Cindy gets her horse

This little piece of paradise includes a “treasure”… what looks like some kind of “barn or shed”. It’s way out on the north property line, and has the big open side facing south. We’re not real sure what it was used for, or when it was last used, but there was a ton of old dried cow manure, tumbleweeds, and “Beryl Dust” crammed into it.

Whoever built it, used heavy stuff, like railroad ties, and iron slabs. It’s about 24 x 16 and looks as if it had a couple of stalls. At any rate, it could be a good horse barn.

Cindy used to ride when she was a young teenager (many moons ago). She had her own horse(s) and competed in barrel racing. Bev rode when at her grandparent’s farm, and really wanted a horse to enjoy.

What they found, wasn’t what they were looking for.

This “gentleman farmer” they were helping, had a daughter-in-law who was taking her grandfather-in-law’s racing rejects and getting them adopted out. Generally speaking, racing rejects don’t face the best of lives. Often, their personalities make them poor pets, and health issues can break the bank in a hurry.

At any rate, Cindy and Bev got to talking with her, and went to the farm to see the horses. Dena had a couple that really needed to be “fostered” until she could find permanent homes.

That’s all it took for the gals to agree to take care of these two colts. “Dusty” was a long yearling, and “Kid” aka “Comanche” was about the same age. Dusty had a slightly deformed cannon bone on his right front leg, so would never be able to race. Kid simply hadn’t been to training yet, and was keeping Dusty company.

Before the girls could take these horses off Dena’s hands, they’d have to clean this barn, and make it horse ready and escape-proof. With no tractor, and not really knowing anyone yet, this was going to be a daunting task.

Bev and Cindy set to, dragging tumbleweed out, hauling junk out, and finally shoveling sand out. Several days of back-breaking labor later, they were finally able to begin the “construction” phase. Good thing Bev and Cindy are handy with power tools.

Dena was able to borrow her father-in-law’s small John Deere and came to help with the project. There was a post hole digger as well as a front-end loader on the tractor, so the girls got things going rather quickly. Once they got the remaining sand out of the stalls, and the big, heavy dividers out, as well as the original feed crib, it was time to dig post holes, and build the corral.

Around here, railroad ties make great fence posts. They are plentiful, as there is a railroad through the area. When the railroad does maintenance, they sell the old posts locally. They are quite rot-resistant, too. It’s not hard to find railroad ties that are over 100 years old, still in service as fence posts, root cellars, etc.

So, they set the posts every 8 feet making a corral that was about 24 x 24, plenty large enough for a couple of colts. They topped the “fencing” with 2×6 lumber and attached field fencing below that. Then they ran a single strand of electric fencing around the inside of the corral, and hooked it up to a solar fence charger.

The two horses were in Enterprise and would have to be trailered to Beryl, a distance of about 17 miles. No problem, Dena got that job done easily. In early April 2006, Bev and Cindy officially became “foster mom’s” to Dusty and Kid. Their job was to love them, feed them, and teach them a few manners… yeah right (on the manners).

The two boys were pretty rambunctious, with Kid being the real brat. He’d steal Dusty’s hay, and push him away from the water barrel whenever possible. Now, you’d think that is a precursor to the future.

After a few months, Kid was sent to “race horse training”, and Dusty became ours, complete with his adoption papers. Now the real work could begin.

Cindy and Bev felt they would like to train Dusty using “natural methods”. That means teach him with love and discipline, rather than fear and pain (the old-fashioned way to break a horse). To do this, they researched and chose the Parelli method. Soon they found themselves in Las Vegas attending a Parelli seminar.

Cindy began working with Dusty, teaching him to follow her, and maybe play a game or two, like push the ball with your nose. Dusty, brat that he was, had other ideas. He would follow… and fail to stop. Push the wall was beneath him.

Soon time came for him to enter the grownup world. That meant a visit to the vet. He wasn’t going to be a herd sire, so time to get “cut”. Also, his hooves were overgrown and in need of trimming. This would be an excellent time to check everything and give him his shots.

It only took an hour or so to get him into the trailer. A one hour trip to the vet in Cedar City, and some “sleepy juice”, he’d soon become a gelding, have properly trimmed hooves, have his teeth checked, and updated shots. Not only that, he would be in “la la land” for the trip home. One home… all he had to do was step out of the trailer.

Three days later, he decided he felt good enough to get out of that trailer and into his stall and corral.

As it turned out, Dusty never really forgave Cindy for that trip. He waited patiently and a few months later, she was in the wrong spot when he leveled a very well-placed kick into her ribs. That left a mark
Between his attitude and Cindy’s short fuse, training never went very well after that.

A couple years later, Clinton Anderson did a seminar in St George. His theory is “keep the horses feet moving” and they will soon figure out that to stop, they only have to obey. His methods are very natural, using add pressure and the horse will respond, moving away from the pressure and perform the proper movement. That technique was much better suited to both Dusty and Cindy.

Eventually Dusty became quite a gentleman, even to the point of saddling and riding in the round pen.

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