Chance's Get-A-Way

I had already decided that Sunday was going to be a horse day. I haven't had time to do much with Chance due to weather and other circumstances, so I wanted to start with her to make sure she got some training done before the rain moved in. I decided I was going to bring her down to my "groom" area at the house like I do with my other horses. This would be the first time I have groomed her in this area. I usually tie her in her shed and groom her there. But it was time to move her up to the next step in being a "big" horse. My OH was home and was going to be my helper for a couple hours. I have had her down at the house a couple times before, but never to tie and groom her.

She was a little nervous, and of course two of our neighbors decided to start up their lawn mowers at the same time that I tied Chance up. Great. But I know she needs to get used to all the different sounds and commotion that can happen around here. She moved around a lot at first, but settled down pretty quickly. I was actually quite impressed with how she handled it.



I then took her to the round pen for another lunging lesson. I hadn't lunged her in a few weeks. I sent her off and at first she wasn't quite sure what I wanted, but within a few seconds she remembered what this was all about and went off on the lunge line. She did really well. I would have to say that this would be her best lunging lesson. After we finished lunging, I brought out the clippers for some more desensitization. She is having a little more trouble with this than I thought she would. She did well the first time I clipped her, then the couple times after that, she has not wanted much to do with the clippers. I will have to continue these lessons every time I have her out.

I wanted to take her for a walk around the property again. She did so well last time, and the more I get her out and about is a good thing. We headed off in a different direction. We had to blaze our way through some stickers and brush, she plowed right through. She isn't bothered by anything hitting her legs and doesn't spook about anything. She always has her head up and just looks around.

We get to the back of our property and I totally spaced out that there are horses back there. Chance hasn't seen other horses since she has been here, except for the other 3 that live here.



The horses see us and get all excited. Of course Chance see's them and gets in a huff.



I just knew that the neighbors horses would run down to the fence. I was prepared for some excitement. And excitement is what we got. The Paint on the right is almost 30 yrs old. I would never have guessed that is how old he was if it wasn't for our neighbors telling us.



I decided to just let Chance stand there and take it all in. The other horses were leaning over the fence and then they decided to take off running and bucking. Oh goodness.



As I was leading the excited, little Mustang away, I just knew that we were going to have a problem. I made a stupid mistake. I should have just stayed where I was and let Chance calm down. Instead I tried walking down the trail and Chance decided she had other plans and took off running. There was no way I was going to hold on to the lead rope. I tried. But my 100 lbs can't take on 500-600 lbs. She was gone. Running wild and free. Lovely.



I was yelling at my OH and running down in the direction that I saw Chance go. I saw Chance running down by the arena and past her pasture. I yelled at my OH to take the far trail on the other side of the property. Chance had made it down to my sister's horse's pasture. I stopped and my OH cut through another trail that hooks up to where I was. I then see my sister. I knew she was coming up today, but I didn't realize she was at my house yet. She ran down to the lower end of her boy's pasture to head off Chance if she chose to run in that direction. She started heading back in my direction, galloping right at me. I threw my arms up high in the air and ran towards her. She stopped and spun around to head down the trail that my OH was blocking. She stopped at him and spun back around and ran down the trail towards my sister, who was holding a big stick across the trail. Chance just stopped and started eating grass. My sister was able to grab the end of her lead rope. Thank goodness! I knew she wouldn't go far from the other horses. But I still freak out about that kind of thing. I also knew that she would eventually let us catch her. She might be a Mustang, but she is not wild by any means. Once I caught her we continued on our walk through the property like nothing happened.



Like I've said before, Chance is not a spooky horse. I can tell she totally trusts me and she will go anywhere that I go. I know I have mentioned that I walked her across our bridge before, but my OH forgot the camera the last time so I didn't have any pictures.



I took her to the bridge and unlike last time where it took 5-10 minutes to get her to go across it, this time she handled the bridge like an old pro.



She walked right up, hesitated for maybe a second and walked across! No. Big. Deal.



We ended up going back and forth a couple times. Apparently my OH wasn't ready with the camera, so we had to start over. Men!



Even with the stream rushing below us, she doesn't have a care in the world. And no, I am not sleeping here!



Even though we had an eventful half hour or so, the rest of the training session went very well. I even got to ride Brandy, and I will post about that later this week!