Tag Archives: Missouri Fox Trotter

Training, Western Horsemanship

Getting Started on Missy

What an exciting day!

I have been waiting to get started with Missy’s saddle training for a couple years now. Just had to get some other horses done and sold before I could get to her. I wanted to be able to take some time with her. She doesn’t need just a tune-up. She’s going to need training from the ground up.

Missy is a registered Missouri Fox Trotter mare owned by Derek Habel. Her registered name is Yankee’s Angel Girl (07-94281, blue-papered), born 05/22/2007, making her 13 years old next month. I didn’t know her registered name for a few months after I started working with her, so I started calling her Missy and it stuck. She was a brood mare on a ranch in Idaho for her first ten years. I became acquainted with her in 2017 on a horse pack trip to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. After that trip, I started her under saddle, but just haven’t been able to get back to her until now. You can read about my previous work with her here.

Missy is a beautiful sorrel and white tobiano pinto with nice markings and a shine like a new copper penny. She has perfect  Fox Trotter conformation, tall, with slim legs and strong hooves. She is absolutely sound, has a good mind, and a calm disposition. She loves people and is easy to catch and halter. Right now she is a bit herd-bound, as she has been running free on a mountainside with about 10-12 other horses for the past three years. That is something we’ll have to work through.

Today’s ride was Missy’s seventh time under saddle. I rode her in a small arena three times in 2017, then the owner tried her under saddle once on a hunt in 2018, where he had her as a pack horse. I have ridden her twice on short training rides last year, and finally got back to her today.

Missy has been used a number of times as a pack horse on extended hunt and pack trips, so she has some excellent trail experience. However, trail experience under pack, following other horses on a lead rope, is vastly different than doing the same thing under saddle in the lead. So, I’ll be starting Missy from scratch as a saddle horse.

Missy will stand to be groomed, have her hooves checked and cleaned, and she stands well for the farrier. She also stands well to be saddled and unsaddled, mounted and dismounted. However, when I put the crupper under her tail, she didn’t like that at all. I decided to work her a little on a longe line in a round pen to let her work through it. She clamped her tail and even tried to buck it out a time or two, but after a few minutes she relaxed and quit worrying about it. I decided, however, to remove the crupper before I got on her back. I wanted to reduce the stress as much as possible and didn’t want that extra distraction.

I started Missy under a braided rawhide bosal with a horse hair mecate and will keep her in it until she has learned to respond reliably to neck reining and leg cues. At that time I’ll transition her over to an appropriate bit for gaited horses.

I mounted up on Missy in the round pen and had Derek ride his horse, Finn, around the round pen with us. It helped Missy relax. I allowed her to wander around the round pen at her own discretion, my only control being to keep her going by gentle nudges with my heels every time she stopped. I was surprised to find she was responding, although minimally, to leg cues, moving away from the pressure.

After a few minutes, I felt comfortable taking her out of the round pen. I had Derek move out ahead of me and urged Missy to follow Finn. She didn’t want to leave the rest of the horse herd, which was wandering around loose, so I had Derek just lead us around the length and width of the yard, where Derek is planning to make a full-sized arena eventually.

After a couple turns around the yard, which included several crossings of a muddy area, we headed out across the road into the Diamond Fork wetlands area, where I do a lot of trail training. Missy went willingly, even gaiting at times. She has a very nice fox trot. We moved out across the fields at a very nice clip in gait. At various intervals we would stop and I would work with Missy on basics, such as backing and moving her hind quarters. She did surprisingly well.

We dropped down into the stream bed to try her at crossing the river. She followed Finn right into the water, never hesitating. I expected this, since Missy has been with me on several horse pack trips as a pack horse, in which we crossed numerous rivers. However, when I asked her to lead out and cross the river, she refused, so we worked at it until she would cross the river in the lead. Once she was comfortable with it, Derek shot this short video:

After crossing the river several times, we continued on down the valley with me working with Missy on reining control and leg cues as we went. After about a mile, however, Missy started acting up a little and acting frustrated. Rather than end on a sour note, I decided to turn around and head back to the barn and call it a good start to her training.

I was very pleased. Missy performed much better than I had anticipated. I fully expect that she will be ready to sell within about two months.

Stay tuned for more updates on Missy.

TH

 

Training

Chocolate! The new boy in the neighborhood!

As you may already know, Count, the horse I talked about in my last post, sold before I even got an advertisement up about him. Count was the second horse his new owner has bought through me. I took her out for a nice trail ride on Count and at the end of it she said, “I’ll take him!” She’s going to like him.

So…

Introducing the new boy at my place. This is Chocolate. He’s a registered Missouri Fox Trotter gelding…that is if the owner can find the papers! I believe he’s 9 years old, but he could be as young as 7. We’ll have to wait for the papers to know for sure. He stands 14-3 hands (measured) and has a nicely proportioned build with very nice Fox Trotter conformation. He is well gaited and moves nicely in the pasture. He’s a beautiful chocolate color with white stockings on his rear and a narrow blaze on his face. He’s a very handsome boy!

The story behind Chocolate is that he was owned in Missouri by a woman who loved him like a child. She must have done hundreds of hours of ground training, but was afraid to get on him. So, he has very good halter manners, but doesn’t know much about being a saddle horse. I rode him a couple times nearly two years ago. There was no buck in him, but he was a handful.

This boy follows me around the corral like a puppy dog. Like most horses, he’s a little herd-bound, but when a human is around, I think he prefers the human to the horses. He’s been roaming free with a herd of about 15 horses for almost two years now, so it was surprising to me when he came to me out of the herd. He likes people. I’m guessing somebody did some “imprint training” when he was born.

Just a little story about my first ride on him. I was riding him alone down in Diamond Fork, near Spanish Fork, Utah, where I sometimes do trail training. I was getting a feel for him, just seeing what he would do and wouldn’t do. I tried to get him to descend a steep bank to the creek bed and he wouldn’t do it. He turned sideways to avoid going down the drop, but the bank gave way and we both went over into the soft bottom our our side. Chocolate jumped up, leaving me on the ground, and scrambled back up the bank. I was thinking, “Well, I’m going to have a long walk back to the barn!” To my surprise, Chocolate stood there at the top of the bank, looking at me like, “What happened? You ok?” I crawled up the bank and Chocolate came to me, like he was making sure I was alright, and let me get back into the saddle. We went on with our ride and finished our training session with no further incident.

Now, I have to tell you that for one who spends most of his riding time in the back country, a horse that doesn’t head for the barn when he’s just unloaded his rider in a scary situation is worth his weight in gold!

I’ve been looking forward to working with this guy since that ride. I expect great things from him. He will be for sale soon. I’ll need some time to evaluate him before I get with the owner to discuss a price.

Stay tuned for more posts about Chocolate!

TH

Good Stories, Western Horsemanship

My New Gelding has a New Name.

Last week I picked up a new gelding.  I’ve been trying to figure out a name for him. I thought of several, but nothing stuck. Figured I’d just wait and see if something jumped out at me as the perfect name. I think I have it. I’ll get there in a minute.

He’s a golden palomino about 5 or 6 years old, I think, of unknown origin, but I think he’s got a lot of Missouri Fox Trotter in him. He looks like a Fox Trotter. He’s got the deep, narrow chest, short back, and nicely shaped head of the Fox Trotter, and he has a natural gait. In fact, in the short time I’ve had him, he’s shown several gaits as he moves through the pasture. So far I have identified five separate gaits: walk, flat-foot walk, fox trot, running walk, and a nice canter. He seems to like the fox trot best and slips into the running walk as he gets faster, until he breaks into the canter. I’m pretty excited to start working with him.

This new boy is not yet broke to ride. I was going to start  his training this weekend. I had planned to go to St. George, Utah for a ride with the local Fox Trotter club and some friends, from Thursday through Monday. My plan was to take this new gelding along and start him out by ponying him along behind my mare, Lizzy. I was going to put a pack saddle on his back and get him used to having straps hanging and rubbing all over him.

Howsoever, that plan failed. I couldn’t catch the son of a gun! He would walk right up to me, let me scratch his nose, but as soon as I started moving toward him, off he would go. I worked at it for at least 45 minutes, before giving up and deciding I had to get on the road.

As luck would have it, we got rained out in St. George (I think it only rains about once every two or three years there) and I returned home yesterday afternoon. After letting Lizzy back into the pasture I used some horse treats to make another attempt at getting a halter on the new boy. No such luck…but I found he really likes the treats.

So, last night, as I was sitting in my easy chair contemplating this new horse and the challenges I’m going to have with him – the first being just catching him out of the pasture – I recognized the fact that I’m likely going to expend a number of swear words in his general direction before I get a good handle on him. That somehow turned my mind to one of my all-time favorite historical characters from Mormon lore.

J. Golden Kimball

J. Golden Kimball, son of Heber C. Kimball, was a General Authority (First Quorum of the Seventy) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church) for more than 45 years during the latter part of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.  He is, even today, one of the most loved and quoted (or misquoted, as the case may be) of all of the General Authorities of the church. In his time he was beloved by both Mormons and non-Mormons alike, for his straight-from-the-heart, unpolished, and unfiltered way of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother Kimball was known for his dedicated service to the Lord and to his fellowman, his deep and abiding love and support for the leaders of the church, his quick wit, and for his more-than-occasional use of foul language in his discourse, both private and public. People would come from miles around to hear him preach from the pulpit.

To this day, stories and quotes attributed to this “Mormon Will Rogers” may be heard anywhere Mormon congregations are found. Most of these stories are of questionable origin, a few have been somewhat substantiated, many have been added to and colorized to suit the occasion, but all are in keeping with the humor and character of the man, and none I have heard detract from his humble and deeply spiritual character.

At the age of 15 years, upon the death of his father, J. Golden Kimball became responsible for the maintenance of his mother and five siblings. He landed a job as a mule skinner. It is to this employment that he credited his colorful and most notable linguistic skills. He asserted that mules don’t understand plain English and that one had to speak their language, which included a wide range of various levels and intensities of foul language, in order to get them to do any work. Brother Kimball, however, later pursued formal education at the Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University) and became a voracious student and reader. He allowed that what most people heard in his everyday speech was but a pitiful remnant of a once very ample vocabulary clearly comprehensible to a mule.

On one occasion, Brother Kimball was guiding several dignitaries around Salt Lake City, showing them the sights of the town and of the industry of the Mormons. As they went along, Brother Kimball heard a number of comments from particular individuals in the group about how long certain buildings had taken the Mormons to build and that such structures could have been built in half the time in their hometowns.

As they approached the Salt Lake Temple (which had been 40 years in the building), one such fellow asked how long it had taken the Mormons to build it. J. Golden turned and glibly replied, “Hell, I don’t know. It wasn’t here yesterday!”

It was also well-known that J. Golden struggled with his love of coffee after his brother-in-law Heber J. Grant, then the Prophet of the Lord, began to encouraged church membership to greater strictness in keeping the Word of Wisdom, which forbids the use of coffee, tea, tobacco and alcohol. Brother Kimball’s wife laid down the law in their home, so Brother Kimball had to get his coffee elsewhere when occasion required.

On one such occasion, it is told, J. Golden Kimball was in a particular cafe, one he often frequented, and was sitting in the back when he was recognized by one of the members of the church. She approached and asked, “Is that you drinking coffee Brother Kimball?”  He quickly responded, “Ma’am, you are the third person today who has mistaken me for that S-O-B!”

On another occasion, during a semi-annual conference of the church, our Brother Kimball was preparing to preach from the pulpit of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. After he arose to speak, President Heber J. Grant passed him a note at the pulpit instructing him to refrain from the use of foul language during his discourse. After reading the note, Brother Kimball turned to President Grant and said, referring to the note, “Hell, Heber, I can’t read the damn thing!”

Someone once asked Brother Kimball whether he thought his use of foul language might ever endanger his membership in the church. He responded, “They can’t excommunicate me! I repent too damn fast!”

I think my favorite of all the sayings attributed to J. Golden Kimball, however is this:

“I may not always walk the straight and narrow, but I sure in hell try to cross it as often as I can.”

J. Golden Kimball was killed in a one-car accident in Nevada in 1933, at the age of 85. It has been told that when he reached the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter exclaimed, “Well Brother Golden, we finally got you here!” to which J. Golden Kimball retorted, “Yeah, but by hell, you had to kill me to do it!”

So, it occurs to me that with my new gelding being a dappled golden palomino, and knowing some of the language that might possibly slip from my lips during our get-to-know-each-other period, I might pay humble homage to one of my favorite heroes from LDS history (or maybe mythology) by christening him “J. Golden.”

I think I’ll probably just settle on calling him “J.”

J Golden, my new gelding

Here’s a video of my little herd running in the pasture. J is the one trailing the herd.

P.S.
This evening, with a little teasing and rewarding with a few horsey treats, “J” let me slip the halter up over his nose and buckle it on. I spent a few minutes brushing him and fiddling with him before letting him go again. I thought, “How about that! And not a foul word was needed.” So, we’re on our way. The journey has begun. I’m pretty excited.

Much of the information for this post was taken from an article written for Meridian Magazine in 2007 by Eric A. Eliason. You may find the article here.

Western Horsemanship

Finally made the decision – bought a new horse…

Last month I posted a little about a gelding I have been considering buying, to bring my horse cadre back up to three and to find one that paired well on the trail with my Fox Trotter mare, Lizzy. I finally decided to go ahead and buy him. So, here’s a little about him.

I haven’t yet settled on a name for him, so he’s just going to be known as “the gelding” until further notice.

He was purchased last year by the previous owner at the Anderson Livestock Auction Company in Willard, Utah. The owner’s intent was to train him up and sell him, but he never got around to it. He decided to go ahead and put him up for sale this winter. That’s where I came in. I saw him on an ad in the KSL Classifieds out of Utah Valley. He was advertised as a grade Fox Trotter about ten years old, not yet broke to ride. I thought the price was high, so right off, before I went out to look, I asked whether he was firm on the price. He said he’d negotiate a bit, so I went on out.

The horse is between 14.5 and 15 hands, but is quite thin. The owner’s father told me he was way under-weight when they bought him, so he’s picked up some weight since then,  but could use another 200 or so pounds. The auctioneers also told them the gelding was a four year-old Tennessee Walker, but he and his son (the owner) took a look at his teeth and estimate his age at somewhere around ten years.

The man haltered the horse and took him out into a pasture, where I could see him move a bit. The gelding had to be cornered to halter, but other than that he seemed to be well halter-broke and followed well. He let me lift a front hoof, but wasn’t comfortable with me lifting his rear hooves. He let me lift it, but kept his leg moving and wouldn’t settle down. Still, it was evident he’s had some handling. I looked at his teeth and he let me open his lips without much fuss, which actually surprised me a bit. I would guess his age to be closer to the 5-6 year range, but I’m certainly no expert in that area.

As the horse moved on a longe line, I could see him pass through a fox trot-like gait, but he went right through it to a hard trot. Still, it was a gait. I liked the way he moved and he was not a lazy mover. He showed no lameness and seemed quite athletic. His canter was smooth and even.

After a little longeing, I put my saddle on him. He let me saddle him without too much trouble, although he didn’t like me tightening the cinch and moved away. I decided to try putting a foot in the stirrup with a little weight, to see how he would react. He didn’t like that at all. He reared a bit and jumped aside. That confirmed he is not saddle broke, which was a bit disappointing (I don’t bounce like I used to).

So, after about a month of thinking about him while I looked for other options on the Internet, I finally decided to go ahead and buy this boy. I texted the owner an offer that I felt was a good one, but he stuck by his guns. Last night I met his offer and I picked up the horse today.

My policy when buying a horse, since I normally buy horses that are somewhere between broncs and greenbrokes, is that I don’t hand over the money until I have the horse in the trailer. It becomes uncomfortable to ask for money back if I can’t safely get the horse in the trailer. The one time I violated that rule I spent over two hours getting that horse in the trailer, and was lucky to get it done without serious injury to the horse or my helping hands. Luckily, this boy walked right into the trailer without any hesitation. That was a great relief to me.

So, I brought him home. After a little familiarization with my other horses over the fence rails, I let him loose with the rest of the herd. They mulled around a bit an huffed and puffed a bit, but no fighting occurred. After a few minutes the gelding moved off into the open pasture, where they spread out a little. I was pleased when he broke into a very nice fox trot and headed across the pasture with the other horses following. It appears he likes that gait and it is natural to him. He also showed a nice flat-foot walk. He should turn out to be a very nice dappled palomino once he sheds out this spring.

So, with the new fellow socializing with my other horses, I took a few pictures and a short video and left them alone. I look forward to getting started with this boy.  I think he’ll pair up nicely with Lizzy and, once I get a little meat on his bones, will work well for my trail rides and pack trips. I think I’m going to like him.

Now to think up a good name for him.

https://youtu.be/8cLOgfeGrC0