Week #4

Tuesday visit: WINDY. (cough, cough)

With the dust flying around and the wind gusting hard enough to rattle the roofs over the stalls, I decided it was a little too exciting to take Badger out today. Definitely too wild for the turnout. I instead spent time cleaning out his stall, then two of the other horses' stalls.

Badger's still a bit nervous about his face and head, but interestingly that's also where he enjoys being scratched the most—learned this last visit when I was brushing him and decided to brush his forehead. Since it was cool and the wind was so high, there really wasn't a need for the flymask, so I took it off him and (after a moment of twitchiness) I got a couple light scratches in. As soon as he realized what I was doing, his head began to droop lower and lower, his eyelids at half-mast while I started really scratching him.

I noticed a dent in the bridge of his nose...I wonder if it's from having had that halter on too tight back at that old place? :( Looking back at his old pics, his halter was buckled on the fourth notch...I only tighten it to the second one when I take him out and that's plenty. Yikes. Also I think the weather must be getting colder, since I notice he's getting distinctly fuzzier. Here's his weekly progress pics (check that neck!):

The funniest part of today was when I was leaving, though; he seemed a little confused when I put his flymask back on after the photos. As I reached for the stall door to let myself back out, his head poked around my side and he very deliberately nosed (and lipped) the halter hanging on the gate as if to say, "Hey, did you forget this...?"

What a change from only three weeks ago, when he'd barely let me put it on. It was after he did that that I realized why he'd kept trying to stand in the same corner near the door. While in his stall, I'd tried to lead him away from the corner so I could take a photo, and he kept circling back to that same corner he's standing in in the photos...now I think he was trying to stay in that corner because that was the corner in which I'd been putting his halter on him, before we went out.

...Am I training this horse, or is he training me?

Friday visit: Finally, the turnout!

I figured I should have the camera at the ready for Badger's first time trying out the big turnout area...so here's some videos of him thoroughly enjoying himself. :)







For an old guy, he sure is spry! I left him out there while I cleaned up and he had a great time sniffing at things and trotting back and forth. I'm still surprised he did the full roll. Must feel GOOD.

What surprised me more, however, was the end of the turnout. When I was done cleaning and he looked like he had gotten out his exploring and fun, I figured it was time to bring him in. Suddenly it occurred to me that I hadn't...had much experience with him in that big of a free space...and with his tasty, nutritious food, he was more energetic than ever.

Now a little concerned, I slung the halter and lead rope over my shoulder and opened the gate. He was just standing in the very farthest end of the turnout, looking at the road and the fields. I called him a couple times and nothing...I got an over-the-shoulder curious look, and then he went back to looking at stuff. Well, at least he's not running, I thought to myself as I started to walk slowly down the fence towards him.

I'd gotten about halfway down the field before he looked at me again, and after a moment he was GALLOPING from his end of the turnout, past me, towards the other end where the gate was. Half of me was super happy that he felt good enough to run (and impressed that he looked good doing it); the other half of me was groaning, anticipating a tedious back-and-forth chase. So back I went, walking towards the gate and the corner where he stood.

The big surprise was...he DIDN'T run! I wonder if he simply associates haltering with "stand near gate," because once he got to that corner, he just stood there very calmly and stuck his nose through the halter as if I was taking him out of his stall. He even "helps" a little with gates now, by pushing them open with his nose.

Surprises every day. :)

Another Week

Another week has gone by and everything's looking up. As I mentioned last time, Badger has started being much more interested in going out and checking out the sights, so haltering is definitely going a lot more eagerly than before. Despite that he remains very well-mannered, and for the most part remembers not to walk ahead of me (every now and then he forgets, when there's something new and interesting to look at or smell).

Friday was another 'energetic' day, folks were riding their horses around, so Badger seemed full of get-up-and-go! Since he seemed interested in it, we did short stretches of trotting as well; he certainly needed no encouragement to start going. All he needed was to be led to one of the open stretches and me to start walking a little faster, and as I moved into a jog he seemed to already know what I had in mind and his walk transitioned smoothly into an easy trot alongside me. Each time he also slowed as I slowed, with just a quiet "whoa" to stop completely. It's too bad boots are a bit tough to jog in, he seemed eager to do even more.

Now that he's feeling so good, I'm hoping to put him in the turnout pen tomorrow and see if he'd like to trot around in there as well. Or more! Who knows!

Will definitely have to work some more on him picking up his foot, as he seems to not want to do his left front (the rest, front or back, I only have to lightly touch and up it goes). Not sure what's going on there, although if he was that interested in trotting around I don't think it's a pain thing.

It's only been a few weeks so far and I'm already amazed at his rapid progress. He seems so considerate and consistently well-behaved, it disappoints me that a horse like him was just discarded and mistreated.

A Quick Milestone

Today was the first day that Badger was not only willing to let me put his harness on without any chasing, but also actually walked to the near corner (where I was standing) and put his head down for it to be put on.

He'd been putting his nose into the halter when I held it up for him, but this was the first time he approached. I think he's getting the idea that halter = out, brushing, walking, and sniffing at interesting things = interesting and fun! He had a very enthusiastic walking session, too, including the investigation of (and snacking upon) a couple grassy spots. Badger almost started trotting after one of the horses that was being ridden nearby, too! It was definitely surprising (and encouraging) to see him perk up at seeing another horse being ridden around.

I wonder if he was a trail horse or a racing horse once?

Badger's Second Week

Whew! Badger's certainly had a whirlwind of a week...

Tuesday was his first visit by the ranch's veterinarian. I was a little concerned since of course her yea or nay would decide whether Badger could be moved into his more permanent housing and be around the other horses. As it turns out, neither he nor I had much to worry about.

Increasingly I think Badger must have had a lot of training in his youth, as he was incredibly well-behaved for all of it. Of course I don't imagine any horse likes having stuff sprayed up one's nose, or needles, or a thorough sheath cleaning, but I was really thankful he was so mild about it all since the initial knock-out injection barely fazed him! After the vet tech had given him what she explained as a mild sedative "so he'd get sleepy," we watched for a few minutes...and nothing. He kept looking around calmly as if to say, "are you folks waiting for something?" so on with the rest of the checkup. He passed with flying colors as far as his general health; he has a faint heart murmur that wasn't any immediate concern, and he seemed a bit sore on his feet so he gets some bute (the horse equivalent of Tylenol) for a week or two with his feed to see if that helps him feel better and later we could possibly pinpoint the actual problem.

The vet offers a convenient discount plan that cares for several horses in one session, so since Badger was only the second horse of the day, I hung around to watch the vet deal with some of the others after him. One of the other horses got so sleepy that the vet tech had to stand there until the medication wore off a little, and one old guy was so grouchy he tried to kick out at the vet tech when she went to halter him. Needed quite a bit of the whip, which is unfortunate, but since he has Cushing's (a neurological disease affecting the brain), his aggression levels are way higher than would be normal. From what I heard, he was a bit of a jerk to begin with, so adding the crankiness of the Cushing's on top of that is frustrating to deal with, and kind of sad.

So really, Badger did fantastically that day, especially since he was still in a brand-new environment with strange horses and strange people.

On Saturday, I went back to visit him again. With repeated effort, I've been working on getting him less nervous about the halter, and Saturday was the best yet as I only had to have him trot a slow half-circle before he'd stop and let me take his fly mask off AND put his halter on, all in one go. Previously it was chase, remove fly mask, chase, put on halter. It's great to see him responding so well, especially since he now also sticks his nose into the halter a little when I hold it in front of him! That's already very different from his first few attempts. I hope getting brushed and going out for walks is interesting enough that he continues to be encouraged to put the halter on.

As usual he's very good about walking, stopping, backing up, etc., and he's a little rusty about things like picking his feet up but he does remember how. That day was a big day for him too because he moved into his new stall! With a neighbor, too. Hopefully they can be friends. They're like horsey doppelgangers, both of them tall, almost identically-colored chestnut geldings...it was odd to see them nose to nose.

On the topic of strange experiences for Badger, he apparently had a REALLY big day between my two visits, since one of the workers at the ranch had a really bad fall off a ladder and had to be medevaced out...the helicopter had to land in the open area behind the stalls, and the fire truck drove right past Badger's quarantine pen and the nearby row of stalls. Yikes! Amazingly, NONE of the horses injured themselves, and the guy is conscious and recovering. For what happened, it's still relatively good luck.

Later last night the ranch held a small fundraiser party, so I went back to attend. I think this was the first time I'd made the drive out there twice in one day. I had to laugh a little, though, because Badger's new pen was closest to the 'action,' so he got to experience a live Southern Rock band and a whole bunch of strange people walking in and out, talking and dancing...he was standing with his butt in the furthest corner away from all the noise and lights, his face and ears riveted on the whole event. My fiance and I walked around the side of the pen to take a look at him, and I think during the whole time we were talking behind Badger, he turned one listening ear briefly back towards us just once, before immediately refocusing on the more pressing concern of whatever all that noise and chatter was.

This has been a BIG week for this big old guy! Wow! Next week will seem so quiet by comparison...but I'm sure he won't mind that at all. Going to keep working on his headshy problems, though, since he can be quite tall when he wants to be! Learning to put his head down will require a lot of trust, but it's really amazing to see how smart and perceptive he's been so far. After all he's been through, I'm really happy he's been able to transition as quickly as he's been.

Here's his newest photos, looking good in his new stall! His neighbor Tio is just barely visible on the right in that first pic.

Badger's First Week

First week at the ranch! Badger's been eating like, well, a horse. I don't know if it's too early to see progress yet, but here's a couple pics from today:

He's gonna be so pretty when he gets filled out. ^_^ (And HUGE)

Unfortunately, we're also starting to see the first signs of him being a bit of a snot, now that he's getting more food in him. I had to spend a little extra time working with him today because he was a little halter-shy when I went to go put it back on him. As in, shuffling to the far corner of his pen and trying to turn away. No turning your butt towards me! That's rude.

Chasing him (gently) for a few laps around his pen seems to give him the idea, though. And, once his halter was on, he actually followed really nicely, and stopped when told to. Overall his manners are going to be really nice too, so long as he knows who's the boss. For an old guy he can move pretty quick...if I wasn't paying attention when I was putting him back in the pen, he would have darted past me and back out! Maybe he wasn't quite done with being walked around! Good sign he's feeling better, though. Next time I'll have to walk him around for longer, or maybe even let him go in the turnout area (basically a giant 'free play' fenced arena for the horses to run around and have fun).

If I had to guess by his expression when I picked up the halter, this was mostly fear that we were going to put that thing on him and leave it there. As far as we could tell, while he was at that other woman's house, she just left the halter on him 24/7, which is not only dangerous, but also uncomfortable. I don't blame him for not wanting to wear it after that, but the vet's coming on Tuesday so he's gotta remember how to behave. Tracy (ranch owner) attributes this to his Thoroughbred side. His mom was 1/2 TB, so he does have quite a lot in him (look up Appendix Quarter Horses for more info). It's why he's so tall and leggy compared to most Quarter Horses.

Next we also have to work on teaching him to put his head down...while the bridle wasn't too much of a problem since I only have to be able to reach his nose and the side of his head, balancing on tiptoe and trying to reach high enough to put his ears through the hole in his fly mask was a bit of an effort. On top of that, I had already been told by the original rescuer that he really wasn't keen on wearing his mask, so there was another several minutes of behave-or-I-chase-you before he'd stand still for me to put it on. Still, even though he doesn't like the fly mask, it's gotta be better than the flies poking around his eyes...if only I could attach something to his poor tail so he could take care of the other end too. Thankfully fly season will be over soon, and then he won't have to care for several months.

Badger Leaves

A whirlwind week after meeting Badger, with calls flying between me, Nikki, and the Bit-O-Heaven ranch, he's in his new home. It's still hard to believe that I've committed to this horse, at least for the short term, but he needed an immediate out and horse rescue is what I was collecting money for.

We (me and Nikki's family) went to rescue Badger today, and everything went great. His manners are amazing and I'm hoping it's not just because of the lack of food. The owner still wasn't soaking his pellets though, despite last week's heated phone conversations.

His plastic tub was now in the new goat's pen, replaced with a crusty wheelbarrow, the bottom of which was actually starting to rust through in spots. No chance of soaking the pellets this time, so instead we dug around for his lead rope and blanket before the trailer arrived. Also yes, you read that right, the woman had gotten a goat in the span of less than a week, because we were taking the horse (she had tried to change her mind and say she wanted to keep him, and as we found out later it was because her rental agreement requires a hoofed animal to be kept on the property, so it can retain its livestock zoning). Hopefully the goat has better luck there, or at least doles out some appropriate headbutting.

The plastic trash can that was his water trough had a bunch of mosquito larvae in it too. Those don't live in fresh water...only stagnant, standing water.

Photos from today:

Those aren't rocks he's standing on, either. And don't be fooled by the belly...he hasn't been getting regular worming medication since May, so it's probably parasites in there. His topline (spine and hip) tells the real story.

He loaded really well even though the trailer seemed really small for him (I think they said he's 16hh+, or about 5'4" at the withers) and thankfully the drive wasn't far. Humorously, he also left giant piles of "going-away presents" in the driveway as he was being loaded onto the trailer...

The girls unloaded him and put him in his temporary 'quarantine' pen at Bit-O-Heaven, and he was pretty much nose-to-hay for the rest of the time I was there. He did pause for horse cookies, though! Those seemed to be a yummy new thing for him.

What's kind of depressing (yet encouraging) is THIS is how he looked only six months ago:

Getting back to this is his goal for the immediate future. I'm going out of town in a few days, so next week Sunday will be my next shot at getting some photos in his *new* place. :) Didn't want to bug him with the camera while he was getting settled in.

Since it's officially October now, I'd like to buy Badger his own Trick-or-Treat bag. It's basically just going to be more of the same horse cookies that he got to taste today, but I'm sure it will be special for him all the same.