Over the weekend we took Firestorm out for an adventure away from the paddock where she was born. Her first trip away from home. While mom munched away I walked little Miss Stormy into the round pen for the first time… and was blessed with a special telling moment. Read More→
I have to keep telling myself that a mere six weeks ago this mustang, fresh from the wild, had never willingly been touched by any human. And I keep hearing about domestic mares who go all crazy when they’ve had a foal and won’t let any human near the new baby. I pinch myself several times a day. Actually several times an hour. Because, as those of you who have followed the blog/newsletter know, on the evening of my birthday this very special lady, who had already trusted me to handle her new baby virtually from birth, threw a switch inside herself and gave me the best birthday I think I’ve ever had. Read More→
Barely a month ago we adopted a pregnant mustang from the BLM facility in southern Mississippi. At that time she had never been handled or even touched willingly by any human. Her seven-hour trailer ride home turned into nine, delayed by two wrecks on the freeway. She was covered in stressful sweat and not a happy camper. But still, less than an hour after arriving home, she took a bit of forage from my bare hand.
This was clearly an unusual mustang. Read More→
Because domestic horses are wild horses.
Excuse me??
That was exactly my first reaction. But it’s true. Domestic horses and wild horses are genetically precisely the same. The horses in our back yard are really wild horses in captivity. Just like a baby tiger Read More→
We sometimes call it Join Up Without a Round Pen. No-agenda time is a ritual Kathleen and I began with Noelle after Malachi died. The goal at the time was to just give her a bit of unstressed compassion and companionship. We’d go into Malachi’s playpen, open it up to Noelle, scatter a bit of hay around our feet, then sit there and talk, with no agenda whatsoever. Seriously, none. It yielded some of the best moments and lessons ever with Noelle. It took a bit of post analysis to realize what was going on during those times. And when we did we decided that we should use No Agenda Time with Saffron when we first adopted her. Read More→
Malachi had a playpen. We knew from the beginning that Noelle would not willingly allow us near her baby so we had no choice but to devise a way to separate them in order to imprint and train Malachi. But this time around (Here We Go Again), Miss Saffron, like Noelle an unhandled mustang from the wild, tricked us. She has been so Read More→
