CWHR Mustang Makeover Entry - Blitz

[MacGyver]

No posting, please! Feel free to PM me though!

My entry in the Cottonwood Wild Horse Ranch: Mustang Makeover.
I'm so excited that I was able to have this opportunity!

#4125

Name: Desert Tempest aka "Blitz"
Age: 7
Breed: Mustang
Color: Silver Dapple
Gender: Mare
Markings: 4 socks, star
Height: 15.1hh
Vice/Fear/Special: Most horses will spook at loud noises, but this girl doesn't just spook at them, but even smaller noises she jumps. I am sure that you will calm her nerves over time!
Notes:

[MacGyver]

Day 0 - Mustang Makeover: The Pick-up
Desert Tempest

This is it! Today's the day! I chanted away in my head as I got ready to pick up the mustang I would be working with for the next several months. What would he look like? Would it be a mare or gelding? These thoughts and a million others raced through my head.

I finished buttoning my flower print blouse when a roll of thunder sounded. I looked out my bedroom window and noticed the sky turning dark in the north. Darn it. It would have to storm today. Maybe it'll bypass us... It was nice thought, but unlikely. I quickened my pace and hurried down the stairs. Hopefully we could make the pickup before the weather got too bad.

"Dad, I'm ready to go!" I called in the general direction of the kitchen.

"Alright, you go on ahead. I'll be there in a minute."

I dashed out the door just as it started sprinkling. So much for my nice thoughts of the storm by-passing us.

Moments later, we were on the road. By now the small droplets of rain I'd felt sprinkling my face earlier, had gotten bigger and were falling harder. My Dad's old-but-trustworthy black Ford F150 bounced along the dirt road that led to the pens at the yard where the mustangs were being held; until people like me showed up to claim the horse they had been paired with.

I was excited. More excited than I'd ever been. But also uneasy and worried. I looked up at the sky for the hundredth time, thinking just how my mustang was doing.

We finally pulled up to a small building that served as an office for whenever we had fairs and such. I could just barely make out several holding pens, but what with the rain, I couldn't see any horses. I hurried inside with my Dad following close behind.

"Quite a storm, ain't it?" A friendly voice with a drawl commented. I brushed my dark wet hair behind my ear and smiled up at the owner of the voice. I'm a short person at only 5' tall, but standing next to this man made me feel more like an ant. He was tall - I mean, like 6' 2". I must have been staring for a few seconds because my Dad nudged me from behind and I suddenly remembered my reason for being there.

"Oh! Yeah it is." I stuck out my hand and introduced myself. "I'm Casey Edwards."

The man pushed back his hat and returned my handshake. "Got your mustang right around back. Everyone else's already come and gone, so she's out there alone." He turned and motioned for us to follow.

You know, ever since I'd turned in my application, I've been imagining the moment I picked up my mustang. The feeling, what the horse would look like, both of our reactions. And let me tell you it was nowhere how it was really happening.

"There she is. Silver dapple. 7 years. Mare. And real spooky."

I stared. The mare was downright terrified. Lightning flashed across the sky and another clap of thunder sounded. She jumped and bucked, and let out a scream like no other sound I'd ever heard come from a horse.

Oh, Lord...what have I gotten into? I knew what to expect - I mean she was fresh off the range, after all. But the new environment, being separated from the other horses, and the storm combined had really, really spooked her. She was standing as far away from us as she could get on the other side of the pen. Her breathing was heavy, her blue eyes rolled, and her whole being trembled.

We got her trailered though. I don't know how, but we did it. And this was only the beginning...

[MacGyver]

Week 1 - Mustang Makeover

It's been one week since I brought my mustang home. When we got home after picking her up, we'd let her out in the round pen away from the main road where she'd be free of the noise of traffic. The first day she was so spooked from the early storm, she wanted nothing to do with me. Today she regarded me with eyes the color of ice from behind her long forelock, as we stood together in the round pen.

I've dubbed the mare Desert Tempest since she came home during a desert storm. "DT" for short.

I sat on a small step stool I'd brought out to the pen and read pages from a book of poems my father had given me when I was little. Sometimes instead of bringing a book, I'd just sit there and tell her about my day, or ask her question, despite knowing I would receive no reply.

At first, she would flatten her ears, almost daring me to move. But, as I watched her from the corner of my eye, she would slowly begin to relax. Her tail would flick, then her ears would prick and move toward the sound of my voice.

Sometime around the middle of week one, she started taking grass or treats from my hand, but only if I were on the outside of the round pen. A window of opportunity! Why not try clicker training to push us off? Wrong. Well, sort of right, but I messed up. Turns out she was terrified of noises. Even the smallest noises. So, of course, a regular box clicker spooked her and it was several hours later before she would even come up to take food from me again. I needed a different plan.

End of Week 1

Okay, so she was afraid of the noise of the clicker. But the idea and concept behind clicker training was still the right path, I thought. I just needed something to replace the 'click' from the small box-shaped noisemaker. Something to mark the behavior or movement I wanted. That's one of the awesome things about clicker training. It doesn't have to be a clicker that you use as a marker. You can a word or any other noise, so long as it's recognizable - and unique is better, too. I'd worked with a parrot who spooked at the regular clicker, by instead using the smaller clicking sound from a retractable ballpoint pen.

I decided to try the clicking pen. I tested it out when she approached me for her treat. I clicked when she took the first bite. Her ears flicked but she didn't seem to mind. Every time she moved or leaned forward to take a treat/grass, I clicked. She'd caught on the by the next day. Soon she was willing to follow me around the perimeter of the pen (again, me on the outside), and was comfortable with my movements enough to take continue taking treats. She even seemed to have an eager gleam in her blue eyes!

The last day of week one, I began resting my hand on the fence right in the way of her nose's path toward her treat. She seemed rather confused at first, but the moment she bumped my hand (even though it seemed like an accident the first time), I clicked and rewarded her with her treat. Our first hand target! Target training is a wondrous thing. By the end of the week she would touch my palm (which was now open palm facing sideways) when I stretched out my hand.

I then started working actively with her from inside the round pen. She was hesitant to approach me while I was in the pen with her (though not so much as before). She finally did after awhile. Every step forward and closer toward me, I clicked the pen and stretched out my hand which held a treat.

Week one flew by and by the end of those seven days, she was eagerly approaching me when I arrived at the round pen, and accepting touch as well! I found that her special spot was high on her neck, just under her mane. She seemed to enjoy our target-training game too. each time I held out my palm, she would come forward to touch and expect a treat.

--Extra Note: Add the "leave it" cue to our training plan. DT has gotten a little over-eager and rude about food and getting treats.

-Note: Since discovering her fear of noises, I'd installed a small radio in her stall/shelter and set it to the classical music station on the radio. I kept it at a low volume, and she seems to be enjoying it so far. Gradually, I plan to increase the volume by small increments.

[MacGyver]

Week 2

Even though she spooks at a lot of noises (she scared me half to death when she squealed and whirled away, after two of the barncats got into a scuffle outside of the pen), I feel lucky that she's so curious and she seems to enjoy my company. Most of the first few days of week 2 were spent doing what we'd been doing. I talked to her, fed her an occasional treat or her hay by hand, and kept working with her on target training. By now she had learned to touch a "target stick" (It's a short stick I'd made with a ball on the end), and had learned the cues "walk" and "back" by using our targeting game.

Now, concerning her overly-eager/grabby behavior about food: I started working with her on teaching a sort of default "leave it". Which means to get her reward or treat, she first has to turn her head away or back from the food and lower her head to the ground, before I'll give it to her by dispensing it on the ground near her head. It's good impulse control practice and teaches her that she has to wait until I'm ready to give the treat. She's required to wait patiently; there's no need to be pushy or rude, and she learns that that bad behavior gets her nothing.

By early-week-2, I discovered how much she loves touch. She'll stretch her neck out and wiggle her lips, while you scratch her entire body. I scratched her special spot and murmured softly, allowing myself a small smile as her eyes started to close in bliss. It became a regular thing pretty soon.

Face touching was pretty easy, since she enjoyed touch so much. During our palm/fist targeting games, I would switch it up and sometimes lay my hand gently on DT's slender face, just above her muzzle, then click and treat when she reacted calmly. I did that randomly in between random palm or fist targets.

She was surprisingly easy and willing when I began teaching her self-haltering at the end of week 2. Teaching her to "halter herself" aka help me out during the haltering/bridling process, could be helpful in the future. I started by holding out the halter and just waiting for her to touch it. The instant she touched it, even if by accident, I clicked and treated. She caught on after the first tries. Then I started waiting for her target around the noseband. Click and treat. Soon she was shoving her muzzle through the loop.
Click and treat.

--Note: I raised the volume on the radio just a few notches while it was turned on this afternoon. I'll need to create some tracks of common noises and make a disc to play for her too.
Also, the retractable pen could be awkward to hold while teaching some things, so instead, I'm now just using a tongue click.

[MacGyver]

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