A long overdue update

This pom-pom (terrifying, shimmery, weird-sounding and -feeling, eater of all things equine) touching her face is a huge for her.

Working with and training Vegas is like trying to drive a truck uphill on an ice-covered road.  Every time I get a little closer to my goal, we slide back almost to our starting place.  Then I have to rev the engine to get a little further, only to slide back again.

I understand where she's coming from, but that doesn't make it less frustrating.  She has no real need for people, other than breakfast, dinner, and hay.  She owes us nothing and would much rather not deal with us at all, thank you.

Her skin is clearing up nicely.

Yet, she enjoys attention and scratches.  And is extremely intelligent.  Unfortunately at this time, that intelligence is only used part of the time to figure out what you want - it is generally used to get what Vegas wants...

So much better!  Sorry for the blurriness.

On Sunday, she broke out of her stall again.  Sunday was also the day that I finally saw and spoke with the girl who saw her break out (the 2nd time she broke out).  I was told by another boarder that Vegas had attempted to jump the door, but that isn't what happened.  What this girl told me was that Vegas reared up and put her hooves over the second highest rail on the gate.  She then stepped forward with her back legs until the rail was behind her elbows...then she rocked forcefully back and forth until she'd bent the gate enough that she could step over it.  This shows a level of critical thinking that is unimaginable to me.  Her third stall door/gate was bolted to a piece of plywood and mounted higher (this is the one that met it's demise last Sunday morning).  The plywood was mounted on the inside of the door, but she realized that the door was the same and repeated her escape by breaking the plywood between the 1st and second rails.  At this point, it's probably safe to assume that Vegas is smarter than me.

Getting some muscle!  And I finally got the larger mat worked out of her tail. 

 I cannot explain the frustration that I was feeling on Sunday when I got the phone call.  I messaged Jennie, who said that she had a tall, sturdy stall door that I could pick up, so we made the drive out to her farm.  By the time we got back, Heather and her husband were at the barn stringing up some hotwire for Vegas' stall.  We have (hopefully) built a mustang Alcatraz.  The door is about 5 and a half feet tall.  It has a plastic chain threaded with hotwire on the inside of the door.  The door opens in and there are blocks of wood screwed onto the door jamb to ensure she can't push the door outward.  Unless she figures out how to tear down the entire barn - which I would not put past her at this point.  Btw, I'm pretty sure that I mentioned on before that Vegas is stall-broke.  She was stall-kept at night at Jennie's previous barn, but that barn had the tall, pre-built wood and rail walls and sliding doors.  I foolishly thought her previous experience meant that at least staying in the stall at Heather's barn was a given.

So, this is her last chance to stay here, unfortunately.  I cannot afford to keep replacing stall gates/doors and I definitely can't afford to rebuild Heather's barn if she badly damages it.  Time will tell what happens.

As far as training, we have done no more riding since those last pictures were posted.  Ruby's girth is too long for Vegas so I was borrowing another boarder's girth.  I am waiting for the new girth to show up in the mail so we can resume her training under saddle.

So, we've been focusing on desensitizing, lunging, and tying.  Vegas was doing very well (for her) until the weather got cold.  There are several herds at Heather's barn that are kept separate for various reasons.  Unfortunately, when the weather gets cold, the horses that are normally turned out at night are turned out during the day.  And there really aren't enough pastures to keep everyone separate.  We decided to finally turn Vegas out with the other mares on Thursday for the first time.  We stood at the gate for a while to make sure there wasn't too much craziness; Vegas was very respectful and seemed to integrate into the herd well.

When I went to work with her yesterday morning, we almost had to start from scratch.  She allowed me to catch her in the arena, but only after she thought about it.  When we started lunging, she snatched away from me (she is really good at waiting until I'm changing hands with the line, this is exacerbated by the fact that I also have some residual issues after leaving the military).  I worked with her for a long time, and with a lot of intensity, after that incident and she actually joined up with me.  That was not my goal, but it made me feel like maybe we were getting somewhere.   But when I tied her while cleaning stalls, it was almost as bad as that first day.  Unfortunately, if she was going to get any turnout at all yesterday, she had to be turned out with the mares again when I left.

I'm dreading what kind of monster I'll have on my hands this morning when I pull her out of her stall (assuming that she's still in it, of course!).  If she's an asshole again, she will not be turned out with the other horses for the remainder of her time here.  I talked to Jennie about this and apparently it is a common problem with mustangs; most end up being separated from other horses for at least a few months until they start seeing people as leaders and partners instead of as pests.

Just finished the first round of Sand Clear, then another de-worming next week, the following week more Sand Clear - when will those ribs get covered??? 

So, that's where we are right now.  I'm beyond frustrated and constantly on edge, waiting for her to try something.  I'm hoping that I can stick this out and make some permanent progress with this hard-headed mare.  I truly do enjoy working with her, when she is behaving herself.  It's safe to say that I am way over-horsed at this point, but I'm the only thing Vegas has right now.  Jennie has too many horses in training, and a local mustang adoption event in a few weeks is ensuring that she stays full - so if Vegas has to leave, she'll go back into a holding pattern and everything will have been for nothing.  In the meantime, at least she isn't getting worse.