I had a little free time this afternoon and the weather was nice, so I took the opportunity to go out and mess with the horses.

I have been trying to get J to let me put a halter on him, so I can start working with him. Out in the nearly two-acre pasture he’s in, with three other horses, it’s been a challenge. But! I have the secret weapon! It’s Purina Apple & Oats Horse Treats. My horses love them. I take a handful with me whenever I head out into the pasture, so I never have a problem getting the horses to come to me. Most of them look to find a halter to put their nose into, because that’s how they get a treat!

Well, except for my little mustang, Jimbo. He has a game he likes to play. He likes to see if I’ll give him a treat just for letting me scratch his nose. If I lift the halter or try to get beside him he moves off. Seems like J has been watching that and learning from him. Once Jimbo starts to move away, he and J like to take off together. So, no treats for them.

I guess J got tired of the game today, or tired of not getting a treat. I took a curry comb out into the pasture with me this time and curried  all the horses. Even Jimbo let me curry him, so I spoiled him and gave him a treat for not running off while I was brushing him. J kept coming up and trying to get into my pockets. I curried him and he side-stepped away, but kept his nose pointed my direction…er…in the direction of the treats in my pocket. Once he decided I was ok there beside him with that curry comb I gave him a treat and continued brushing. After a minute or two of him standing calmly, I slipped the lead rope over his neck. I could feel J’s whole body relax, as if to say, “Well, there you go. I’m caught.” He let me slip the halter on without even a blink of his eyes.

I led him out of the pasture, surprised at how easily he leads. He does not fight the lead in the least. I took him out and, lacking a decent tie rack, tied him to the heavy-duty cow guard on the front of my truck. Then I continued to brush him until he stood calmly. I noticed he kept lifting his left rear hoof whenever I got near his hindquarters, so, rather than risk getting kicked, I decided to take him to the small arena and try some things to see how he will be with his hooves.

I grabbed a loose lead rope to use as a training stimulus for him and, holding his lead with one hand, I began tossing the end of the free lead up on his back and around his legs. It became apparent to me pretty quickly that he has had a lot of longeing training. Seems like that happens a lot with horses that have ended up at auctions or rescues. I have come across a number of such horses that have been considered green-broke or unbroke that have been very good at longeing. What I figure is that their former owners were afraid of them, so they would longe them over and over and call it “ground-work” rather than progress to getting them rideable.

J, I know, at his last owner’s place, was handled a lot by young people with troubled backgrounds as part of a treatment program (for the youth, not the horse). So, I am pretty sure he got plenty of brushing, at least on his front end, and plenty of longeing. This, I expect, is also why he’s so well broke to lead, but not easy to catch.

Anyway, after a few minutes of going round and round, while I tossed the lead rope over his back and around his legs, he finally settled down and realized I didn’t want to longe him. After he settled down, I lifted both his front hooves and messed with them a second or two, then I looped the free lead rope around his left rear pastern and lifted his hoof with it. He swung his hoof a few times and settled right down. Never did he actually kick, which pleased me immensely. After he relaxed I dropped the hoof to the ground. I repeated that process several times, until I could lift the hoof and let it down without a struggle. I did the same on the other side. I was pleased.

With that done, I took him back to the truck and tied him. I pulled out my farrier kit and decided to see if he would let me do a little work on his overgrown front hooves. Rather than risk getting a hoof halfway trimmed and running into trouble, I decided just to rasp off a bit of his toes, so as not to start off asking for too much on our first try. I was able to lift his front hooves and rasp off quite a bit of excess toe on both. He gave me surprisingly little problem with that. His rears don’t look quite so bad, so, rather than over-do things for our first session, I just lifted his rears and cleaned them, messing just a few seconds on each, before letting it back to the ground. He gave me no problem at all.

After dropping his last hoof, I gave him another treat, brushed him some more, then took him back to the pasture and let him back in with his buddies. I think both of us enjoyed the session.

I think I’m going to really like this boy. He reminds me a lot of Ranger in the way he moves an certain things he does. As I work with him, I get the impression that he is checking me out, looking to see whether he can trust me. He seems to actually want to trust me, which I find unusual. I normally have to earn their trust before they want it.

Well, it could be the treats.

We’ll see.