Mustangs have had vaccinations before when they are rounded up. In Thistle’s case, he could not of cared less about them.
You may consider waiting on the teeth another few months, just out of safety for the vet though. They will fight through sedation if stressed enough.
Doubt they can even see the syringe and needle or have any concept of what a shot is so if you have him accepting normal grooming by the time the vet gets there? And the vet is any good at all (some are not)? He wont even even notice. Imagine his initial shots were in a chute so those memories won’t haunt.
Don’t do Mustangs but, on my budget, had alot of…ahhh…damaged/brain fried horses with trust issues. They did much better initially with more frequent, shorter sessions, like 15 min twice a day. NBD, nothing major, just take him and walk around for a few minutes every time you are at the barn or his pen. Do this in addition to a planned work session. Just spread out the time you already spend for better absorption.
i tap the horses. First, with my finger as prep. Then, after first having let them smell it, i start tapping them with say a little twig, or something natural. Then move onto a hoof pick and eventually something shiny…like a pen. They get used to being poked (gently).
I have vet bring out a standing stock to my farm and put all the horses through it many many times prior to vet doing his annuals. Mustangs don’t get their teeth floated until they are thoroughly gentled. This will be Steve’s first this year. Only Fae has had it done so far. They are only here two years though. In time we will get to all of them… but it just isn’t worth the risk.
How smart of Warwick Shiller to tell these principals…Especially to start a new-to-u horse all over from the beginning. Domestics are usually already primed to allow humans to be more-or-less interchangeable. Mustangs (from the wild), who have had only their TIP trainer really need to learn to transfer the human-experience. This is exactly what i was telling you above. And clever of him, (WS) to give it a catchy-name. Also good he teaches his students to break thing down into smaller pieces. Good-good 
I think he even has a program you can subscribe to!
Guess who’s feet I was able to trim today??? It took forever. But it was worth it! Since he has been good with me picking up feet and tapping, I treated it just like that. We stood with good manners, then I rubbed all over, picked up a foot, took one or two bites with the nippers, gave him his foot back, told him he was a good boy, and went back to standing with good manners. And then repeated all over again. I did two feet, then let him be. A couple hours later I came back and did the other two feet. The second two went much faster, he was good with me taking several nipper bites, and manipulating the foot. All stuff he had done with the previous trainer, but is now trusting me to do. It’s a VERY rough trim, but his posture looks more comfortable already. I didn’t use the rasp at all since when I first tried that a couple weeks ago, the sound freaked him out. I will work on the rasp separately, just getting used to the feel and sound with a lot of R+, before actually using it to try and shape his feet.
That is awesome! One of Warwick’s podcasts is with Susan Fay and she wrote “Sacred Spaces” available on Amazon etc. WOW. I’d already been having mental shifts with some of his other guests but this book is a paradigm shift. Highly recommend.
In the beginning, my mustang wouldn’t give me his feet and would even do half arse cow kicks on the rears. Still won’t put his feet out on the hoof stand. He’s afraid of my very kind farrier. So I do most of the rasping and keep him looking darn good so it’s all less time and stress when the farrier comes.
Today, because of the Sacred Spaces book I made a point of going slower than ever. Rasping for 10 secs and then standing back and just taking a deep breath…slowing my brain…slowing my breathing…sending images of how gorgeous this guy is and how much I enjoy him. And do you know he took a deep breath and yawned. And yawned over and over. So that was our time together . Slow like molasses - me slowing time. Going from foot to foot. To a point where he offers them up… some of the time. And that is enough.
It was raining and I’ve introduced the umbrella in the past. Yep, pop that sucker and he jumps but then knows to “touch”. And he sees there ain’t nothing to be afraid of that there umbrella. We went out in the rain for grazing and celebration. Under our umbrella.
The little things that he has already done with previous trainer are starting to come faster as he trusts me more. Yesterday, he walked around with a saddle pad on, stood still at the mounting block, let me lean over him, waving my arms. He acted like he’d done that all a million times and it was no big deal. I then practiced swinging my foot over his back, and tapping it down on him, so he could see my foot coming over from his other eye, still no big deal. A couple times as removed my foot, I grazed it across his rump, no big deal. I like my horses to tolerate mounting and dismounting loud and awkward. With my knee and back pain these days, I know I won’t be getting on and off so gracefully someday. He got much praise and many treats. That was as far as we went. That was all done in the round pen. The next time we will do the same thing out of the round pen.
Later in the day, I tried my other horse’s bridle on so I can size him, and he understood what he was supposed to do. Much bit chomping, but I put it on and off three times and each time he took the bridle easily. Again much praise and treats.
I was out of town for 4 days, and he seemed genuinely happy to see me when I came back, he is starting to come up to me when I go out to the pasture instead of just standing still when I approach him.
You are making great progress! Now that he is more used to you and trusting, things will move along.
Regarding saddling, I use an old saddle and set it on his back then push it off the opposite side so it hits the ground next to him, same with the pads, just push it off. He’ll soon get used to it and won’t freak out if it happens one day.
Great idea! I don’t have an old saddle, but I’m sure I can come up with something involving leather, straps and stirrup irons
More of the same today as yesterday, wearing the saddle pad around, swinging my leg over, sometimes awkwardly on purpose. Only today we did it outside the roundpen. The roundpen is still set up within the pasture, and it’s sort of his safe place. I am going to do the same thing over and over for several days all in different locations.
You are definitely making progress. Small steps forward. Don’t over face. Each incremental progressive step should be taken as a victory. No timeline should take precedence over forward progress. Congratulations in all sincerity.
What I did that made my horse pretty unflappable is while holding the lead rope, dance around in front of him and to the sides. I’d fling my arms around and jump in the air, just making fool out of myself. After that, sudden movements weren’t scary to him.
We’ve had a great several days. More of the same, taking on/ off the saddle pad, lots of flapping around, doesn’t seem to phase him. We’re still working on tying, he does better at the outside tie post I have, still very stressed out about going into the barn. At this point we are just walking in and out of the barn over and over, not really trying to accomplish anything in there other that going in and coming back out without a fuss.
He’s been so good about the saddle pad, I put the saddle on him yesterday, did my best to girth it up, even on the last hole my girth is too big, have a shorter one coming. Made a big loud fuss with the stirrup irons, flapping my arms and legs, leaning over, smacking on the saddle, didn’t blink an eye. I’m incredibly pleased with his reaction to all of that. I won’t actually sit on him until I have a girth that fits. And at 3 years old, he really doesn’t need to be carrying me yet anyway.
We worked on lunging a little over the weekend too, that will be a little extra effort to correct what he’s already been taught. He wants to run in a little circle around me, because that was his pressure/correction/ work previously. Worked on just telling him he was allowed to walk in a bigger circle. He did make a little progress stopping on the lunge and standing and waiting instead of always turning in.
And a pic of him wearing the saddle. I have a cheap bridle coming from ebay because of course everything I have is too big for him. He looks so awkward 
I am happy with the change in his muscling since he got here. He has a long way to go, but when he first came home he had a pencil neck with very strong under neck muscling. He’s losing some of that under neck muscle as he’s just carrying himself more relaxed in general and not always on high alert.
So impressed with you patience and progress. He is absolutely adorable.
Mazel Tov!
Not much to report, just more of the same right now. We did have another lunging session, working on walk/halt, and one more saddling and mounting session.
We had a big progress day yesterday. 
I’m so proud of him! As I mentioned before we’ve been working on just walking in and out of the barn. In and out, back and forth, over and over. Yesterday he was calm enough that I tied him for a couple minutes,and picked up his feet. All four just going from one to the next. Big treat then we walked out of the barn. Grazed for a few minutes, then went back into the barn, tied, and then I picked up AND picked out each foot, all four in a row. Big praise and a treat, and then we calmly walked out of the barn.
Absolutely amazing. I can only imagine the feeling of gaining the trust of a mostly-feral, frightened creature whose first instinct is to flee. It must be so fulfilling and thrilling.
I don’t think I’ll ever experience it directly, but I could see my daughter taking on the challenge some day.
A tiny bit of progress, we were able to have short grooming session in the barn. Aside from that, haven’t worked on much, with the weather being yuck, and in-laws visiting, which was great because we go a light up on the outbuilding so I can see in the pasture in the dark finally!
Oh, and we survived a colic episode too! Poor little guy. He often lays down at least once or twice a day for a snooze, but that day he was laying down a lot more that usual. Wasn’t rolling, so i just kept an eye on him, thankfully our staff meeting was cancelled that day so I was working from home. Later in the afternoon I went to grab them for a little hand grazing, and he was laying down. He didn’t jump up right away the way he normally does if I come into the pasture while he’s snoozing, and he walked over to me and layed back down right at my feet, and tried to roll. I haven’t given an IV injection in over 10 years, and I missed the first time, and then he knew what was coming, and would have none of it. After 3 attempts, the awesome trainer from a neighboring farm came and helped, and within 15 minutes he was feeling good, and mad that he was now locked in the round pen. All has been well since then.
My mission this weekend is to unpack the rest of my horse stuff from moving and find a bit that fits him.
Was able to put together a bridle that kinda fits him. Saddled and bridled and led him around letting him get used to the bit. Worked on our “whoa”, “walk on” and “trot” voice commands.
Going in and out of the barn is getting better, been able to do some grooming sessions in there. Until last week, it was cold and brisk and I closed the barn door. Next thing to work on is the barn door. That created a whole new level of panic. We’ve been doing “touch it” on the door, and that has helped.
Also the next thing that needs learned is pulling the foot forward. I always stretch after girthing up. He wants nothing to do with it. And since it’s time to work on putting hoof on the hoof stand, that’s our focus this next week!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
