Recently I've been getting this look from Huck quite a bit. The skeptical one that says, "NOW what are you doing??" The guy isn't sure what to make of me and my strange human ways. He's settled down in his paddock some, not pacing the fenceline as much now as when he first arrived. I often find that horses are nervous when they initially get here because they don't know what to expect. Eventually when they realize there is a dependable routine they settle in well and Huck had been one of these horses.
He's had some new-to-him experiences over the last week, and I feel grateful that he trusts me enough to let me do all these things to him! I've shortened his mane to show-pony length, trimmed his fetlocks and bridlepath, as well as trimming the ear do-dads which tend to stick out past the edges of ears. He's mostly in his summer coat now, with just a little more shedding to do. He's had a visit with the vet for sedation and a dental, and we've made several more trips to the round pen for training sessions.
Huck seems to like the attention and grooming, and naturally he enjoys the cookies, but the training sessions have given him pause. I'm still in the process of determining what he knows, and it's been a little hit or miss. He seems fine with the saddle pad, surcingle, and girth. He seems to understand how to lunge and balance himself on a circle. He appears to have steering when reins are attached to his halter.
The things that he insists are new to him are leather saddles, anything flapping on his sides, ropes around or near his legs, and long-lining is definitely new. In one of our sessions I took him to the round pen, tacked him up in the pad, surcingle and girth, and lunged him both ways. He's adjusted to that routine just fine. I wanted to see if he understood steering and rein pressure, so I set him up with long lines. When I'm starting a horse under saddle I always do some ground driving before I get on so I know that I have brakes and steering before climbing aboard. I understand that not everyone does this before riding, and it's definitely more uncommon in the western riding world Huck likely came from with his Quarter horse breeding and two brands. Huck informed me that he DEFINITELY had not been ground-driven before, and he has no intentions of being a carriage horse in the future.
Once I had set up the long lines, I discovered that he was anxious but not overly concerned with the rope touching his haunches and back legs if the rope was on his right side. The line touching him on his left side, however, was cause for great alarm. He very quickly went from thoughtful and interested to upset in fight/flight mode. His go-to escape plan was to bolt, spin, kick, or perform some combination of these maneuvers.
Once I determined that he was freaking out about the rope on one side of his body but not the other, I was able to chunk the process down into smaller pieces so that it made sense to him. I arranged the long lines in a way that allowed him to feel like he was still lunging normally, the only new thing was a rope trailing behind him on his left side. It took a few minutes for him to settle with that, but we had lots of breaks and took our time with pats and praise so it didn't seem so scary.
Next I picked up the line on the far side, so he felt the rope along his hamstrings. We repeated the gentle lunging in a large circle with lots of breaks and praise until he wasn't afraid of the line anymore. Once he was calm about it he did show me that he has opinions by kicking at the line. Eventually I was able to get him ground driving in a thoughtful manner. He was walking, trottting, stopping, and turning without kicking, spinning, or bolting. I stopped on a positive note and removed all his equipment, then gave him a minute to roll in the sand if he chose to. He followed me around instead, then went to the gate to look at his horse friends in the nearby paddocks. Then he began pacing that side of the round pen, which demonstrates that his pacing is a self-soothing mechanism he reverts to when stressed.
I took Huck back to the barn, groomed him again, and put him away in his paddock with his water and hay. He seemed to have calmed down, he rested the rest of the day even lying down and taking a nap while I worked other horses.
We have some more work to do with the ground driving, as well as saddling and getting used to having things bump him on his sides. I want to make sure he's confident and calm with anything I might do before I introduce the weight of a rider. He may have been ridden before, he may have even been a roping horse. With how comfortable he was having the line on his right side, it's likely whoever may have roped off him was right handed. Huck needs a little more time with me and some more confidence building training sessions before I climb on, but so far he's given me good information about what he is comfortable with and what he is not. All I can ask is the the horse is honest with me and trying, both of which Huck is doing just fine.
