When Love isn't Enough

Some folks think love is all you need. They get a wild animal and figure if they can touch it, that's good. If it let's them rub and scratch on it, they've done done a fine job.

Then reality sets in. Suddenly you're faced with a wild animal that insists upon things being done their way. They take what you give, and force you to give more. And if you don't give it, you can find yourself in a difficult and dangerous position. Such was the case with our first mustang, Sassy. She was spoiled, taking food from the hands of her family, biting when they didn't have anything to give.


Today I was at a feed store when the woman at the counter saw my sweatshirt. I was wearing one of the Mustang Diaries shirts, and her eyes lit up when she realized I had mustangs. A customer had come in saying they had a yearling mustang from one of the reservations and they wanted to give her away. They'd had a halter on her, but couldn't handle her feet. Plus, the woman had been kicked twice. Since she wasn't far away, I drove over.


The filly is pretty. She stood on the other side of her round pen and enjoyed the scratching we did. The woman had bought her at auction; there'd been a tuckload of horses that had come in, and most of them went to the meat buyer. She had a soft spot for this filly and brought her home. Her intentions were good, but she's now realized that she's in over her head.


The filly, unfortunately, was easy to gentle. When horses are easy like that, and a bit less sensitive to touch, they can get pushy real fast unless the person handling them knows to prevent it. It's our nature to try to nurture, but with animal it creates a spoiled child effect. We do it with our dogs, and these folks were in the process of doing it with this filly.


We got the halter on her, though, and I led her around a bit. She'd pin her ears back, and she was a bit jumpy. Not scared, but she was using little things as an excuse to be stupid. Such as, the quiet hum of a nearby saw. There was very little sound, but the owner had her husband turn it off so the horse wouldn't spook. The filly had been tip-toed around so much that she was like a fussy princess. At one point she got upset, so I gave a yank on the lead rope to get her attention. She flew backwards and would have flipped herself onto her back if she hadn't been caught by the round pen panels.


While the rope gave me a bit of a burn, I didn't let go. Instead I took up the slack as much as I could so she couldn't try to wheel away. I made her walk around once more, made her back up and try to focus on me. At this point she was getting agitated, but she did manage to do what I asked. I then led her towards the gate and unbuckled her halter. She thought that meant she was done, so I put it back on her. I did that a couple of times, scratching her to get her to relax. Then she thought something scary might be out there, so she took a big lunge off to the side while the halter was unbuckled. Too bad, because that wasn't a good learning experience. Still, she'd probably been asked for more in that five minutes than she had been all along.


Because of her somewhat alpha temperament, I've decided she wouldn't be a good fit here. I'd be up for the challenge, but Sunny is already taking a lot of my time, and she's not a horse I'd feel comfortable having Darling walk around at feeding time.


I will, however, be contacting a few more horse savvy folks who may be capable of handling her. She's going to be a lot of work, because she has very little respect for people right now. A firm hand, a round pen, and a determination to keep her from trying to be a buddy (at least for now.)

Sassy

Darling astride Sassy, our first mustang.

A few years back I mentioned to one of my cousins that I'd really like to get a mustang. She and her husband were friends with another couple that occasionally would travel to the eastern side of the state and gather some of the mustangs from one of the reservations. As luck would have it, a couple months later my cousin found me, telling me another friend of hers had a three year old filly that they no longer wanted. She was free; was I interested? Well, you didn't have to poke me with a stick to get me to say yes!

Darling and I went out to take a look. She was small, less than 13 hands, I'd say, but the perfect size for a young girl. She was quiet, but had poor ground manners. The couple who owned her didn't know much about horses, but they'd loved her and she was very good around their two young children. They'd hired someone to come try to train her, but though she'd stand for saddling...well..she also only stood for riding. Still, that is. She planted her feet and refused to move.

I tossed Darling up onto her back and led the filly around the pasture. I went to visit her a second time, bringing a longe line to see how she'd work. She didn't want to work. She was, without a doubt, the laziest horse I'd ever met. Perfect! She may not go far, but she certainly wasn't going to pose any threat to my ten year old.

Darling named her new horse Sassy, and it didn't take long to realize just how appropriate this name was. Sassy was a mouthy horse. She figured if you had something, and she wanted it, all she had to do was take it. Her former family had mentioned that she would bite, and bite she did. That wasn't to be tolerated here, though, and the first time she pinned her ears and reached for me, I slapped the side of her muzzle. She jumped back with shock and looked at me in disbelief. She'd never been told no before...and amazingly she never came after me like that again.

Another slight issue that Sassy had was that when she found herself in the company of other horses, she turned into a rank stallion. Yes...a complete personality transformation, the likes of which I'd never seen and will live happily never seeing again, thank you! She'd squeal, rear and strike out, creating a very dangerous setting for anyone holding the end of her lead rope.

About a week after moving in with us, Sassy discovered there were horses on the other side of the fenceline. She didn't hesitate pushing down the four foot woven wire fence to join them. I might add at this point that Sassy had been kept inside an electric fence; there were just two strands. The high strand was about back level, the low one less than a foot off the ground. And yet, it kept her in. Since there was no shock in the woven wire, she felt there was no need to stay on her side.

I came home from work that afternoon to an upset husband working on the fence and a sister who was holding onto Sassy's lead rope. Seems the neighbor had spent over an hour trying to catch my little horse, had been kicked in the stomach during the process, and was none to happy. I'm not sure why she just didn't come over and ask for help? But she didn't. Anyway, the incident was an insight into Sassy's personality that had been hidden until now.

A couple miles down the road I had a friend with a spare stall in his barn, so we moved Sassy down there. We were certain she'd learn how to be a horse; the other three horses ranged in size from 15.1 to 17 hands. They'd teach her a lesson, or so we thought. But instead of Sassy learning to be a horse, she taught them how to be cows. Even the bully horse was frightened of this little mustang!

This is when we discovered what a nightmare Sassy was to be alongside if another horse passed by. I began carrying a riding crop along with me whenever I led her, smacking her chest and forelegs at the slightest indication that she was about to rear or strike out. I was terribly thankful that she was such a small horse, as if she'd been more than pony sized I'm not certain I'd have had the strength to hang onto her.

Lucky for me, Sassy was smart. She didn't like the sting of the whip and it didn't take long for her to begin minding her manners. Within a weeks time she was leading placidly along side the other horses, just as though she'd been raised that way. The more I worked with that little mare, the more I admired her ability to learn. Others in the barn took note as well of how quickly she seemed to pick things up.

When my husband lost his job a couple years later, I decided that Sassy was an expense we just couldn't afford, so she was sold. But my experience with her left me knowing that if I ever had the opportunity again, I'd want another mustang.