See the new video: Stormy Sits on Her Bean Bag
Time has flown by at the speed of light. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been almost 100 days since Miss Saffron stepped off the trailer, an as yet unhandled mustang from the wild who had never willingly touched or been touched by any human. And she was very pregnant. We were told by the BLM that she would probably deliver in May. That was March 17th. Three days later Miss Firestorm was born.
Barely an hour after she was born.
I worried about that look in mama’s eye. I had seen it before with Noelle, our first pregnant mustang. She wouldn’t let me near her foal. And it took two days to figure out how to separate the two so I could work with the baby and begin his imprinting. This time around I had so hoped that I would be able to work with Saffron before the baby came. To build a relationship. She had shown such promise right from our first meeting at the BLM facility in southern Mississippi (See the video: Here We Go Again). And on her first night home she actually took a bit of hay from my hand after spending less than an hour debating the issue. It had taken 19 days for Noelle to bury enough fear to eat from my hand, actually a small bowl in my hand. So I was encouraged with Saffron. But during that first hour after Firestorm’s birth there were warnings in the air. I relaxed, pressed hard to keep the adrenaline down, and let baby make the choice to approach, hoping she would wonder what that weird gangling object perched on the hay bale might be. I just sat. And sat. And waited. But truth be known I was enjoying the watch time, mesmerized at what God and Mother Nature had created. A brand new baby, fresh from the womb, who was already walking, and thinking, and eating. Hopping and playing. And definitely curious. I had read the evolutionary logic about this phenomenon but seeing it first hand only moments after she was born brought it all to life in a manner that no book could. Being prey animals, flight animals, the horse in the wild must be on the move immediately; they must hit the ground running so to speak. This baby couldn’t wait around for months or years like a human baby, or even weeks like a puppy or a cat (all predators). No, she has to be able to move out with the herd virtually immediately to travel the 8-20 miles a day horses will travel in the wild searching for food, water, and staying away from predators. And Mother Nature had made sure it was so. If she hadn’t we would’ve never heard of the horse. They’d be extinct. And for those who don’t want to spend the time studying the scientific proof that the wild horse and the domestic horse are genetically identical this baby should be proof enough. Because those genes have no idea whether she was born in a paddock in middle Tennessee or out in the wild. And the same is true with every “domestic” foal. They are all born virtually on their feet, thinking, moving, working that brain and body, and ready to go wherever the herd needs to go. And they are born curious as if their brain is reaching out saying Fill me up! I wanna know things!
And it wasn’t long before Miss Firestorm was checking me out.
And happily mama said it was okay. Unless I stood up. Then all bets were off. I began a routine of feeding Saffron her breakfast right at my feet. She would eat, and reach out for an occasional sniff, while I played with Stormy.
And she let it happen. I would pull her baby into my lap, play with her feet, scratching and tapping on the bottoms, rub her ears inside and out, stick a finger in her mouth and play with her tongue, and rub her all over, from top to bottom, let her chew on a halter and rope, and, in general, get her comfortable with all those things that some horses can become very worried about later in life. For those with foals in your future I strongly recommend Dr. Robert M. Miller’s book and video on Imprint Training of the Newborn Foal, and Allen Pogue’s video series on Enhanced Foal Training.
When Stormy was three weeks old I built her a playpen out of stall panels and began to feed Saffy on the far side. She would walk through the play pen to her bowl and I would close the gate behind her. Eventually Stormy would decide to follow and I’d close the back gate behind her, isolating her in the play pen and we’d begin some serious work with mama not in the same room so to speak. Stormy received her first baby halter and learned very quickly to lead on a loose line. She learned to step up onto her little pedestal. And learned for the first time to sit on her bean bag. She had lessons in moving her hind and fore quarters left and right, and backing up. In short, her brain was engaged and in high gear. And I believe all of this has had an impact on how bright she is today. And how curious. And how unafraid. The brain is like any other muscle. The more you use it the better it gets.
Meanwhile, I was still unable to touch Saffron, and couldn’t even approach her when I was standing. She would check me out every once in a while with a sniff, but would turn away from any effort to give her the tiniest of rubs. In all respects she was showing much less fear than Noelle was after being with us for three years. Except for the touching. So Kathleen and I decided to initiate our No-Agenda time. Every evening before feeding we’d set up two chairs in Saffy’s paddock and scatter some hay around our feet. Still do. We’ll just sit and chat about the day pretty much ignoring Saffy and Stormy who are usually virtually on top of us. Stormy, literally. She always wants scratches and rubs, and wants to nibble my hat and Kathleen’s chair. But mama was satisfied with a sniff here and there and we stuck to a no agenda policy.
Finally she allowed a two-finger touch… but no more!
And only occasionally!
Then on April 15, five days before my birthday, Stormy fell asleep right at our feet and the most amazing thing happened.
Moments after she dozed off, her mom, Miss Saffron, this mustang from the wild just a few short weeks ago, turned and sauntered off to the water tub for a drink, maybe fifty feet away… leaving her baby asleep at our feet. She had never even let Stormy interact with the other horses through the fence. And had never before left her in our care. The trust it took to do that both surprised and overwhelmed us. And it was surely a signal of things to come. Five days later, on the evening of my birthday, Saffy gave me the best gift I could’ve asked for. Her ever so slowly eroding trust barrier suddenly cracked, crumbled, and fell completely away.
In an instant, with no advance notice she was suddenly all over me. Blowing noses, rubbing my cheek. Accepting scratches and rubs everywhere! On her neck, under her jaw, down her shoulder and leg. Her rib cage. Behind her ear (See the blog post An Amazing Birthday Gift from a Wild Mustang). It was as if she had flicked a switch. Everything that had been off the table was suddenly on the table. Everything! I had never seen anything quite like it. All of our other horses, to varying degrees, had progressed in increments, not leaps and bounds.
You might remember that, for me, the most important element in Monty Roberts’ Join Up is that the choice to join up belongs to the horse. It is not forced by the human. And when the horse makes that choice freely, of its own free will, everything changes. No-Agenda time takes longer than Monty’s Join Up (which usually works for him in 30 to 40 minutes). This experiment with Saffron took 12 days, but when it happened that night everything changed right before our eyes.
Happy Birthday! she said.
By the time Stormy was just over two months old she and Saffy had met all of the herd members except Noelle, on a one-or- two-at-a-time basis.
Baby was getting along with everybody, and mom had established herself as the dominant mare over all… again, except Noelle. So we decided to try another experiment. We let them go out with the entire herd.
Big mistake.
We didn’t think it through. At least not enough to realize that a new mama in the wild never has to deal with dominance issues or worry about protecting her baby because she’s in a family band and everybody gets the drill. They all know each other and know where everyone is in the herd pecking order. And if some stranger ambles by the stallion will deal with it immediately because he knows that a new mommy will fight to the death to protect her baby.
But Saffron was the outsider in this “family band” and there was no stallion around to help. As expected, she was already dominant over everyone except Noelle, our other mustang. And our biggest concern. Noelle had been the leader of this herd since the day she joined them and the assumption was that she wasn’t about to give it up. She is a bit shorter than Saffron, but much stronger, with a bigger more powerful hind quarter, and much faster with the back legs. They fire like a machine gun. Literally.
When Noelle originally went out into our herd it took her about two minutes to take over completely. Only a couple of the horses even challenged her and only for a moment. One kick and they were gone. Yes, ma’am. You want it? You got it. See ya. As was the norm with our herd, it was a pretty quick and uneventful affair. Cash, Pocket and Skeeter had already assessed the situation and decided they wanted nothing to do with Noelle’s hindquarters. Mouse tried to nurse on her, got a good slap for it, and took up her position with Cash and Skeeter. Mariah exchanged kicks with Noelle but quickly decided she was outgunned and stepped away. Moments later they were munching grass barely inches apart. Since that day Noelle has been a very soft and polite leader unless someone refuses a request. She’ll start to swing her butt around and suddenly there’s nothing to kick. The other horse is gone.
These mustangs, at least the ones we know, do not mess around with nipping and biting. They go straight for the heavy artillery. And Noelle can spin and fire those back legs faster than I can think about it. We pretty much knew all that and had assumed she would have the upper hand. But we didn’t assume that once into it Saffron was not going to give up and walk away like the other horses had done. Only then did it hit me. She wasn’t fighting for dominance as such. She was fighting to protect her baby. Once it started Stormy kept her distance but was definitely freaking out, running helter-skelter around the pasture. It began like this:
It went three rounds and in the third round Saffy went down on her hocks for a moment. They were on a pretty steep hill and she was on the downside.
I couldn’t tell if it was caused by Noelle or if Saffron merely slipped on the hill. But it was enough for us to say No more! It’s fascinating to me that Mouse (in the background) is paying close attention to all that’s going on, no doubt with her adrenaline on the rise… and yet Mariah (foreground) is just munching away paying no attention whatsoever.
Anyway, Kathleen and I broke up the brawl and directed Noelle into the next pasture and shut the gate.
Thankfully, in the end, neither Saffron nor Noelle were any worse for wear. Noelle had only one mark on her while Saffy had several, but they were all superficial. I suspect both horses were sore the next day but it didn’t show.
Nevertheless, we won’t be trying that again until the baby is no longer a baby.
We’ve kicked ourselves for not realizing our timing was bad. In retrospect it seemed so obvious. So logical. No mama in the wild and very few in domestic situations ever have to worry about dominance issues after the baby is born. Kathleen feels especially guilty and can’t figure why she, a mother of three, didn’t consider the mommy quotient. And why didn’t my ever-present logic-to-a-fault kick in? I suspect that we can at least partially blame the human in us. We tend to want everything to be just perfect. All eight horses should be out there roaming the pastures together happy as clams. And probably, secretly, we also wanted to be able to stop the shuffling and sorting we were having to go through to keep the two mustangs apart. All too often it’s not what the horse needs, but what the human wants.
But lesson learned and no harm done.
Since that day, Saffy and Stormy have spent the daylight hours every day in either the west pasture or the eastern one, usually with two or three of the rest of the herd, whom we rotate so the newcomers get to know everybody… except, of course, Noelle.
Saffy is still dominant over everyone (except Noelle) and hasn’t yet begun to hang out much with anyone in the herd. She allows Uncle Skeeter to tag along and Stormy loves him. Saffy puts up with Mouse, most of the time. But baby spends time with every other herd member (again, except Noelle). And they all get along fine. Her favorites (other than Uncle Skeeter) seem to be Pocket and Mouse.
Pocket, Stormy & Mouse
Cash and Mariah pretty much ignore Stormy even when she’s hanging out with them. They apparently don’t much care for the babysitter thing.
We alternate pastures, but not every day because both Saffron and Firestorm love the pond so much.
Stormy because it’s fun! Saffy because she likes her mud bath. Nobody else in the herd ever gets in the pond. Mouse has, maybe twice in three years, and Skeeter will get his feet wet every once in a while. All of which is really interesting, at least to me because Saffy and Stormy are in it up to their necks virtually every available day.
But some day, not too far away, they’ll all be together and able to go wherever they like whenever they like.
Meanwhile, I’ve begun teaching Saffy to move her hind quarters and forequarters left and right, and to back up. Just a few steps so far. All at liberty. And I’ve begun to introduce her to a rope halter, which she wanted no part of in the beginning, but she’s now accepting rubs on the face and neck with the halter. Stormy continues her sessions in the play pen every morning, and takes nice long walks on her lead rope three or four times a week. She has no issues with accepting the halter and lead rope no matter where she might be in the pasture – unless she’s just come out of the pond. That’s when she pretends she’s a race horse!
See the new video: Stormy Sits on Her Bean Bag
We leave a large blue tarp in the round pen for Mouse to play with, and Stormy has decided that Aunt Mouse knows how to have fun. At a mere three months, Stormy walks all over the tarp, wads it into a big ball, and picks up an end with her mouth and drags it across the pen.
And that is my kind of training. No long tedious sessions coaxing her to get up the courage to step on the tarp. Just wad it up, toss it in the pen, and walk away :)
Folks who followed Noelle and Malachi will understand why we are breathing a little easier after having passed Firestorm’s third-month birthday on the 21st. One of our goals with these mustangs from the wild is to visually demonstrate the research and science that a horse is a horse, and every horse on the planet is genetically the same, and given the opportunity they would all prefer relationship to no relationship. Why? Because for a prey animal, a flight animal, it makes life easier. Security, safety is the number one concern of the horse and when he’s in true relationship with another animal, or a person, that relationship removes one more thing from his worry list.
Another goal I’ve had virtually from the time we started this crazy journey is to have a horse about whom I knew everything from the day he or she was born. We know nothing about Cash’s first nine years, or Mouse’s first seven or eight months. And very little about Skeeter’s first eighteen years. We know a lot about Saffron and Noelle and how they lived prior to coming our way. And we’ll know everything there is to know about Miss Stormy. Right from her first hour on the planet. There will be nobody to to fault for the way she turns out but us.
And I like that. A lot.
Firestorm and Uncle Skeeter
Most of the photos by Kathleen. A couple by Joe.
See the new video: Stormy Sits on Her Bean Bag
—–
The story of our journey with horses (to date) is told in the two books that follow: the national best seller The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd and its sequel Born Wild – The Soul of a Horse.
And what a story it is as two novices without a clue stumble and bumble their way through the learning process so that hopefully you won’t have to. If you haven’t read both of these books already please do because with that reading, I believe, will come not just the knowledge of discovery but the passion and the excitement to cause you to commit to your journey with horses, to do for the horse without waiver so that your relationship and experience will be with loving, happy and healthy horses who are willing partners and who never stop trying for you. Horses like ours.
The highly acclaimed best selling sequel to the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd
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Order Personally Inscribed Copies of Born Wild – $15
Order Both The Soul of a Horse & Born Wild – Save 20%
Both Personally Inscribed – $24
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Read More About Born Wild
Read More About The Soul of a Horse
Watch The Soul of a Horse Trailer
Watch the Born Wild Trailer
But first read the National Best Seller that started it all
Now in it’s 13th printing:
Amazon & Kindle
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Apple iBooks
Order Personally Inscribed Copies of The Soul of a Horse – $15
Order Both The Soul of a Horse & Born Wild – Save 20%
Both Personally Inscribed – $24
Please list the names for each inscription in the “instructions to Seller” field as you check out!
Read More About Born Wild
Read More About The Soul of a Horse
Watch The Soul of a Horse Trailer
Watch the Born Wild Trailer
“One cannot help but be touched by Camp’s love and sympathy for animals and by his eloquence on the subject.” – Michael Korda, The Washington Post
“Joe Camp is a natural when it comes to understanding how animals tick and a genius at telling us their story. His books are must-reads for those who love animals of any species.” – Monty Roberts – Author of New York Timers Best-seller The Man Who Listens to Horses
“Camp’s tightly-written, simply-designed and powerfully drawn chapters often read like short stories that flow from the heart.” Jack L. Kennedy – The Joplin Independent
“Joe Camp is a gifted storyteller and the results are magical. Joe entertains, educates and empowers, baring his own soul while articulating keystone principles of a modern revolution in horsemanship.” – Rick Lamb – TV/Radio host – The Horse Show
Follow our latest journey with these two amazing new arrivals from the wild. Kathleen’s terrific photos are worth the click.
In chronological order:
What an Extraordinary Weekend!
Firestorm’s Amazing First Day in the Playpen
No-Agenda Time – So Much Value!
An Amazing Birthday Gift from a Wild Mustang!
Saffron and Firestorm – Progress and Photos – Lots of Both!
For more current posts go to the blog homepage and scroll down
Follow Our Entire Journey
From no horses and no clue to stumbling through mistakes, fear, fascination and frustration on a collision course with the ultimate discovery that something was very wrong in the world of horses.
Read the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse
Life Lessons from the Herd
…and the highly acclaimed…
The Soul of a Horse Blogged
The Journey Continues
Love reading this, seeing Kathleen’s photos. Thanks for sharing them with us. I still think of Malachi from time to time and remember his story. If he had lived, maybe you wouldn’t be on this journey, the one you are on now. I learned a long time ago to quit kicking and screaming and just follow the road I’m on to see where it leads. Wish I had learned that lesson earlier.
My arabian mare is named Stormy too, her papered name is Royal Stormchaser. So I loved that you named this new filly Stormy. Keep us in the loop with your words and Kathleen’s photos…
Bev & Stormy in Utah
Thanks much for the kind words Bev. Kathleen and I both appreciate. As does Miss Firestorm :)
Joe & Kathleen,
It’s not just protecting the baby, that’s a factor here. You must remember they are both mustangs, and even if out in the wild, they very well could have made the same introductions. Say if Noelle is lead mare in a herd, and her band stallion steals Saffy, and along comes little miss Fire Storm with momma. Noelle will have to defend her right as dominant mare of the herd, and Saffy say she was dominant in her last herd, well they would squabble to see who was going to stay lead mare in this herd. The lead mare plays such a huge roll in family bands staying together, if they don’t get along, then the herd won’t stay together for long. And at least Stormy was smart, and stayed out of the way of the squabble, and no one was seriously hurt. Even when Stormy gets older, Noelle still might challenge her to protect her roll as lead mare. Its all in family dynamics. I know i had to experience it the hard way with the 2 babies born here on our farm.
Hope ya’ll are enjoying this heat wave!! :)