The Jolly Rancher: The Making Of A Legend

  • Friday, September 18, 2015
  • Jen Jeffrey

Have you ever had 500 pounds fall on you? Maybe you walked under a piano as it was being hoisted up to a 12-story building or maybe you were bench pressing more than you should have at the gym. In my case, I was underneath a living, breathing one-year-old.

Six months ago when my husband and I bought a ranch up the road, we had also purchased a colt and a filly. My husband named his Sooty-Buckskin girl “Deep Suede” and I named my little blue-eyed Tobiano colt “Legendary Blue”.

I work with them both, but Legend is my baby.

We bonded the day I picked him out (actually both Legend and Suede picked us). Suede followed Jason around as we tried to look at other horses and Legend followed me. It was one of those ‘meant to be’ moments where you follow your heart.

Legend began stallion-like behavior with Suede and while having a stable full of mares we boarded, I thought it was best to have him gelded.

Legend has always been gentle. He has always given horsie nuzzles, loving on me and being playful. He is good to follow me, he walks on a lead rope well and he even comes to me when I go out to the pasture and start singing to him.

After months of getting him used to being haltered, led and groomed, I needed to keep it going as I conditioned him. Conditioning is getting them ‘bomb-proof’ where they don’t spook easily. Horses are not predators like dogs so they have a completely different mentality. They are animals of prey so their first instinct is to flee and then think later.

Once they know something is okay you build trust with them. When a 1,000 pound animal is frightened – it can be pretty scary for a horseman too. I had to be careful around my babies, even though they were only 300 pounds when we got them – that is still a lot when your foot gets stepped on or they rear up.

So far, I have been able to handle Legend. I have read many times that “green on green” does not mix, but even though Legend is a baby and with me being a new horse owner, I think our ‘green-green’ has mixed pretty well.

I am a ‘learn as I go’ person, I learned how to swim by being thrown in the water. Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It” was my motto before I ever saw their ad or knew what Nike was.

That being said, there will be mistakes made. I have been around horses all my life, but never raised one. Whenever I am around my horses, I do have confidence and I let them know I am the leader, but I also use the mentality that a horse knows more than me and that is how I have gained their respect. I don’t necessarily let them call the shots, but I do listen to what they are telling me.

What their body language says, or what I think they may be thinking – helps me to understand them and how to best get the reaction I want from them. If I think like a horse, I understand what they are afraid of and I can reassure them.

If I don’t think like a horse …that is what gets me in trouble. This summer, I had come along way with my babies. I had gotten them to be still while I groomed them, they had learned to behave whenever my vet came out and also to have the farrier file their feet. I had lifted their feet some and slowly tried the hoof pick on them to get them used to it, but they still would lose their balance quite a bit.

Whenever Bill came to take care of their feet, we took them in the stall and I pressed them up against the stall wall while he filed their feet.

My husband recently retired from the board of Murray Calloway County Chamber of Commerce after eight years, so we attended the awards dinner in which Bill Sampson, along with Jacob Falwell were given an award for ‘Agriculturalist of the Year’ for their work with Future Farmers of America at Calloway County High School. I was so proud when Bill went up to receive his award and as the audience applauded, I looked around and said, “That’s my farrier!”

Legend has come a long way learning the ropes and …the ‘cross ties’ as I have given him about four or five baths so far. Beginning with baby steps, he now likes being bathed (of course during the hot summer he loved getting hosed down) and he even liked ‘drinking from the hose’ like all kids do!

But the cross ties at the wash rack are different than the ones in the barn and he feels safer because it is up against a fence where nothing can get him from behind.

I had put him in the cross ties in the center of the barn once before to brush him and get him used to them, so I thought he was ready for another step – his feet.

Boy, did I peg that one all wrong! It was a hot day and after cleaning water troughs and sweeping the barn, I didn’t take the time I normally do in ‘conversation’ with Legend.

Usually, I will approach him and greet him with a song. Then we walk together and he reads my mood of ‘just wanting to be with him’. I smile at him and laugh at him and sometimes sing to him. But on this day – I was hot and had just recovered from a broken foot, so I was ready to ‘get started’ and I didn’t take my time.

I gathered my colt, led him to the stables and fixed him in the cross ties and grabbed my grooming tools. Legend was fine as I brushed him, but it had been months since ‘our last lesson’ in working with his feet because of my broken foot.

I was missioned-minded to get through this process and get caught up to where we left off. Only – when I last worked with his feet it was in his stall … not in the cross ties.

For those who have never “thought like a horse” let me take you through this scenario.

My colt who is now a yearling, had the summer off from learning new things while his mom healed. He has run free in his paddock, learning how bigger horses sometimes herd him and what creepy crawlers may come out at night … it had been a while since he was in cross ties (and for his mom lift his feet).

He was in the middle of the barn and there was a wide entrance in front of him and one behind him and he was strapped in where he could not move his head very far to see what could ‘get him’. For his mom to lift his foot (while he still didn’t have balance too well) and he was tied up …I was asking for it.

My colt panicked when he felt a little wobbly and could not move his head around to see what I was doing. All he knew was I was lifting his foot and asking his-500-pound-self to be vulnerable and he knew he had to break free!

Luckily, I have one of the cross-ties hooked to the barn with a hay string so that if something happens a horse can break free and not fall and hurt themselves while tied up.

Sure enough, when Legend panicked and tried to flee, the orange hay string snapped and allowed him to break away … right onto me and the door to the tack room.

Legend scuttled trying to get up on his feet and tried to get loose from the other cross tie in which he was still attached. I tried to lift my colt off of me and help him to stand, but he fell against me again as he threw his head back.

By this time, I couldn’t move. Legend had stepped on the foot I had broken and I yelp out in pain probably startling him. I could not get him up and he didn’t seem to be able to get up either, so I finally yelled for help and my son came running.

Andrew had heard us fall and was there within seconds of my calling out. He was able to get Legend to stand and get off of me and I stood up rubbing my left arm, shoulder and neck.

My heart was racing because I was scared that I ruined my progress with Legend and that I may have lost his trust in me now.

Andrew took him to his paddock and I took off my boot to inspect my foot making sure I could still move it – along with my arm that was throbbing. Nothing was broken and Legend and I both were fine.

I went out to the paddock with Legend and loved on him as I checked him out to make sure he didn’t have scratches. He was fine and for him it was just a little fall and being frightened. For me – it was like being in a car wreck and suffering slight whiplash. I was sore, but I was okay too.

The next time I worked with Legend, I was going to give him a bath. Even though he has done well in the cross ties at the wash rack, I knew he still may remember our fall and I did not want to tie him up AND bath him. So, we took more baby steps and my only goal was to wash my horse and get him really clean before cold weather sets in.

He welcomed the cool water in the afternoon sun and we both drank from the water hose. Bathing him while holding onto his lead rope was a challenge. I did my best to get all the soap out, but taking the sweat scraper in one hand to try to get the excess water off of his back was difficult and I did not get him dry enough.

My colt is smarter than me and he knew there was too much water on his back and  needed to help me out.  As soon as I took him back out to the pasture … (horse lovers know what is coming next) …he rolled.

My black and white Tobiano was now just dusty ‘brown’. This bath was supposed to last him a while. Yes, I know horses like to roll after having a bath, but mine have never done that. They have rolled out in their paddock when they had an itch or just love how it feels, but never right after a bath.

This time, because Legend wasn’t as dry as I usually have him after a bath, he rolled in a dusty patch of ground to absorb the extra water.

Nice. Sweating in the hot sun, laboring for my horse to be clean and he ruined the whole thing, but I just laughed (and of course got out my camera).

I will take my time with Legend in cross ties. He did well before and he will do well again, but we are still going slowly. My baby turns one-year-old in a week and together we have learned a lot.

My favorite thing to do is to play hide and seek with him. There is a huge oak tree in his paddock and I will get behind it and hide. Legend will dawdle over and tag me with his muzzle and then I hide on the other side and he comes around to find me again.

I can tell he loves to play when he finds me and does not falling for my trickery. He loves showing me how smart he is. It will be a long while before he is ready to break for riding, but we are building trust, respect and lots and lots of love.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJBI18L3Llg&feature=youtu.be

jen@jenjeffrey.com

Playing Hide and Seek at a favorite tree
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