Grooming and Pre-tieing

Although not yet broke to tie, I semi-secured Snip to a post by threading rope around then hanging on to the end of it. I used a lunge line so there was lots of length if the horse fidgeted to lay along his side and be behind his girth area to move him over or forward.  The previous work on a line in the round pen helped the horses to understand to give to pressure.  The trick is when a horse feels the need to spook away from you, don't resist until the horse gets to the point where he's about to stop leaving, then you can stop (turn) him easier.  You don't want to try and hold the horse when he's under full power because you can't and he's just learning he can out pull you.  The second trick is to resist in time with the near front foot coming off the ground.  Snip was understanding he needed to listen to the feel on his rope so I worked on deburring his mane, then forelock, then tail.  He was a pretty good boy.

I also started doing Red's mane and he was being good so I let Tanza take over.  She got the burrs out of the  mane and forelock and most of the tail but there was a huge mat. I ended up pulling hairs up out of it 5 or 10 at a time till they were all out and I was left with a rock hard chunk of tail in my hand and sore fingers.  His tail was so much lighter it was floating. Snip and Red took 2 1/2 hours and showed tremendous patience. Every time Tanza went to grab something Red tried to follow her.

 After lunch I worked on Blue.  You'll remember he didn't like his face handled and I'd only got a halter on him once. I got the rope around his neck and with some difficulty the loop over the nose but he was not going to have a halter.  I worked on deburring him with just the rope on.  He had lots on the left side and in his forelock then I discovered his hair is even longer on the right.  I did loop his rope around a post while I worked on his tail.  For a horse that didn't want to be touched he relaxed really well. Altogether it took 3 1/2 hours but was well worth it.

After I introduced Cocoa to the concept of being handled outside the round pen and staying semi attached to a post I let Tanza take over.  Cocoa is very sensitive and so she sang to him.  He really liked it. I told her he wouldn't like it so much if I sang to him. He did get a little impatient. He pawed a bit and when he was told not to do that he threatened to kick and was told not to do that either.  He was deburred faster than Blue so Tanza used the extra time to rub on him and handle his head as much as he'd let her.  I was very pleased with all of them.

The next day Tanza groomed and led Snip, Red and Cocoa and spent more time putting heads down.  I worked on deburring Burr who has a really long mane.  If you're looking to untangle and remove burrs baby oil works great, it seems to take the stickiness out of the burrs. Today I had to untwist his mane a little as he was getting fairy stirrups.  That's when the fairy's tie the mane together for stirrups when they ride.  I spent lots of time working on rubbing his head on both sides and with two hands and then slipping the rope over his nose and off his nose with his nose on the ground.  Giving him lots of endorphins while preparing him for the feeling of a rope (halter) coming up over his nose without turning his head away and putting me in front of him. Even though I had haltered him before (see Happy Burr's Day) he's had 3 years practice at not being haltered so it will take a lot of repetition.

Blue let me catch and halter him pretty good, he stood his ground but tried really hard to hide his nose.  I worked him on come forward to release the feel on the halter.  I'd have to send him from behind then he'd go forward about 30 feet, then I would walk up and pet him and then put a little feel on his head and try again.  He started out leaving with a yee haw tail but eventually figured out he only needed to come forward a step or two then wait for his rub.