Day 4 and Crockett finally had his hooves done.  I say finally because he was ready last night.  Kirk wasn’t.  He had another committment so Crockett had to wait until tonight.

I posted video and photos on facebook.  For some reason I still cannot get videos or photos to upload.  I’ll keep working on it.  I upgraded my software but even that didn’t help.

Crockett continues to surprise.

Today he took to trying to kick the living daylights out of anyone who entered HIS stall. 

The holding pen environment is stressful.  Food becomes a reason for controversy.  Crockett is not an alpha.  He is a young horse with sensible manners and food is a reason to put up your guard.

We worked past that the first day but other humans in Crockett’s book aren’t aware of our alliance.

I got the phone call today that Crockett had somehow managed to pull the dog fence down from his pen.  We installed that so the little dogs could not enter his pen and potentially be kicked.

He unraveled the fence without putting a scratch on himself and proceeded to try and kick anyone who tried to enter his domain.

Sure enough…when I got home I was greeted by Crockett’s butt.  He’s pretty quick!  A pop to the rump with the halter rope and he figured out that I still meant business.

He mellowed right out and I put the halter on him and as a reward for his change of heart I let him out of the stall to run in the arena. 

He worked out a lot of his frustrations ripping around the arena, took a good dirt bath, tried to eat the farrier equipment, messed up all of the lunge lines hanging on the wall, jumped a jump, chased a cat, and oh….about a 100 other activities and when he was done ran up to me to see what adventure we would have next. 

Pretty cool!  Four days out of the holding pen and my horse wants to play!

He continues to amaze me.  Genuinely the most inquisitive and sensible mustang I’ve ever worked.

After his romp I led him out to the alley and Kirk proceeded to trim his hooves.  Crockett stood with the rope draped over his back.

Mustangs amaze us.

We work with dozens of horses during the week.  These mustangs come from the wild and are processed through the capture and holding pens.  They have every reason to dislike us.  But when they learn to trust, they trust completely and they often behave better right out of the box than horses that are trained.

That leads me to believe that people are the ones who screw up horses.  Badger them enough and they’ll start to give it right back to you.

I haven’t gained control over Crockett’s shoulders, rear, feet, head or neck according to some training methods, yet he moves his body left or right, backward or forward and balances himself perfectly when I ask.  He even finds time to scratch his head on me and look me straight in the eye as if to say, I’m glad you got to know me.  He’s a real love.

We’ve developed a ritual already in our short time together.  He walks up to me and resting his head on my shoulder, asks politely to be scratched on both cheeks.  He obviously missed this grooming ritual during his days in the holding pen.  I’m glad I’m the priviledged one he lets in to take part in this special bonding process.

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