A few years ago I got an email from a lady who was trying to find a home for a Padron Granddaughter. They were endurance people, and she was not an endurance horse. Her name is Starlight Serenade, a ¾ half-Arabian/Saddlebred cross. She had been shown halter taking first place ribbons, and they bought her for training for endurance. When she turned out not to be a good match for them the owner tried to either get her papers or return her (as previously agreed) to no avail. The breeders wouldn’t even talk to them let alone transfer the papers. Despite all this we chose to go ahead, and take the mare thinking we could register her offspring as half-Arabians bred to our stallions. Wrong, since she was registered, any of her offspring could only be registered as owned by the original breeder or we had to lie about her registration, something I cannot do. She’s too good a mare not to breed so her kids will not be registered.
When Sere came to us, we saw a definite problem with her right away. We were told she would go lame sometimes, and then when she was re-shod it seemed to go away. We had our vet check her out with x-rays, and the bad news was she had a navicular bone cist. So much for riding her, but in every other respect she is a beautiful mare. She was shy, but with work I got her to trust me, well as it turned out not completely.
We bred her to Ibn. Being a maiden mare we weren’t sure how she would be when the foal came. We had the cameras set up, and our other mare dropped her foal right on schedule. We had a couple of weeks before Sere was due so I took a break from sleeping at the barn. Big mistake. She was showing absolutely no signs of getting ready to foal so of course she foaled early. We went into the stall, but could get nowhere near her let alone her foal. He was a beautiful bay with a striking blaze. Eventually we got hold of him, and Rudy put a halter on him, but whenever I tried to work with him as I do with all our foals, I had no luck. Eventually we had to change halters, and each time it was a battle so we finally elected not to put a halter on him.
A year went by, and slowly but surely I gained a little trust. I could groom him, he liked that, but little else. When I lost my job, and had more time to spend with the kids I finally got him to the point of getting a halter on him. We worked on picking up his feet, letting me pound on them, and even filing them while tied up next to Ibn for security. The funniest thing was when summer came, and the flies were terrible, he had absolutely no problem being sprayed with fly spray. He didn’t like getting his mane combed, but I could spray it with detangler with no problem. Go figure.
Late winter I started riding Ibn, and Marina, and spent less time with the kids assuming I had got them past their people issues, everyone that is except Ser-Haat as I recently discovered. I had to change his halter because he finally had outgrown his old one. He has a very refined head, and the halter I had, had lots of length on the latch part of the halter. Don’t even ask me what it’s called. I found another halter small at the muzzle, and long only it is so old that the holes are frayed. I changed to the new (old) halter by putting the new one on, and taking the old one off after the fact. Less trauma for him, and less chance of him running away from me, win win situation.
Well that lasted one day, and he had it off. Mind you I didn’t totally ignore him all this time. We would work on him being tied, grooming, working in his stall like a round pen etc. Still you could tell in his eyes he was wary of me even though he totally loves his pets, and hugs. He wouldn’t come to me right off, but waited for me to come to him in his paddock. Still I thought the worst was over until I tried to put the halter on again. No way Jose, he wasn’t about to let me put that horrible thing on him again. That meant I was going to have to start from square one, you just know I loved the prospect of that.
We’ve been working for about two weeks now practically every day. I couldn’t get the halter even anyway near him, his eyes would go wide, and off he’d go. Now I’m not about to manhandle him even if I could. He’s way too sweet to do that to him. I went back to chasing him in his paddock stopping him, and then asking him to come in to me. After a few days I had to chase him less, and less. Next step, get him to accept the whip rope (buggy whip) on his back without freaking, and let me rub the handle of the whip all over his body especially down his back left leg which is his preferred kick out leg. Ser-Haat is the only baby we’ve ever had who kicked out from the time he was little, and always the same leg.
That accomplished, we went to the lead rope. This was a whole new thing, and off he would run me running beside him so the lead wouldn’t fall off his back. Yes I have had some very good nights sleep. He wore me out I can tell you, but I got him so I could drape the lead over him without him thinking that for sure it was going to kill him. What gets into these kids minds I have no clue, but I know he was sure that it would kill him. I could go up to him, and lead him by the jaw, but heaven forbid I put a lead rope on his back. Next step, he has to let me put the lead around his neck, and lead him just as if I were holding his head. Well that took a little while but mission accomplished. He gets big hugs for that, and of course his treats afterwards. I have the halter with me all through this, and the halter is always in his stall. When I give him his treats he has to do it with the halter in the feeder. First it’s just there, and slowly I work it so I can get it over his nose, and rub his face with it.
On to the next big step, I make a loop of the lead to put over his nose. I have to trick him at first until I figure out that if I try doing it from the side it won’t work, so I have the lead around his neck, make a loop, and put it over his nose while he’s looking at me straight on from the front. I lead him around just as if it was a halter, and he does fine. Finally I get to the point where I can flip the last of the lead over his head, and basically make a complete halter of the lead. Then I put the halter on his nose and flip the top over his head. I didn’t buckle it, but it was on, and that was the important part. I’m so proud of him at this point I could bust. Still and all it is a process where I have to chase him a couple of times before he lets me put even the lead on his back. I need horse cookies.
The last cookies I bought none of the horses would eat so I fed them to the dogs who eat everything they can get in their mouths. I’ll just have to make my own I decided. I have no clue where to begin, but I do know the key ingredients, mainly beet pulp (shredded), and rice bran to bind it together. Well the rice bran didn’t break down (it’s in pellet form) so I added some flour. I didn’t want to use white flour as it’s not that good for people let alone horses, but I did get a cookie of sorts. I used too much oil, and too much water, and while it sort of held together it was too soft, and fell apart too easy. Ser-Haat didn’t care, and neither did the other horses I gave it too. I have to perfect the recipe, but it did the trick. Today was the clincher. I gave him a cookie first, and then I brought out the lead. He started to walk away so I picked up the whip, and told him I could chase him or he could let me put the lead on him. Wisely he chose not to turn away, and I made a halter of the lead. He also got his new cookies in-between along with lots of pets, and praises. Then the big step, I put on the halter, buckled it, and led him around. I did this several times, finally taking it off, giving him his treats for being such a good boy, and letting him enjoy his freedom. With him I can’t leave the halter on I decided. I will put it on to work with him, and take it off when we’re done. I’ll do this every day until it’s not an issue. Of course this is only the beginning. He will get towels, blankies, and anything else I can think of draped over him. He needs a complete sacking out.
Ser-Haat is an exceptionally sensitive horse. In order for him to go on with his life I have to get him over as many scary things as I can think of, and many more I can’t think of as of yet. When Rudy comes home I’m going to have him put the trailer in the arena so that when I can finally lead Ser-Haat out to the arena to play, I can trailer train him as well. I’ll put goodies in the trailer slowly moving from the edge of the ramp to the inside. That way he will trailer train himself. I have to trailer train Storm too, but I think he will be easier to train. He’s four now, and far more trusting than Ser-Haat. Anyone is far more trusting than Ser-Haat thanks to Sere. Next foal she has won’t be so bad. Ser-Haat was the first, and you never know with maiden mares how they will react, or when they will drop. She reacted badly to our presence, and that made him afraid. If she wouldn’t trust us then he was danged if he would trust us. We had to be some kind of dangerous creatures. I’ve been battling that fear ever since, but I’m bound, and determined to get him over it once, and for all.
As for my cookies, I went, and bought some rice flour, flaxseed, and wheat bran. I won’t use much oil or water next time so they won’t be so soft. I also got some apples to add with the carrots. If I use the cheese grader on the apples I think it will work well. I cut the carrots since all I had were baby carrots, and grading them was too much of a pain. We’ll see how the next batch turns out. Who knows maybe if I get the recipe right I can sell some at the feed store, which will pay for the cookies I give the horses. You never know it could happen.
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