Goodwin Hunter is a rescue I picked up a few years ago. It was right after I moved back to Central Oregon and I was at a garage sale just down the road from my new place. Across the street was a round corral with 2 grey mares and a chestnut gelding with a "FREE" sign on the fence. The mares looked pretty healthy and happy. The gelding, on the other hand, had the saddest look on his face... and I just couldn't leave him there. I went home and got my trailer.
Goodwin the day I picked him up. He was very thin...
Look at the sad, sad expression on his face...
The 2 mares that were with him. Obviously they weren't suffering in the food department...
Goodwin hadn't even been halter broke when I picked him up. The former owner told me he would run him into a squeeze shute to do shots, trim feet, etc. Ugh. Poor horse. I went in the stall and got no resistance to the halter. He was wary about me fussing around his ears, but he did pretty well. I had backed my trailer up to the stall door and when Goodwin got a look at the alfalfa in the manger of the trailer he jumped right in.
For the next 2 years, I let him stuff his face and just worked with him from the ground. He's very respectful and ponies like a dream. I was ready to ride... except I had to get a full hysterectomy instead. That set me back quite a ways and due to the fact that I had my ab muscles sliced in half I all of a sudden became a giant wimp. The thought of getting on my green horse TERRIFIED me. Seriously. I could barely ride my steady-eddy horse so Goodwin's under saddle training was put on hold.
Learning all about puddles (notice how unamused Flash is)...
As I built my core back up and stuck a few hard spooks from Flash, I knew it was time to get on my Green Bean. We worked on standing still while I went through the motions of mounting (but without actually getting on). He was solid. Mostly he was concerned about getting his cookie after standing perfectly still.
"Cookie?"
Then it was time. I swung up and... nothing. He just turned around to look for his cookie. And then he decided to walk off and check things out. We went down the driveway, around the round pen and just checked out whatever he wanted to. It was a very non-event. I hopped off and called it a day.
The next time I went to get on, again it was a non-event. I gave him his cookie and then tried to get him to move off. No go. He would swing his butt around in a circle but the front end wasn't moving. And he wasn't walking off on his own. ARG! I decided to wait until Richard got home and then employed him as the pony wrangler. He was a good sport and we did several laps in the round pen. I tried to connect the leg cue to the verbal cue, which ended up with us doing several panicky laps around Richard... but then he settled down and started to get it.
Richard acting as Pony Wrangler...
For the 4th ride, I decided to trailer him to my buddy Karen's place and use her round pen (since mine was a muddy mess and hers is nice, deep sand). I was just in the process of mounting when, all of a sudden, Goodwin spun away from me as I was in the process of swinging my leg over. I was almost able to get into the saddle and ride it out. Unfortunately, I just couldn't quite do it and ended up back on my feet with too much momentum and then landed on my butt, hard. My poor tailbone took the brunt of the fall because I still had my hands on the reins. Ugh.
At the time it happened, I didn't think much of it. Now 2 weeks later, I'm still in pain with a massively bruised tailbone. It's cut into my training time with Flash (we're getting legged up for our first LD at Grizzly) and I'm frustrated that my body just doesn't take the falls like it used to. Oh the joys of being in the over-40 age bracket. :P
So: now time to break it all down.
What I did right: I've taken my time with Goodwin and have instilled impeccable ground manners in him. He stands still for being mounted, and in general is pretty good about accepting new things... if I go slow. I haven't rushed him and he's quick to give me the green light when he's ready for something new.
What I did wrong: I should have had a much tighter hold on Goodwin while attempting to mount. He was on a loose rein and that allowed him to spin away from me as I was mounting. It's a simple mistake, but ended up costing me. It's been a while since I've started a horse from scratch and I need to pay a little more attention to details.
The plan moving forward: I'll be using Richard as Pony Wrangler for a few more times to make sure we've got everything under control. Then it's time to move to the trail and have someone pony us on the trail for the first time or 2. It's a slow plan, yes... but I'm in no rush. I have a riding horse and I can afford to take all the time I want with this guy.
As we build our bond, I can't wait to see what kind of horse he turns out to be. My inkling is that once he knows his job, he'll be all for getting down to business :)
