Day 1:There was a huge commotion at the Carnival, there was a buzz of excitement. I saw a group of friends standing around talking, I went over to find out what was going on. One of my friends had seen it a group of wild/feral PVQH getting brought to the Carnival and anyone who was interested could go down to the main office to put in a application to adopt one. And then you would get one randomly assigned to you. I immediately headed to the main office, I apparently was apart of the first group to get there.
I had just received the adoption form from the first round of number drawing for the wild PVQH's that come to the carnival. I had drawn the number 7. I went to the pen with the worn number 7 on it, there was a mud and dust covered stallion. He sounded like a dragon as he snorted and paced around the pen. As I watched him I realized it was going be almost imposable to bond with him here at the carnival. There was just to much sound, movement and other horses constantly calling out. As I watched him a name popped in to my head Mars, I garbed the form and filled it out.
FormShow Name: Channeling the God Mars
Barn Name: MarsAge: 6 years
Basse Coat: silver Bay
Markings: unknown at this time, will be registered once he has had a proper deep clean.
After I had finished filling out the form as best I could, the idea about how to tame this boy had solidified. I turned and headed to the main office to turn in my form and see if I could take him to my friends farm up the road. I called Shelly to see if I could bring Mars to her farm, she let me know that I could and she would be more then willing to host another 4-5 people and there wild PVQH. As I entered the office I had a bounce in my step.
A few hours later it was all set up, we were loading up Mars tonight and taking him to Shelly's Farm. And I was going to bring
Qebui to put in the pen with him. Qebui was the best fit out of my herd to help me hopefully tame Mars and show him humans were not evil.
Day 2:The Sun was just peaking over the horizon when I got to Shelly's farm I went to the big pen that had Mars and Qebui. I was relived to see that Mars was no longer a dragon snorting at the world and pacing. He was still tens and watchful, but he was defiantly moving in the right direction. I brought the boys morning feed in and placed the buckets down and tossed a few flacks of hay in a couple of spots. Just in case Mars was not up for sharing yet, Qebui followed me around begging for scratches. I went to stand by the gate to give Qebui what he had been begging for. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Mars come up and explore the morning grain bowl. It took him a good 10 minutes to discover the tasty grain in the feed bowl. By that time Qebui had wondered over the his bowl and started to eat. I waited till the boys were done before heading out for another day at the Carnival.
I came back at lunch time to give the boys more hay and sit in the pen and eat my sandwich. I wanted Mars to get used to me being around and not asking anything of him. So he could relax enough to be willing to interact with me. After a few hours of just hang out in the pen and giving Qebui some more scratches. With Mars standing in the far corner of the pen watching me and Qebui interact. Soon it was time to go back to the carnival. I had another fun packed day at the carnival and on the way home I again repeated the process from earlier in the day, Mars continued to watch me but I felt he was spending more time eating his grain then staring at me. Or at least I hoped he was.
Day 3-4:The next few days were a repeat of the first day at Shelly's farm, Mars was now to the point of just eating his food, he was no longer standing in the furthest corner while I was in the pen doing basic chores. Mars was still watching me if I got "to close" and he was showing interest when I haltered Qebui and gave him a good brushing. I had also started tossing Mars horse treats when I was giving Qebui his grooming sessions, Qebui was loooooving all the attention and treats. In fact I started hand walking Qebui around the farm for short amounts of time to make sure Mars got used to his bud coming and going. The first time I brought Qebui back after a 5 min walk and turned him back in the pen Mars had sniffed him all over making sure he was ok. Qebui being the good natured boy tolerated it for a bit before letting Mars know he was to close. This lead to a game of bity face between Mars and Qebui before the settled down and started eating their hay.
Day 5-7:We continued the routine and slowly Mars was coming closer for treats, especially during grooming time. I had started to hold out the halter and any other tool i was using when Mars came up. We worked our way towards Mars touching the items and getting treats. Mars was even on occasion taking a treat from my hand. I think he was figuring out that tasted better without the dirt on them.
Day 8:It had officially been a week since Mars had come to the farm and Mars was coming along way faster then I had thought he would. It was making me wonder about his past. It seemed like once he had calmed down and Qebui had shown him I was not a monster. That Mars had maybe been halter broken before, it made me wonder what else he had positive experiences with in the past.
Today was the day that I planed on spending all day with Mars to really focuses on the haltering process. I went through our normal morning routine. After Qebui's grooming session I held the halter out to Mars, we took out time and he put his nose through the nose portion of the halter. After the fifth time I puled the crown strap over his neck and let it rest for a few moments. I then took of the halter and waited. Mars stood there thinking he began to lick and chew, he then let out a big yawn. I was jumping up and down on the inside at this. We then continued to do this a few more times and I gave Mars some treats through out. I then left the boys alone for a few hours and helped with the chores around Shelly's farm. Through out the day Mars had progressed to waring the halter for a few minutes and following me around. The halter training process had been a breeze, I defiantly had questions about his past, but I shrugged it off for now and Mars history would come out or not. He now had a forever home that was not going to push him to fast.
Day 9-14: Mars had progress so fast with the halter training that I was now leading him and Qebui to the big arena together. I would do some ground work with Mars. And then ride Qebui around the arena with Mars running around loose. Mars was fascinated with the whole riding process. But any time I stated to try and work with him and Qebui's western saddle he would shy away and turn in to a dragon for a few minutes. I decide to grab a couple of my older saddles including a english one, I stated to leave them on the fence during meal times. And randomly putting them on Qebui, Mars slowly got used them being around. But he making very slow progress with the wester saddle. I decide to focuses on the english saddle training. Once I changed my focuses to primarily working with the english saddle we had more positive progress. Mars was now letting me rest the englis saddle and pad on him for small amounts of time. He would even allow the western pad to touch him, I could tell that the western tack would be slow going with this guy. I had also begun to work with Mars using the hose and calipers on him, I was hoping in another week or so to get him a deep grooming . So we could finally see the gem that I know was hiding under mud and dust.
Day 15-18: Mars and I continued to do ground work, we had even strated to go to the arena just the two of us leaving Qebui in the pen. Mars had also gotten to the point where we were doing some ground work with the saddle on and cinched up. We were slowly working through what bridle and bit he liked. Finally I garbed one of my
show bridals as it had a bit I wanted to try and I felt it would be good practice to try on a more complicated bridal. Mars took his time checking it out, I stood there waiting patiently for him to put his nose in and take the bit. Finally he took the bit as I strapped all the straps on it and waited He defiantly liked the bit and our ground work session went very well. It took me a few days of trying the bit in other bridals to figure out that Mars loved the show bridal to. He did not quite turn up his nose at the others but you could tell he did not like them as much. I also noticed he seemed to be drawn to the colors red and black on most of his tack. It was turn out I may have a bit of a clothes horse on my hands. I just laughed and made a note to go through my tack for red and black stuff and bring it to Mars to see if it would get his approval or not.
Day 19: Today was a big day we were going to deep clean Mars and depending oh how today went I would try sitting on him for the first time tomorrow. After Mars and Qebui had fished breakfast and I had completed morning chores. I garbed Mars halter, which is black and red of course. He seemed just as eager to go on what ever todays adventure was. I lead Mars to the shower stall and made sure he was relaxed and ready. We started by clipping of most of his scraggly, grungy main and also clipped his fetlock area. Mars actually seemed to really enjoy the vibrations on his neck, he did a good job on his fetlocks. And got many scratches and treats for standing so patiently. I then started in on the main part of the day the shampooing and deep cleaning. It took a good couple of hours to clean him up and two rounds or shampooing and conditioner on his body and tail. Once we were all done I took Mars out side to air dry and do some hand grazing. As we stood there I began to realize that the dust and mud had changed his color so much we had all thought he was a silver bay. He was actually a flaxen chestnut the dust had made such a big difference in how the light reflected off his main, tail and coat it was just crazy. I called up the the event coordinator and the vet that had cheeked him over at the carnival. They came out and were just as surprised as I was. We updated his paperwork and left that day all scratching our heads.
Day 20: I was a little nervous today was the day I was going to try and sit on Mars. Shelly had been helping me out and Mars was used to her holding his bridal/halter while I put weight in the stirrup, leaning on his back and held a weighted sand bag on his saddle. We went through the normal day and then it was time I was standing on the mounting block. I took a deep breath and put my foot in the stirrup and swung my other leg over his back. As I sat there I tried to breath calmly, Mars turned around and looked at me. Then started to nudge Shelly's pocket for a treat, us girls giggled a bit over this. It took many more weeks of slow progress, rest days and consonant ground work but Mars became one of my best riding horse. He never became a big fan of western tack but he would let me use it ever now and then.
