My new mustang.
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As we pulled into the cobblestone drive, I hear snorting from the open back window of my truck into the trailer. I suspected he was as nervous as a shaking leaf ready to fall from a tree in autumn, and therefore I decided that I would take it slowly down the trailway. I draw my engine off, removing my keys and setting them on the drivers seat so I had no distractions, and I climb out of my truck carefully, shutting the door- but not slamming it. I make sure the gate to the corral provides no escape route from the enclosure the trailer has to offer into the pen, and I slowly unlatch the hitch on the trailer before slowly letting it down to reveal a gelding who was curiously eyeing me from the farthest corner of the trailer. He had his nostrils flared and pink-rimmed, a slight white in his eye, to show he was nervous- but not completely pushed out of his reaches. I back up and he snorts, shaking his ragged, long mane, and steps slowly towards me. I carefully retrace the steps and he snorts and sighs, lowering his head to the hay piled by the door. He down't eye me too badly, so I step into the trailer. Not moving still, he allows me to take one more before moving his body and glancing warily. He relaxes and chews slowly. He swishes his long tail, so long in fact that it brushes the trailer ground, and sniffs at me before telling me he was okay. After around a range of 20 minutes I manage to slowly clip a halter and lunge rope onto him, and he decides he's ready to get away from me off the trailer. I leave the trailer open so he has a 'safe' area to go to if he gets uncomfortable with contact, but initially my idea with a lunge line is contact without 'contact'. I have a lunge whip with me too, and as he grows comfortable, he moves to graze. I move slowly to him, he doesn't flinch, but when I touch his shoulder and neck, he snorts and raises his head. I continue the pressure (contact in this case) until he relaxes, and goes mack to eating, where i remove my pressure as reward for calm behavior. Eventually, there is a game I decide on, where I scratch his forehead and stroke him, then release and back away. He, intrigued with my sudden withdrawal, followed and was rewarded with the touch to his fore again. After that I had him release to a different set of pressures: one hand reaching across and patting his other side all along his neck and shoulder, one hand on the wither jumping up and down next to him, and both are repeated from both sides until desensitized fully. I have him move sideways with the whip, and I eventually decide not to push my great luck, taking him to our large back paddock and turning him out for the night. Watching him buck and gallop and squeal was amazing, he was happy to be alone but eventually he found that it could be boring and approached other paddocks. Meeting a few horses, he took a companionship liking to my haflinger mare, April. I decide to work them together at some point.
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I think I have decided to name him Harley, but Ramses sounds cool too…. I'll see, I still think Harley is his name.
EDIT::
THIS WAS INITIALLY MEANT FOR YESTERDAY AS I JUST GOT TO SEE MY MUSTANG TODAY.
