Post by rideanotherday on Jan 13, 2016 12:51:30 GMT
I was looking for a "kids horse" for my then 9 year old daughter. I saw a posting about a 14.3hh black and white paint mare who was advertised as "kid broke" for $1500. Honestly, that seemed cheap to me at the time. I wrote down the number and called anyway and set up a time to go meet the horse. Powerful of Ebony was 13 at the time. She had some eye appeal and was easy to catch. I watched the owner tie her with the lead rope taken off a shipping halter (5 ft length of nylon rope - no snaps). Just overhand knots. I watched that mare pick her head up and just lean back and pull her way through those knots. No panic. No upset. She just wasn't going to stay tied. She saddled alright, but the owner (she was short 5'2", maybe) was having problems bridling her. The mare picked her head up and just held it above where the woman could reach and backed up. I offered to bridle her. The mare was not upset when I could stay with her and get the bridle on. Nothing really seemed to upset her, but she had a few quirks. I rode her a bit, walk, trot, canter. She was ok, but rusty. She'd been a broodmare. That didn't bother me, but that much money for a horse that I would have to spend a fair amount of time on to get her ready for my kid, I told them I would pay $600. Yeah, I know that's a lowball offer. She declined and said that she was going to trade the mare to a trainer for training on another horse. Alright. I left.
2 days later, I got a call. Ebony had gone to the trainers and he took her out down the road to find out what she knew. She did great until he rode her past some alpacas. She bolted, dumped him and kept running. The woman wanted to know if I would still be interested. I told her if she delivered the mare I'd pay $500 for her. I had a horse in the yard 30 minutes later. We had been doing some yard clean up, so there was a huge orange dumpster near the barn. We unloaded the mare and she took offense to how the dumpster look and tried to refuse to go past it. The woman offered to walk her around. Thanks, but it's a whole new world for this horse. I had leather gloves on and brand new halter and leadrope. I offered to go forward again and she started trying to pull away. Fine. I started leading her away and she relaxed and then I started hustling her feet backward. I can run forward a LOT faster than she could back up. I never gave her another chance to think about things. We backed past that dumpster and turned around and did it again and then I offered her a chance to walk forward, until it was no longer such a big deal to her.
Because I knew that this mare was going to need some coping skills about being tied hard, I took her into the arena, and tied her between 2 4x6 posts - one leadrope going to each post. I expected her to sit back. She sure did. She fought like a bass on a line for 4 hours before she gave up and stood for long enough for me to get to the ropes and untie her. I took her to her stall, fed and left her alone. I knew it would get worse before it got better - it was just the look in her eye. I rode her and got her puffing pretty good (very out of shape, so it didn't take long) I wanted her to be ready to stand still. Then I pulled out a trick from a cowboy and looped a lariat around her barrel behind her shoulders, ran the bite between her front legs and through the halter ring and then tied it to one of the 4x6 posts as well as the 2 ropes. I wanted her to find out that this business of laying back and fighting wasn't worth the effort. Fortunately, it was a weekend. I had books and something to drink. She laid back on those ropes and just hung there at the end of them, shaking her head and pulling. She was sure that they would just give. We went through that process every day for over 2 months before she stopped checking the ropes.
While she was learning how to stand tied, I spent time desensitizing her as well. I rode the other horses in the arena while she was tied. I got balloons. She learned how to be sprayed with flyspray and bathed with a hose rather than being wiped and bucket bathed. She was a product of incredibly permissive horse ownership..."oh you don't like something, let me find a way you will tolerate". In my world, there are some skills a horse HAS to have and standing tied is one of them. She knew how to give to pressure and did fine with it on the lead, but when it came to standing tied patiently, she just didn't think that was something she had time for and the use of poor equipment had taught her that she didn't have to.
During the time frame where she was learning patience and how to stand tied, she was also getting rode. She had some fitness to gain. She was fairly well broke to ride. We took her to a local fair to ride in a team sorting event. One of the steers was as big as she was and she still went head to head with it! She was plenty brave enough, just needed to find out that she wasn't the one calling all the shots.
She never worked out for my daughter...they just didn't mesh well. Once she would stand tied and was riding alright, she was sold to an older teen rider for 4H. I more than made my money back.
Were there other methods to teach her and fix her issues? I'm sure there were. Using a lariat like that isn't necessary for anything but a confirmed puller. She'd had permission to get out of life skills for too long, so I used a more extreme method. I would not recommend casual horse riders try that. You do need to be available with a knife if they get into big trouble. We tied at eye height on her so she couldn't get a leg over it, and didn't have a great way to get leverage to pull harder.
What would you have done?
2 days later, I got a call. Ebony had gone to the trainers and he took her out down the road to find out what she knew. She did great until he rode her past some alpacas. She bolted, dumped him and kept running. The woman wanted to know if I would still be interested. I told her if she delivered the mare I'd pay $500 for her. I had a horse in the yard 30 minutes later. We had been doing some yard clean up, so there was a huge orange dumpster near the barn. We unloaded the mare and she took offense to how the dumpster look and tried to refuse to go past it. The woman offered to walk her around. Thanks, but it's a whole new world for this horse. I had leather gloves on and brand new halter and leadrope. I offered to go forward again and she started trying to pull away. Fine. I started leading her away and she relaxed and then I started hustling her feet backward. I can run forward a LOT faster than she could back up. I never gave her another chance to think about things. We backed past that dumpster and turned around and did it again and then I offered her a chance to walk forward, until it was no longer such a big deal to her.
Because I knew that this mare was going to need some coping skills about being tied hard, I took her into the arena, and tied her between 2 4x6 posts - one leadrope going to each post. I expected her to sit back. She sure did. She fought like a bass on a line for 4 hours before she gave up and stood for long enough for me to get to the ropes and untie her. I took her to her stall, fed and left her alone. I knew it would get worse before it got better - it was just the look in her eye. I rode her and got her puffing pretty good (very out of shape, so it didn't take long) I wanted her to be ready to stand still. Then I pulled out a trick from a cowboy and looped a lariat around her barrel behind her shoulders, ran the bite between her front legs and through the halter ring and then tied it to one of the 4x6 posts as well as the 2 ropes. I wanted her to find out that this business of laying back and fighting wasn't worth the effort. Fortunately, it was a weekend. I had books and something to drink. She laid back on those ropes and just hung there at the end of them, shaking her head and pulling. She was sure that they would just give. We went through that process every day for over 2 months before she stopped checking the ropes.
While she was learning how to stand tied, I spent time desensitizing her as well. I rode the other horses in the arena while she was tied. I got balloons. She learned how to be sprayed with flyspray and bathed with a hose rather than being wiped and bucket bathed. She was a product of incredibly permissive horse ownership..."oh you don't like something, let me find a way you will tolerate". In my world, there are some skills a horse HAS to have and standing tied is one of them. She knew how to give to pressure and did fine with it on the lead, but when it came to standing tied patiently, she just didn't think that was something she had time for and the use of poor equipment had taught her that she didn't have to.
During the time frame where she was learning patience and how to stand tied, she was also getting rode. She had some fitness to gain. She was fairly well broke to ride. We took her to a local fair to ride in a team sorting event. One of the steers was as big as she was and she still went head to head with it! She was plenty brave enough, just needed to find out that she wasn't the one calling all the shots.
She never worked out for my daughter...they just didn't mesh well. Once she would stand tied and was riding alright, she was sold to an older teen rider for 4H. I more than made my money back.
Were there other methods to teach her and fix her issues? I'm sure there were. Using a lariat like that isn't necessary for anything but a confirmed puller. She'd had permission to get out of life skills for too long, so I used a more extreme method. I would not recommend casual horse riders try that. You do need to be available with a knife if they get into big trouble. We tied at eye height on her so she couldn't get a leg over it, and didn't have a great way to get leverage to pull harder.
What would you have done?
