. We had some good kicks, and a few front-end strikes, but they were at the rope and the bag when they touched his feet, not at me; they were almost gone by the time we finished tonight. He hasn't shown a single sign of aggression so far and seems to be trying hard to be good and cooperative and respectful. He handles fear well and recovers quickly. I just need to stay out of the way of his very quick feet while he works those issues out.
My mother really seemed to want to pet him, so I brought her in the pen. She stood behind me, and after a few tries he let her touch him and stroke his face. He seems to want to like people, and I think with time he will be a ham.
If his knee isn't swollen or hurting from what we did today, I'll try a bit more tomorrow.
Assuming his knee is ok, I'll be training tomorrow through Wednesday at 7am at my place. Anyone is welcome to come watch or help. If you can't make it then and want to see him, please call and we'll schedule something.
Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and support!
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