Stella Day 6

Stella is doing awesome! I love my little filly!

So, the morning started off with more than a small dose of frustration. Not with Stella. With the stable owner. As I wrote last night, when I was there last evening the water in the paddock Stella was going to move into was both inaccessible to her and covered by algae and thick with slime. So I put Stella back in the paddock she has been staying in since arrival since the owner told me to just put her in the new place anyway and the water would get cleaned out later. Nope, I wasn't leaving my horse in a new place with no water. The last thing I wanted was for her first experience in a new stall to be negative. I would move her in the morning if the water trough had been cleaned.

Well, this morning I got to the stable and Stella wasn't where I had left her. Her paddock was empty. But the doors were closed. So I went up to the place I was supposed to move her up to this morning and she was already there. She also had a new raw and bare patch on her nose, and a cut on her front right foot just above her hoof. Her water was relatively clean, although the trough still had green slime around the rim and the inner seal. Went to talk to the owner about it, and she had no idea how Stella managed to hurt herself, since apparently Stella was an angel for the walk up to the new place (for which she didn't even use Stella's own halter and lead rope, which are both in my assigned container in the tack room). I'm sure that there was just a misunderstanding and the owner must have thought I forgot where she told me to put Stella. And Stella is an awesome horse, so of course she led fine. But still, Stella is a young mustang who has only had positive - or any, really - interactions with people since Thursday afternoon. I am a bit upset about someone who hadn't even seen my horse until yesterday, and who I never introduced to Stella, using her own tack to halter and move my horse without even asking me if  it was ok or if I minded. A good many mustangs would not be trustworthy for a stranger to pick up and lead around at this early point in their training.

I believe that Stella walked well even with a stranger because she is a truly amazing filly, but I am frustrated that she picked up two mystery injuries between the time I left her last night and when I got there this morning, when she hadn't hurt herself at all before that since I have had her. And the owner is a nice, no-nonsense woman who teaches lessons with many of the clients and horses at the stable, so I am sure she knows what she is doing.

Oh well, Stella is none the worse for it as far as I can tell, except for a few scrapes and balking going into this new paddock. Whether that means the first introduction was stressful of not, I'm not sure. I had led her up there twice before, and she never balked going in before. She was also not eager to get out of that space before, and today she wanted to get out the gate before I could even get her halter on both in the morning and in the evening. Maybe she just doesn't like the gravel in the outdoor section of her area. And she is much closer to the other horses than she has been before, and they are all older than her by at least a year.

GAH! OK, rant over. I'm just a bit possessive and defensive of my new horse. I have known of too many good horses that got screwed up by stable owners or trainers who thought they knew more than the horse's owner about how to handle their horse so did whatever they wanted with the horse without consulting or following the wishes of the owner.

No, there is not a missing rail in the fence behind Stella. I know it looks like it. There are some new boards in the fence, so they are not weathered and dark yet.

Today we went again to the outdoor arena. I led Stella around the arena for a few laps, then I decided it was time to let her play. She is such a smart, affectionate little filly that I was pretty sure I would be able to catch her again if I let her off lead.

So, I unclipped her lead rope and walked away. Stella followed me. I changed directions. Stella followed me. I sped up. Stella followed me. We ended up going all the way across the arena and back, wandering around the whole place, with her right by me the whole way. When we got back to a shady spot I could sit and watch from inside the arena, I sat down and gently shooed Stella away. Now, the shooing didn't do a thing, but she did look out at the arena and I could see her thinking about it. Then she walked into the middle of the arena and looked about.

Then Stella exploded.

She ran, she bounced, she ran more. Stella ran from end to end of the arena and back again over and over. Each time she went to the end nearest the other horses she would whinny once (they never answered). Seeing her in full stride, Stella is beautiful. I mean, she has been absolutely adorable and I have loved her from the moment I first saw her. But this was different. Today I saw a glimpse of the mare Stella is going to be when she grows up. And she is beautiful.

No, I didn't get any pictures. I was too distracted being awed by the magnificence of my horse to remember to use my camera. I promise to do better about getting pictures of Stella in full stride next time.

In the evening Mom took a turn leading Stella around the arena, then back to her paddock. Stella was perfectly behaved the whole time, except for a minor balk at her stall door going back in, but that was quickly overcome when she was reminded that her stall was where her hay was. Then she walked right in. This little filly is highly food motivated.

Stella and Mom (and a little it of me)

Once inside Raven took a turn brushing and grooming Stella. It makes me happy that both my Mom and my husband come out to share this filly with me. Stella is our filly, not just mine. And that is an extremely pleasing thought. I think Stella might even like it a little better when Raven uses the knobby currier on her than when I do. Raven can apply more pressure, and this little filly greatly loves her scratches and rubs. It is the rare spot on her that doesn't get her to get her lips working if scratched vigorously.

Stella Day 5

My little filly Stella continues to make good progress. I have decided that for now all I really need her to do is lead, let me touch her all over, let me pick up and work on her feet, and follow basic commands to do things like go, stop, back up, and such. With that in mind, the days for the near future will consist of repetition and work on these areas of her behavior.

Today went well, with one exception. In the evening I tried to lead Stella into the round pen and she adamantly refused. I didn't really need her to go in there, but she isn't allowed to say no when I tell her to do something. So, we pushed and pulled at each other for several minutes before she finally caved in and walked in with me. I walked her to the other side of the pen, turned around, and we walked back out again. For all her refusing to go into the pen, she waled back out of it like a pro. Stella has no issues going through doors or gates a polite and calm pace.

"What are you holding? Can I see it? Can I play with it?"

Both morning and evening we took several turns around the stable, wandering over to look at the indoor arena, the manure pile, and all the other horses. We went up to have a look at what is going to be her new stall. It is a space of basically equal size to where she is now, but it has a covered and somewhat enclosed area with a rubber matted floor, as well as an outdoor space. I actually don't like the new space as well as the old one, but it will be nicer for her in the winter when the rain and snow arrives. Where she is now only has trees above it, and while they are great for shade in the summer when they have all their leaves, in the winter bare trees don't do much for rain and snow.

I also worry that she will develop similar issues to this stall as she did to the round pen. They both have gravel as their base, whereas the area she is in now is dirt. I don't think she will have a balking issue, since the gate to the new stall leads into the covered and rubber floored area (and the food), but I will keep an eye on how much she is going outside and hanging out in the outdoor section. That is also where her water is, so I need to know she is comfortable with the footing and drinking well.

The water is the main reason she did not move up to this new space today. All the stables in Pocatello seem to use automatic watering systems, which I am no a fan of, but in this town there is no other choice apparently. The horse who had been in this stall apparently was bent on destroying the automatic waterer, so there is a low panel of fencing between the waterer and the horse space. This was fine for a large gelding, but my little filly is too short to get her head over the fence panel to drink. Also, the water was disgusting. The previous tenant moved out last week, and since the water in the automatic system is always full, it had time to get a top to bottom coating of algae and scum. The stable owner told me to just go ahead and move Stella up there and she would clean the water when she got back later tonight. There is no way I am going to put my horse into a space where she doesn't have access to good clean water. I know she plays in it and has dumped her water out several times so she has been without water until we came to refill it in the morning or evening (depending on when the dumped it and when someone was next there to notice) but at least that was her own fault.

notice the wet ground? That water used to be in her water bucket to drink, but Stella decided she liked it better outside the bucket to make mud.

If the water is cleaned out in the morning I will move Stella up to her new space. If she doesn't like the footing on the outside section up there, I will see if there are other stalls or spaces she can be that have dirt flooring rather than gravel. For now, I think she will be ok. She didn't seem to notice the ground at all when she has been up in that space so far, so maybe it won't be an issue.

Mom and Raven both took turns leading Stella today, and she went with both of them just fine. Which is awesome! I have been her primary person to interact with, so we are also going to work on having her work with and take commands from other people. So far, there seems to be no fall-off in her behavior for others. Her respect elves may be lower for Raven, as she tended to crowd him a bit, and we will need to work on that, but she did everything he told her to just fine.

I love this little filly!

Stella Day 4

Today was amazing! I am so proud of my little filly!

This morning I took Stella into the round pen and we worked on leading. I'm working on getting her to give me a bit of distance and lead off to my side rather than behind me. She will lead fairly well with me in front of her a ways, but I don't much like that style of leading. I want to have my horse beside me, not behind me. She does tend to stop if she thinks I'm too far ahead. Then I go back to her and pet a little then cluck her up and off we go again.

I didn't do much more than lead with her in the morning, trying to get her to lead more reliably and not stop so often. When we headed back to the paddock she sent just fine with only a little hesitation at the gate. Once back in her paddock I spent a good amount of time petting and loving on her. I am hopeful that if her experience when she comes back in the paddock are positive and she doesn't feel like I'm just leading her back in and abandoning her.

Stella is fairly food motivated. That has become apparent over the past few days. She also loves to be pet and have physical contact. From what I have read online this is not normal behavior for a mustang, but she is happiest when she is munching on her hay and I am petting her or laying over her back.

This evening I decided that I would give her a new challenge. She doesn't really like the round pen. Stella doesn't understand why I want her to go around in circles inside there. Mom suggested that maybe she would do better if she was going in a straight line. So I decided to try leading her in the outdoor arena. It is just past the round pen, but farther than she has ever been before.

Stella was alert, and I gave her time to take in the new view as we headed to the arena. Mom had the ate open for us, and Stella had no trouble at all going in. Fortunately I'd had Raven give me my gloves before I took Stella in the arena, anticipating that the added space would make her a bit frisky.

At first Stella was content to lead right at my shoulder, looking around at this new space. We walked slowly and stopped whenever she wanted to investigate something. We were almost 3/4 of the way around the arena when Stella decided to see if maybe she could get away from me. She bounced around and tried darting from one end of her lead rope to the other. She tried circling wide around me, then coming in close past me (although not too close, actually. She was at a fairly respectful distance considering that her goal seemed to be to get me to drop the lead rope). I didn't try to hold her still, but just to keep ahold of the lead rope. We went across the width of the arena with her bouncing about. Only once did she get bad enough to have me really scold her and yell at her for being naughty.

Soon after that scolding she settled down and wanted pet and reassured that I wasn't mad at her. I wasn't. After all, she is a mustang who is used to having space to run, and she has been in either her paddock or the round pen for the past several days. Plus she is on good hay now, so she is feeling good. Once I am sure she will come to me in the arena I will turn her out in there to bounce around and roll in the dirt. I'm sure she's jealous of the other horses who get to turn out in there and play around already.

Not that I think it will take too long for her to get there. She already comes up to me when I come into her paddock and stands stock still so I can put her halter on. She also has "Ho!" down and responded well to it today on a repeated basis, which is the command I use on her to say "stop" or "halt."

After we made several more circuits of the arena, going from corner to corner, or wandering around the middle, I decided to see just how far I could lead Stella. We headed out of the arena and I found a patch of dry grass for her to munch, since she seems to appreciate a food reward. Then I took her on a circuit around the barn and paddocks. There is a loop that goes around the property, so we didn't have to double back at all. She called once to the new horses in this section of the stable, and even got one to call back to her. This pleased her, since Stella has been trying to talk to her nearest neighbors since she arrived, but she only had one of them respond to her, and then only once.

She was perfectly behaved the whole walk, staying at a respectful distance at my should the whole way. She only startled a bit once when we came to the other side of the barn and the horses ran up to their fences to see her. By startle, I mean she took a few nervous steps. Stella really isn't the spooky sort. I thought she might try to pull and go say hi to the new horses, but she showed no interest in them after that first called greeting, staying right by my side and not even hesitating as we walked past the other horses. The fact she is so well behaved after 4 days of human contact and interaction is astounding.

I decided that was quite enough excitement for Stella for one day, so I found another patch of grass she could munch as a reward for being good, then I took her into the round pen for a little off-lead time before I took her back to her paddock. She was only interested in finding more things to eat, so Mom went and got Stella some hay and we headed into the paddock. Stella once again balked at the gate to the paddock, but once Mom showed Stella that there was hay in her feed tub, Stella came right in.

One of the barn cats has befriended Stella, coming down to hang out in or near her paddock. Stella follows the cat around when she is in the paddock. The cat seems to enjoy hanging out with my filly.

I rubbed Stella down with a knobby groomer, then brushed her, then Mom held her head and I picked up all four feet, picking out both front feet. Interestingly both front feet have always been packed with dirt and rocks, but both back feet were clean and didn't need picked. Finally I combed out her mane and tail. Once her tail was completely combed it looked much fuller and more like an adult tail than a baby's brush. It looks like her grown-up tail hair is going to be wavy.

All in all she had an awesome day and was exceptionally well behaved. She is making progress at a far faster rate than seems normal for a regular yearling, let alone a Mustang, from what I have been able to find reading about handling a mustang yearling online. She is going to be - already is - a stellar mare.

Stella Day 3

Today started pretty great. Stella walked just fine with me from her paddock to the round pen. We walked around, then walked faster. We changed directions, made little circles, made figure 8s, and generally played about.

She followed me back out of the round pen and into her paddock like a pro. Back in the paddock I refilled her water trough since she had managed once again to empty it and make the surrounding ground a muddy mess. I held the hose up out of the water to see what she would do about the sound and the running water. What she did was give it the briefest glance as she stuck her head down to drink, then ignored it completely. She did manage to get her head under the hose, so it was then going over her neck. This only made her give me a slightly irritated look as I pulled up more length in the hose and slid it over her head. No startling, no jumping about, not even any head jerking with this strange thing rubbing over her neck and ears and head.
All in all, Still had a great morning.

The evening session did not go quite as well. Stella balked just a bit at the gate into the round pen, but I figured it was because there was something new in there and she needed a moment to size things up. On the way home from the morning session I had got Stella a Jolly Ball to play with in the round pen.  I had also brought a towel to get her used to having something flapped around, draped over her, rubbed on her, and such things.

Once in the round pen Stella needed approximately ten seconds to size up the Jolly Ball, approach it, and decide it was something to be pawed at and kicked around. She didn't get really playful with it, but she did spend a few minutes pawing at it and nosing it around the round pen.

 After Stella had played with her ball for a while she lost interest and came over to me. We proceeded to play a game of Come to Me (I don't actually know if the game has a name, I just made that up), where I she comes up to me, I scratch and love on her for a second or two, then I run off and she comes to me to get scratched and loved on again. She really, really likes getting scratched. Wherever, shoulders, butt, neck, back. Just scratch and she will be happy.

She is pretty good at coming up to me wherever I am in the pen unless she gets distracted by something outside, and even then it just distracts her for a moment then she returns her attention to me.

After a few minutes of this her attention turned to the towel on the fence, so I watched her explore it for a bit. She sniffed it all over and nosed at it, even sticking her head under it to sniff about.

Since she didn't spook at it, I decided to try touching her with it. Oh boy, she discovered yet another thing that could pet her! She let me rub that towel all over her, her back, her belly, her legs, her butt. She didn't care, but she did make her happy face with her lip going that it was petting her. Well, that went so well I put it over her back like a saddle blanket to see what she would do. What Stella did was act slightly unsure while I put it on, then turn and nose at it in a bit of confusion over why it was now just sitting on her and not petting her anymore.

When I ran to the other side of the round pen and called her, Stella looked at me for a second, then seemed to give a sort of equine shrug of "whatever, ok" and calmly walked over to me with the towel over her back. She didn't try to shake it off or pull it off even once.

I had Mom come in to hold Stella's head so I could pick her feet. I only did her front feet this time around. She wasn't too sure about me actually working on her feet rather than just holding them up for a second or two, but Mom held her steady and Stella didn't object very much to me picking out the largest of the rocks from her hooves.

That was an awful lot of work for one little filly on only her third day of being with people. We played a bit more Come to Me and kicked the Jolly Ball around a bit, then it was time to go back to her paddock.

She hooked up on her lead rope and followed me around for a few laps of the round pen, then out the gate just fine. When we got to the gate to her paddock, she balked. Feet planted firmly, she was not coming into that space. I backed her up and we took a few tight turns, then tried again. This time she reluctantly went through, but when I turned her around to be able to close the gate she refused to stop and just kept walking and went right back out of the paddock again.

That's when she really started to refuse. She refused to go into the paddock, and she refused to go back into the round pen. She wanted to go see the horses in the next pasture and was rather pissed that I wouldn't let her go over and say hi. We went quite a few rounds in tight circles outside her paddock gate and had a little pulling match before she finally decided to follow me into the paddock. Once inside I pet and scratched on her and let her know that coming into the paddock with me was what I had wanted her to do.

Every night after I take off her halter I hang out with her in the paddock for a few minutes, so she doesn't feel like getting put away means that she is immediately going to be abandoned. And absolutely nothing negative has happened to her in the paddock, I leave any new experiences that might pressure her to the round pen, so that it is a place she associates with playing and learning.

At this point I think she has done an awesome job learning the basics, and I think that I am well established as her best friend. In the coming days we need to reinforce the good behaviors that she has learned, and I need to get a bit more respect from her. It is great to be her best friend, but I also need to be her leader.

Stella's First Day's Progress

Today was Stella's first full day at home, and she is going to be a great horse. She is curious and intelligent and eager to please. She cleans up really nice, too!

and yes, she had plenty of hay in a perfectly nice hay tub, but the little bits scattered around the ground were apparently tastier.

I hadn't brushed her mane yet when I took this headshot, but look at that sweet face!

We had left Stella in the round pen over night, but I was hopeful that we could get her to lead over to a space across from the round pen that is a sort of outdoor paddock that is shaded all day by trees. Well, within an hour of working with her this morning I had brushed her all over and loved on her, then we set about learning to lead around the round pen.

I brought along a halter and lead rope that used to belong to my sweet Thoroughbred filly V when she was a baby. It fit Stella much better than the rope halter I tried on her yesterday.

Stella was rather resistant at first, and we just went around in tight circles as I leaned into her enough to get her feet to move. I had tried leading her forward, and she was having none of it. She planted her feet and refused to move. She didn't fight or try to back away, but she wasn't going forward either. After just a few circles of me leaning into her, she got easier to move. After a few more circles in the other direction, she took a few steps forward.

Once Stella got praised for her forward movement, she got leading figured out pretty quickly. The fact that her reward for success was hay waiting for her after each circuit or two seemed to encourage her greatly.

After Stella was relatively comfortable leading we decided to try to cross from the round pen to the paddock, since it was getting late into the morning and was heating up quickly. Mom used a spare fence panel as a barrier so Stella couldn't get out of our little area, and we opened both the paddock and the round pen doors.

Stella was unsure about being led out of the round pen, and we took a few more circuits leading around the pen, trying the door each time. On the third try, after thoroughly examining the doorway, Stella calmly walked through and into the larger yard.

Stella got a little dancy between the round pen and the paddock, and did not want to get close enough to mom and the spare fence panel to go into the gate we had opened in the paddock. Fortunately, there are two gates into the paddock and she wasn't dancing around so much that I couldn't hold her lead with one hand and open the gate with the other. Once the gate was open Stella followed me into the paddock with no hesitation. We closed the gates and I took off her halter to let her explore her new space.

We soon discovered that Stella likes water. Her water bucket (a low, wide, really hard to tip over sort) was empty when we got to the stable this morning, and I thought that maybe she had gotten bouncy overnight and tipped it somehow. I was wrong. Once Stella found the tub of water in her new space, she quickly began pawing and splashing in it. When she went around the paddock at a walk, exploring her space, she seemed to quite intentionally and purposefully splash down into that tub and went on as if nothing had happened. Oh well, we left her to play in her water and munch hay and settle into her new space.

We went back in the evening as the temperatures dropped a bit and worked with Stella for another hour or so. This time both mom and Raven came with me. Stella doesn't really seem to care who is coming to say hello outside her fence, she will stick her nose out to greet everyone.

This time I decided to see how far she would let me go in playing with her. The answer was really far! I pet Stella all over and never found anywhere from her ears to her tail that she even twitched about being touched. She let me drape myself over her back and scratch on both sides of her at once. She let me comb her mane and forelock, and even her tail.

Then I decided to really push my luck and try picking up her feet. With just a little jerking of her legs, Stella let me pick up both of her front feet and tap all over them with the hoof pick. She jerked her back feet a bit more, and I had to take a rather severe tone with her before she would stop (fairly gently) kicking a bit with her back right leg and let me hold her foot up. But in the end she let me pick up all four feet, and this was just her first day!

She also led up and down the paddock without issue, and even backed up for me repeatedly and for at least five steps each time.

All in all today was an outstanding success! Stella is going to be a wonderful mare and riding partner. She is an astoundingly willing and intelligent little filly.

Stella is Home!

After a great number of trials and tribulations, including canceled drivers, cancelled stables, hard to find rental stock trailers, and apparently impossible to find rental trucks that will let you tow and aren't moving trucks, My filly Stella is home! Her transport came in the form of a wonderful woman from a Facebook group that I joined to find local fellow horse lovers. She had a trailer and was willing to haul for me, hooray! (I'm not naming names because I forgot to ask her permission).

So, we made it down to Burns, OR Wednesday night with only one major headache along the way and stayed in a hotel so we could pick up Stella (4590) early the next morning around 7am. She's so little and perfect!

I opted to leave her tag on and not put a halter on her. She is just a baby, and I didn't think that I would have much trouble getting ahold of her. Besides, having a lead on her didn't mean that she would walk with me anyway, so why bother yet.

It was a long drive, made a bit longer because we took a few breaks (at our driver's recommendation, and a good idea) to let Stella rest in a stationary trailer, rather than having to be on the road and moving the whole time.

We got to the stable just before 5pm and got Stella unloaded into the round pen without an issue. After convincing her that the low bucket with water was not scary but in fact a good thing, and letting her eat and drink for about an hour, I finally went into the round pen with her.

This is not to say that I had not been just outside the round pen from the time we took her off the trailer. I had at first kept a respectful distance so she could have her space, but then I decided to see how close I could get without her being uncomfortable. The answer was that I could lean on the fence just above her hay and she didn't much care, and in fact initiated contact and interaction, sniffing and nosing at me. I responded by petting her nose, about which she didn't care, then her forehead, which took her approximately three strokes to get used to.

Once I was in the round pen with Stella I briefly attempted to work her, but we were both tired and she was already responsive to me, so we only went around the pen at a slow trot a few times before giving up and closing the distance.

With only a few sidesteps from her, we were soon to the point where she let me pet her head and neck, and scratch her shoulders and withers. Within two hours from unloading (so about one hour in the round pen with her) she let me untie (not cut, UNTIE!) her tag:

After that success, I decided to try putting on her halter and lead rope. This also went well, with her standing quite nicely while I fumbled about getting her halter tied properly (I bought a new rope halter just for her. It's too big, so tomorrow I will use one I have from horses past.). She wasn't really into the whole leading idea, but I did get a few steps out of her before she spooked when a fellow boarder turned his gelding out to play in the arena right beside the round pen. When Stella stopped trotting about (that was as active as she was in her "spook") she let me get the lead rope back and take her halter off. Then, since she was still standing there with me, I tried putting it back on. She let me do this three more times with no objections.

At that point I called it a night so we both could rest. I will be back out bright and early tomorrow morning to play with her again. Maybe tomorrow we can get her started on leading!