Horse training: It’s not all roses

By Patty Wilber

Nugget, one of the feral boys, is going home.

He has been here about six weeks and has gone from unhandled, almost to the point where I was thinking about when he’d be ready to get on.

Just this week, he’d been out for a walk with Cometa (who gets walked every day for 10 minutes as he is recovering from his laminitis flare), had no problem with cars (bikes were scary), crossed a bridge, lunged at a relaxed trot in the arena, he wore the tarp, and wore leg wraps around his body (to simulate a cinch) with nary a twitch, even when they were around his flank. I was ready to pull the halter he has been wearing, as he was allowing me to halter him (over the flat halter) if I was quiet.

Nugget says: the halter over the halter was fine, and while i am not loving the tarp, it’s not super terrible.

And then I put a bareback pad on him. 

He was not tied because sometimes horses feel confined and need to move or buck a little the first time. I’d rather have them be able to move than have a tied-to-the-rail-wreck.

Bareback pad on was no problem.  Reached under to grab the cinch. No problem.  I started to cinch him up, and he stood still.  I was almost to the A knot, and that was when he flat out exploded.  He bucked like crazy around the pen for 10 times longer than a normal “big” reaction would be. It was extreme enough that I already felt like he was beyond my pay grade, but I let him sit with the pad on for an hour or so while I worked Fireball (who is wearing a saddle and learning to ground drive these days).

Fireball, all saddled.  Fireball says: is this the best picture u could get?  i look like a dork! u had ur face swapped on those win pics from Nationals and u are posting this pic of me? sheesh! Me: Ok, sorry!  I didn’t plan ahead, but you still look handsome! Fireball, a bit mollified: well, k.

So, Nugget had worn the bareback pad for an hour or so after his wild bucking spree and seemed to have accepted it, so I went to take it off, but as soon as I TOUCHED the latigo, he lost it again and was off on another rampage.  I have only had one other horse react to the initial bareback pad like Nugget, but even that horse stood still to let me take it off. I have never seen anything like this, especially considering all the pre-work we did…

Since he wouldn’t let me near the cinch, I left the pad on overnight. Surely that would help him become blase about it.  The answer to that was a resounding NO. He wanted no part of me getting near that cinch. Ok, so I figured I had two options: 1. drug him with Dermosedan or 2. work him in the round pen, rewarding him when he stood still and let me near the cinch.

I chose option 2 as I thought it would be a good learning experience, and of course, I expected him to realize I was there to help.  I was able to catch him and lead him to the round pen, but it did not go all that well after that. I worked him as planned, and when he wanted to face up, I eased toward the latigo. He left. Repeat. I used the lunging whip to play with the wraps. He left. Repeat. But on one departure, the whip sort of hung on the latigo and pulled it out! Yay! On the next face up, I was able get that free.  That was not loose enough to allow the pad to come off, however. And now the latigo was long enough to drag.

The dragging latigo was not a help, because when he ran, he sometimes stepped on it, pulling the rig back, and it could flap up and hit him, which caused more panic and lots of bucking. Sigh. Fortunately, the upside-down pad kept the rig from ending fully in his flank.

Then it started to rain.

I decided to stay in the round pen, come hell or high water, because I couldn’t see how leading back to his pen would work well, and I felt like the round pen was the safest space for him to be during the meltdowns. The latigo was sort of flapped over, and despite there only being one wrap left, it was not loosening.  He was now not letting me near it at all (so much for the wonderful learning experience), and I was beginning to despair.

Finally, all that movement caused the wrap to slide, and it started to come free.  I went ahead and kept him moving.  I watched as it slowly slid free, and the pad finally fell off.  Halleluja!

Unfortunately, getting it off did not seem to give Nugget much relief.  He was trembling. He has lost a lot of trust in me. I will work with him to restore some of that, and probably get him trailer loading in a few days to make it easier to get him home.

Can he be turned into a reliable saddle horse?  Perhaps, but it would take me many months, and that level of reactivity is not what I want to work with.

Do I love this outcome? I do not, and I thought about not telling this story, but horse training stories often focus on the fabulous successes and omit the hard knocks, horses that don’t fit a program, misjudgments, mistakes, and horses sent home.

It’s not all roses.