Not having any experience at all with these kinds of horses, I was frightened but up for the challenge. Seeing all of the mustangs in the holding pens that were not bought made me really sad. A lot of the horses were very skinny and skittish.
Here are two of the eight mustangs that we adopted, notice how skinny they were before they came to Rutgers
The mustangs were loaded up into the trailer and taken back to Rutgers. Some of them took longer than others. See RU Koda trying to make a break for it.
Now came the fun part, picking the horse that you wanted to work with, naming him or her and starting the bonding process and taming and training them.
I picked a very pretty and frightened 2 year old filly with two white socks and cute ears. After standing outside her stall without her even approaching me I was a little discouraged but still determined. Every year the Young Horse Program has a naming theme for the horses that the students care for and this year the theme was Wild West. I decided to name the shy and frightened filly Sierra after the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range ( Si for short). The other horses names were, Koda, Annie Oakley, Sundance ( Sunny), Sassafrass ( Sassy), Levi, and Santana ( Tanner).
Sierra in her Stall at Rutgers for the first time
Working with a new horse who has never been introduced to people before is definitely a challenge and requires a lot of patience and dedication. Sierra was definitely a challenge to begin with because she didn’t trust people, moreso than the other mustangs that we had in the program. Gaining her trust took a lot of time and persistence. I would go in every week and stand outside her stall talking to her in a soothing voice, hoping that she would approach me. Finally after much persistance and a lot of patience Sierra finally became comfortable enough for me to touch her and give her scratches.
Sierra and I on October 24th first picture
I kept a monthly journal while working with Sierra on her progress and behavior. Here's one of the entries from the month of October
"The first week that Sierra was in the barn, she was still very jumpy and very afraid of people, though surprisingly not as fearful of objects such as the pitchforks and the muck buckets. Around the second week, Sierra allowed me to come up to her and start scratching her, but she was only comfortable with scratches on her neck. Over the next couple days, I came back and worked with her getting used to me and having my hands rub on more than just her neck. The hard work and time showed because now Sierra is now accepts being touched on her neck, withers, back, stomach, and her rump. Sierra and I are now at the point where when I stop scratching her she moves towards me as if to say, “Why did you stop?? Scratch some more!” Last week she was having problems with being comfortable on her right side, but now this week she does not seem to be bothered with me scratching and rubbing on that side at all. I am starting to work with Sierra with her getting accustomed to things (mainly hands) touching her face. She know lets me rub up to her cheek bone, but if I go any further she pulls away. I’m also working with her with having pressure put on her halter and a few times she turns her head towards the direction I’m pulling, but it’s still a work in progress"
Sierra doing a funny pose outside
From October on, Sierra and I had many adventures with disensitizing her to everyday surroundings in the barn and objects outside.
To see the other Rutgers mustangs click here http://rci.rutgers.edu/~ruhorse/2010-2011.html
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