A Visit With My Sister... Part 2

On Saturday my sister and I went on a short trail ride. Again, Chance got upset when I took Brandy away, but she didn't slam into the panels. She just whinnied and spun around a bit. While I was over at the hitching rail waiting for my sister, I watched Chance closely. She calmed down a lot quicker then she did the day before. I was happy with that. We had a great ride and by the time we got back, it was close to 95 degrees. We wanted to spend some time at the pool, so we went and changed into our swimsuits. We hung out at the pool until late afternoon. We also had dinner while we were waiting for the sun to go down and for it to cool down. We were going on another trail ride, this time with my sisters Ranch Boy and his daughter and her cousin. We got the horses ready and headed out. Chance was a little upset, but not anymore upset then she was when we left her for the morning ride. We did a short ride, but it was another successful ride. 

A good ride.

When we rode back into the ranch, I stopped at the hitching rail (which is a little distance away from where Chance was corralled, but within sight) and Brandy whinnied. Oh boy. Did that ever start a riot. Chance started freaking out and was spinning in her corral. I could tell from where I was that she was really worked up. I led Brandy back over to my horse trailer which was parked right by the corrals my horses were in. I thought Chance would relax when Brandy was within sight. But nope. She was all worked up. She was actually sweating. I don't know how long she had been pacing and spinning in her corral. And she wasn't calming down. I hadn't been able to get her out yet that day due to our morning ride and it was so hot that we didn't want to work our fillies in the heat of the day. I was hoping that by the time I got Brandy un-tacked, Chance would be back to her normal self. But nope, still no change. My sister came over and I told her what was going on. She said I should just take her to the arena to lunge her, she hadn't been out of the corral all day and maybe that would settle her down. I brought her out and got my lunge line and whip and headed to the arena. That was an adventure in itself!! I didn't have any problems leading Chance to the arena the 2 days before, so I didn't think she would be so bad. It was a serious struggle to get her there. She was prancing, jigging, whinnying and just freaking out. I could barely keep her under control. I somehow got her into the arena and lunged her. She behaved herself on the lunge line, but I could still tell she was on edge. Brandy would not stop whinnying for Chance and then Chance would whinny back. Where I was in the arena I was within eyesight of Brandy, but Brandy gets severe separation anxiety and that is something I just deal with because that is not going to change. Brandy's history is another story in itself. Anyways, so I lunged Chance really good and then led her around the arena. She was so worked up that she was still prancing and I was trying to get her to calm down and walk. She did not want anything to do with it. She just had a total mental breakdown. She was done. Literally. I did NOT want to put her away like that because that would then reward her for this kind of behavior. I continued trying to get her to calm down. I think I got so frazzled with her behavior that I did not think how a trainer would think. Stupid, stupid me. I have been training this horse from day one with no serious issues and now my horse was having a meltdown and my brain wouldn't work. Go figure. I got her walking about as calm as I could get her when my sister came up to the arena fence. I decided that since she was calming down, I would attempt to walk her back to her corral. But about halfway there Chance had another meltdown. The harrow bed truck came in to bring more hay and there were kids playing everywhere. She was on brain overload. My sister and her ranch boy had gone to feed the ranch horses. I stopped when the harrow bed truck came through and a few seconds later, a girl that was playing with a huge group of kids approached and was going to walk right up to Chance to pet her. I tried to not be rude but I told her that it was NOT a good time to pet her. I explained that she was a 3 year old Mustang and this was her first time away from home and was having a tough time at the moment. Before you know it we are surrounded by about 10 girls. Chance was done. Of course the kids were asking a ton of questions about Chance and I had to explain all about the Mustang and how the BLM works. The harrow bed truck was still unloading hay and I did not want to lead Chance past the hay barn until it left. She was already  mentally done so I just waited. My sister pulled back in and I was still in the same place from when she left. That is when the harrow bed truck left and my sister came over and suggested I get her feet moving and that is what I did, right there in the gravel driveway. I worked on it for awhile, but Chance was basically ignoring my commands, which she NEVER does. My sister took over for me for awhile. We got her calmed down enough to walk her back to my trailer and had to get her feet moving again (when I say get her feet moving, I mean lunge for a short circle, then reverse and do this back and forth until they start paying attention to you, Clinton Anderson). By the time she started to relax, it was basically dark and I still did not want to put her away. She still wasn't relaxed enough. So I tied her to the trailer and left her there (while I watched) until she relaxed, quit moving and rested her foot. I then put her away. At that point I was done myself. I was hot and tired and I couldn't believe MY sweet girl acted this way. I was actually quite embarrassed. I shouldn't be. I just had never seen Chance act like this before.

Picture taken the day before the breakdown.

And I guess I never expected her to have such a big breakdown since she was so good the first 2 days. BUT then again, as a trainer, I should have known this COULD happen considering it was her first time away from home. She just could not handle Brandy being taken away again, on top of all the activity that was going on at the ranch that night. (She was calm and relaxed all day prior to the breakdown). The next day I packed up all my stuff, loaded up everything that needed to go in my trailer and then loaded my ponies. I loaded Brandy first then Chance and she went into the trailer with NO hesitation at all (unlike the very minor hesitation when I loaded her a few days before). I went to say my (sad) goodbyes and got on the road back to home.

My pretty girl.

When I arrived home, my OH came and met me at the trailer. I got Chance out of the trailer and she walked out this time, no jumping! While I stood there waiting for my OH to unload Brandy, Chance put her head down and gave a huge sigh. I do believe she knew she was home and the whole nightmare experience was over. For now.

I know I made some mistakes in how I handled or how I did not handle the situation that Saturday evening. It is a learning experience for me and for Chance. I have my work cut out for me. I know I need to get her out more and experience life outside of home, her comfort zone. Although I am very proud of how she handled everything the first 2 days she was at the ranch. I don't blame her for having a breakdown. That is a huge place with A LOT of activity going on for a horse's first trip away from home. I will be (and have been this week) working very hard on getting more done with Chance in regards to getting her out away from home and hauled more places. I don't care if I have to haul her to the trailhead and tie her to my trailer so she just relaxes. I  am also going to train her to pony and do some ponying on my neighbors trails and hopefully out on the "real" trails too. My GOAL is to have her going well enough on the trails that when September comes around when my OH and I are planning on going to the ranch for a weekend, that I get to ride Chance there. I think that is a very achievable goal, don't ya think?