Bourbon

Thursday, my hubby called me up and told me that one of the ladies he works with would love to have me help out with her horse.  When I spoke with her, I realized that actually what she wants is someone to get her horse ready to ride again.  I asked her lots of questions about his behavior and went out to meet him today.

Bourbon is a 5-year-old Quarter horse that hasn't been regularly ridden in a few months.  For personal reasons, he hasn't been ridden by his owner in two years.  The backstory: C had a good friend that had once been a rodeo queen.  That woman decided that she wanted to get a young horse to train in reining and cutting for her daughter - and C should get one so that the lady could train one for her.  Six months later, that lady sold her horse and C had to remove Bourbon from her property.  She was now completely on her own with a yearling. 

That being said, she seems to have done a pretty good job with him.  He was sent off for training as a 2.5 year old and had been long-lined before that point.  He bucked her off once when throwing a fit due to buddy-sourness.  He seems to have ok ground manners but she said he's very spooky, especially with plastic bags and tarps.  She said he's very athletic with a killer spin - sounds like fun. 

After introducing myself, we took him to the round pen.  I free-lunged him and he was ok until asked to change directions.  He tried to blow past me, and when I said you WILL turn, he pinned his ears and cut to the inside.  He didn't threaten to run me down, but he knew he wasn't supposed to cut into my space.  He did this several times and when I got a nice change of direction, I asked him to stop.  He stopped and when I took a few steps back, he decided to keep walking, lol.  So, we did it all again.  After a few times, he stopped and looked at me when asked.  Then, I went and got the horse-eating plastic bag from the car.  I wanted to see how bad he spooked, since C seemed to be worried about that the most.  I shook it around him and he was definitely worried but didn't respond explosively.  I ended up sticking it in my back pocket and walking over to talk to C again.  A few minutes later, I had a very large and very curious equine trying to sniff my butt.  So, there is hope for the plastic bag.  C told me that at one time they'd tied plastic bags to the saddle in an effort to desensitize him - he ran himself for 30 minutes, so it may take a good while to cure his phobia.

He was disrespectful one other time.  I wanted to pick up his left front foot in order to check out a crack.  When I approached, he walked off.  So, I came at his shoulder again, very non-threatening, and he turned his butt to me.  I went to grab the dressage whip and approached again, non-threatening, at the shoulder, slow, no staring and this time he stopped and let me pick up his foot.  He held it up for me while I tried to dig the sand out and look at the crack. It doesn't appear to go through the hoof wall but I will have to research what can be done for that. 

We went to turn him back out in the pasture and C went to show me where the tack was.  She explained that she hasn't cleaned or oiled anything in a while so I told her I'd take her bridle and at least get that oiled.  When I got to the car, I realized that the bit is a thin, twisted wire snaffle.  Yikes.  I'm going to have to find out why she's using such a severe bit.  I have a thick snaffle here that belongs to Judy (oops).  I may have to ask her if she can find my D-ring at the barn in CA.

In short, I have a horse to play with when I'm not studying, or cleaning, or cooking, or being a mom, or at my riding lessons.  I'm not sure where this will go, but I'm willing to try.  I may even be able to help C get back in the saddle again.