Cherokee is Home!

Well this blog posting is a day later than I had anticipated writing it, however, that seems to fit right in with how the whole 'wrapping' up process for the stall and paddock areas work went. We were working Thursday, Friday, Saturday, days and nights right up until around 11pm each night, every task taking just that much longer than anticipated. Sundance was a trooper through it all, some nights having to stay turned out with the goats (with outside field lights on) until right at dark, and the final two nights being turned out into the paddock  attached to his and Cherokee's stall (we put in a lower dutch door in front of Cherokee stall that we were working on and he'd just pop his head over to watch, saws and nail guns blazing he didn't seem to mind.

Sunday arrived and it was raining, (as it has been here in the Northwest fourth-corner of the US for the past straight five months, we've never seen so much mud, and there's no more hay. Fields haven't been able to be cut, and yesterday on the promise of forecasters that we'd get three days clear, all fields for miles around were cut... and this morning... it rained!  We're in for an expensive summer! We're personally down to two bales of local hay, one bale of alfalfa. We'll have to resort to picking up the $13 40lb bales at the local feed store until some hay shows up, we exhausted our year stock just a couple of weeks ago.) but I digress...

Sunday finally arrived, we had been nervously and excitedly waiting down at the barn since 9am, tidying up, making the list of the 'still yet to do' items and getting Sundance taken care of and as prepared as he could be (meaning making sure the area he was in was safe for any 'antics' he'd pull once Cherokee arrived).  At 10:20am the trailer rolled in.  It wasn't even in parked before Sundance started calling out and pacing. I wish I had gotten it on video as anticipated but in my own excitement and nervousness through the day I had managed to 'think' I was taking video but had never actually once pressed the final 'record' button only the preparatory one. (my first clue should have been the ever constant 'record' symbol on the screen that goes away when you are actually recording).

Cherokee was nervous and had a hard time coming off the trailer, pooped and light stress sweat spots. He came into the paddock and field areas high headed and pushing on left shoulder as we anticipated him to do. He can't yield to the right yet so you just run into a brick wall if you even try. Don walked him around the perimeter of the turn out area that we would be in for the day, close to us and out of reach of Sundance (who was pacing, rearing, pawing, nuzzling my pony-tail and wide eyed, excited and in full disbelief there was another horse on the property).  After Cherokee settled down a bit, Don released him at the feeder and came out of the turn out.   We watch for a bit, he would eat, walk, call out to Sundance (who always responded), then go back to eating.  We had ended up not moving the goats and that actually turned out to be a good thing, he would go to them and nuzzle the girls through the fence and by the end of they day he was copying their antics, they'd run up their ramp and little jungle gym area and jump off, then he'd run around and kick then stop and face them and wait until they did it again and then he'd be off again.

Sunday was another long day and night, we didn't get the last bolt into the stall until right at dark, so he was more than ready to come in and then skeptical as he had to cross several of the 'extra' mats laying out in the stall paddock, as well as walk by the big-green-monster-hose that had been overlooked after filling up the water buckets... so all in all we took our time but were indeed the bad humans on a mission so while it wasn't about crossing the mats or getting in the stall, it was about ending the very long day.... he obliged and went across them with a bolting-manic-reluctance and we apologized.

So... Monday, (yesterday) and this morning we're just starting to get back to some kind of schedule normalcy, I don't expect to be in a real 'groove' until next week so I'm keeping expectations low and hoping my work can be somewhat flexible (I run my own graphic design business but that only means I have no less than 10 bosses to be accountable - clients -, ... so it's a juggle).

We have a lot of work to do with Cherokee. We're just now starting to see his base behaviors that were not apparent at the trainers. For me this just really confirms that harsh handling is not a training method, it shuts the behavior down in the moment, but it does not effectively institute 'change'.  Change is what we're going to be after, and that may very likely mean that we are not on this horse any time soon, which would confirm the foster home/trainers worst fears (why that would be a fear for her I still do not understand) about us doing 'Parelli' and choosing to not ride him.  I'm not going to be letting that be an influence in my psyche anymore, I have to let that go. If we have to get a Parelli professional up here from Seattle (our closest ones that we're aware of) when we're ready then that is what we'll do. From this moment on Cherokee is at Level One - everything. Which for my intent with this blog... is actually great! My plan had been to start there and work up, I had hoped of course we might be able to move through the lower levels fairly easily, but I would have to say that I don't have that expectation right now.

Here's a short list of what behaviors we have to work on right away: (these are not issues we were not aware of they were just 'less' in their intensity in the environment he was in where each of these behaviors where handled by a 'pop' and a 'growl' by the human).

• He cannot/will not back up without a high level of demand
• He cannot/will not yield his hindquarters -- in fact he goes instantly 'opposite' and brings them 'at you' with any request to yield them
• He will run his left shoulder straight into and over the top of you without any hesitation
• He pulls when led in a strange combo of pulling away and then pushing over you
• He does not seem to be 'present' in his attention or interaction with people
• He cannot/does not use his 'lips' he only uses his front teeth, both in 'lukewarm friendly' food acceptance or touching and then in more aggressive 'snapping' quickly at you or your clothes.

There's more challenges (all related of course at a core level of not trusting humans)  but these are the top hit list items that we will start working on immediately.  We've sized him for a Parelli style halter, he's wearing the pillow top type now and boy had he indeed learned to pull against it, he'll have his new halter today after Don gets back from the desperately-seeking-hay run into town.

It's supposed to thankfully be mostly clear tomorrow. Either way we'll be starting his online work (training) sessions tomorrow.  I'll be doing everything with Sundance first as a warm up and as a reminder of what I'm looking for (and so that Sundance gets his interaction and work in too of course). I'm thinking of doing two sessions a day starting at just half an hour each. I'll be posting here how each day goes, what our successes are and how they start translating to the behaviors we're hoping to change.

It can be so easy to focus on the negative so I want to make certain that I am always reaffirming any 'positives' that we're seeing. It's clear to us that even with the challenges noted above that Cherokee does not have full disdain for or dislike of humans, in fact, it's clear to both my husband and I that he wants nothing more than to have a relationship with us. But he wants to feel safe. Leadership is the only solution for him, but right now it's a rewiring of what leadership 'is' coming from Don and I, and, what it is not. That's going to be an education for all of us.