Post by mystic on Jan 31, 2008 23:25:17 GMT -5
It all started when I was once again looking at the faces of the horses on the Cber website. I had been looking at them for months. I saw his face and wished that I was set up to bring him home. He was a chestnut roan. There was a quality about him that attracted me to him. He was proud and looked intelligent with a sense of humor. He was there with his sister Nabisco who was a year younger. I did not seriously think I could bring him home. I had no where to keep him and i was 9 months pregnant. Wishful thinking.
Later that day I was talking to a friend of mine and mentioned him to her. I had told her about the site before. She just had to say " you could keep him at my place and we could go and pick him up." Well that set the ball rolling. We were approved and she and I and another friend made the drive to get him. My 1 1/2 year old son came along for the ride. I was literally 1 day from my due date.
When we arrived we were greeted by one of the volunteers whom I believe is no longer there. She told me I had one sick horsie. He was in the chute. Pacing back and forth and calling to his poor sister who was watching over the fence whinnying her head off. Chamiyo was covered in mud and had thick green snot coming out of his nose. He let me halter him and with a little coaxing we got him loaded into a two horse straight load. We called the vet and immediately took him there and got the appropriate medications. Once again we were able to load him.
We took him took him to my friends house and unloaded him. He had his own pasture away from her horses. He spent the next few months there recovering while I had my daughter and got our place fenced for him. Then we had to get him loaded again.... Did I mention he was now healthy and full of himself? We finally got him loaded by trickery as did I also mention that this horse was very wise about ropes and halters and how to avoid them?
In the end we used grain and no halters or ropes and just taught him to load by himself. After he was in the trailer he was haltered. He came to my house and I made the decision to leave the halter on him since he was impossible to catch. I hoped to be able to work with him better that way. Well that lasted for about 2 days. He somehow managed to remove a ROPE halter leaving it tied and with no visible damage to it or him.
Now, I know it is not good to leave a horse loose with a rope halter but that was the circumstance at the time. So...He sat in my pasture for a year completely uncatchable. If he even saw a halter or leadrope or even a piece of baling twine he would freak out and take off snorting and blowing and would not let you get within 10 feet of him. If you had nothing you could go right in with him and pet and groom him. So I let him be. He had his reasons, mine were I had a newborn and a toddler and not much time. I also had no roundpen or smaller area to crowd him in and I know if I did it would have gone faster but somehow I believe he needed that time to settle down and just be a horse.
In the meantime I continued to look for someone who could start this unapproachable horse that went nutso over ropes. This summer I found that person. I won't tell you the drama over how we finally caught him but I will say that he was very wise to traps and absolutely would not be funneled into the enclosure we had set up and the one time we got him in he ran right through it and took it out. Now I always suspected that this horse came from the rez and the person who was trying to catch him said he thought so to as he looked like one of the rez mustangs and was very savvy to traps. It took three hours to catch him. Once he was caught he did not fight at all and tested the rope he was tied with and knew not to fight it once he felt the pressure. He then loaded easily into a by then dark trailer.
Fortunately the person that fate brought had alot of experience with these horses. He said the reason he kept trying to catch him was that he could tell that he ws super intelligent and that he would make a good horse. His wife said that I was lucky that they came because there was no way in HE** that anyone else would have been able to catch him and that they would have given up. Frankly I believed them. I was extremely impressed that not once did the trainer ever loose his temper or show aggression to Chamiyo. Once he was caught he was very quiet and slow and gentle with him. It made me feel a whole lot better about sending him away with them.
He spent the next 4 or so months with them. Originally it was the wife who was supposed to train him but Chamiyo chased her out of the roundpen on his hind legs with a saddle on. Did I mention he did that to me once? Minus the saddle of course and fortunatly I was already on the the other side of the fence when he did it. He did that to me because he tried to nip me and I made a big noise at him which he took as a challenge. Chamiyo basically only wanted relations with people on his terms and if you challenged that well he was going to fight back. Needless to say I was in over my head.
Anyway back to the training part. After he did that to female trainer I seriously considered having him put down. After a long talk with her husband who had begun working with Chamiyo I decided to see how he did with husband half. He thought he could get him through it. Chamiyo tried his rearing and striking trick with him and as this man is 6ft 5 and is not afraid of much his bluff was called. Then his education began in ernest. He had to overcome his fear of ropes. He can now be roped off of and have a rope under his tail and not miss a beat. He is completely unafraid of them now. I learned that the way the rez horses are gelded is that they are roped and thrown and then just castrated. That explains alot.
He is hobble trained. He can be hunted with. He is trained to pack. ( That helped get him over the bucking big time.) He figured out it was too much work to get the packs off and that they were not going anywhere. He will go through anything, over anything and is extermely sure footed. He has a very good mind and the trainer said he is one of the smartest horses he has ever worked with and he has worked with alot of rank and regular barn babies. He said he would take 20 horses like him if he could find them. Bascially once he got Chamiyo over his issues he was very easy to train and learns lightning quick.
He is not a spooky horse AT ALL. He just had major survival instincts in relation to man and his previous experiences. He was however a major bucker and it did take a long time for him to give up on the bucking. That was with just a saddle and no rider. He probably would have made the bucking string if Chuck would have tried him out.
The irony of this is that the person who has turned Chamiyo around is somewhat a friend of Chucks. He asked about Chamiyo for me and found out he was indeed a rez horse. These people who have helped my horse are very kind and good salt of the earth people. I am grateful for their help with Chamiyo. I am grateful to have found Chamiyo the little red horse with a good mind and a heart that won't quit. And I am proud to say that after nearly two years of doubt and questioning my own sanity for getting this horse, that I was able to have my first ride on him in October. It was short, no longer that 15 minutes in a round pen but he was perfect and I was smiling on my face and in my heart. ;D
Chamiyo went from being an unwanted and unloved horse to a horse that has two other people that would buy him in a heartbeat if I decided to sell him. The trainer is one, he never doubted him. The other is his friend who saw Chamiyo in all his wild glory and thought the trainer was crazy for working with him. To the Chamiyo now that carried the trainer through mud bogs, up a mountain and never faltered once. He fell in love with him too. So that is Chamiyo's story, I made a lot of poor choices and in the end I am glad I did. It got me to here and him too.
edited for massive typing errors
Later that day I was talking to a friend of mine and mentioned him to her. I had told her about the site before. She just had to say " you could keep him at my place and we could go and pick him up." Well that set the ball rolling. We were approved and she and I and another friend made the drive to get him. My 1 1/2 year old son came along for the ride. I was literally 1 day from my due date.
When we arrived we were greeted by one of the volunteers whom I believe is no longer there. She told me I had one sick horsie. He was in the chute. Pacing back and forth and calling to his poor sister who was watching over the fence whinnying her head off. Chamiyo was covered in mud and had thick green snot coming out of his nose. He let me halter him and with a little coaxing we got him loaded into a two horse straight load. We called the vet and immediately took him there and got the appropriate medications. Once again we were able to load him.
We took him took him to my friends house and unloaded him. He had his own pasture away from her horses. He spent the next few months there recovering while I had my daughter and got our place fenced for him. Then we had to get him loaded again.... Did I mention he was now healthy and full of himself? We finally got him loaded by trickery as did I also mention that this horse was very wise about ropes and halters and how to avoid them?
In the end we used grain and no halters or ropes and just taught him to load by himself. After he was in the trailer he was haltered. He came to my house and I made the decision to leave the halter on him since he was impossible to catch. I hoped to be able to work with him better that way. Well that lasted for about 2 days. He somehow managed to remove a ROPE halter leaving it tied and with no visible damage to it or him.
Now, I know it is not good to leave a horse loose with a rope halter but that was the circumstance at the time. So...He sat in my pasture for a year completely uncatchable. If he even saw a halter or leadrope or even a piece of baling twine he would freak out and take off snorting and blowing and would not let you get within 10 feet of him. If you had nothing you could go right in with him and pet and groom him. So I let him be. He had his reasons, mine were I had a newborn and a toddler and not much time. I also had no roundpen or smaller area to crowd him in and I know if I did it would have gone faster but somehow I believe he needed that time to settle down and just be a horse.
In the meantime I continued to look for someone who could start this unapproachable horse that went nutso over ropes. This summer I found that person. I won't tell you the drama over how we finally caught him but I will say that he was very wise to traps and absolutely would not be funneled into the enclosure we had set up and the one time we got him in he ran right through it and took it out. Now I always suspected that this horse came from the rez and the person who was trying to catch him said he thought so to as he looked like one of the rez mustangs and was very savvy to traps. It took three hours to catch him. Once he was caught he did not fight at all and tested the rope he was tied with and knew not to fight it once he felt the pressure. He then loaded easily into a by then dark trailer.
Fortunately the person that fate brought had alot of experience with these horses. He said the reason he kept trying to catch him was that he could tell that he ws super intelligent and that he would make a good horse. His wife said that I was lucky that they came because there was no way in HE** that anyone else would have been able to catch him and that they would have given up. Frankly I believed them. I was extremely impressed that not once did the trainer ever loose his temper or show aggression to Chamiyo. Once he was caught he was very quiet and slow and gentle with him. It made me feel a whole lot better about sending him away with them.
He spent the next 4 or so months with them. Originally it was the wife who was supposed to train him but Chamiyo chased her out of the roundpen on his hind legs with a saddle on. Did I mention he did that to me once? Minus the saddle of course and fortunatly I was already on the the other side of the fence when he did it. He did that to me because he tried to nip me and I made a big noise at him which he took as a challenge. Chamiyo basically only wanted relations with people on his terms and if you challenged that well he was going to fight back. Needless to say I was in over my head.
Anyway back to the training part. After he did that to female trainer I seriously considered having him put down. After a long talk with her husband who had begun working with Chamiyo I decided to see how he did with husband half. He thought he could get him through it. Chamiyo tried his rearing and striking trick with him and as this man is 6ft 5 and is not afraid of much his bluff was called. Then his education began in ernest. He had to overcome his fear of ropes. He can now be roped off of and have a rope under his tail and not miss a beat. He is completely unafraid of them now. I learned that the way the rez horses are gelded is that they are roped and thrown and then just castrated. That explains alot.
He is hobble trained. He can be hunted with. He is trained to pack. ( That helped get him over the bucking big time.) He figured out it was too much work to get the packs off and that they were not going anywhere. He will go through anything, over anything and is extermely sure footed. He has a very good mind and the trainer said he is one of the smartest horses he has ever worked with and he has worked with alot of rank and regular barn babies. He said he would take 20 horses like him if he could find them. Bascially once he got Chamiyo over his issues he was very easy to train and learns lightning quick.He is not a spooky horse AT ALL. He just had major survival instincts in relation to man and his previous experiences. He was however a major bucker and it did take a long time for him to give up on the bucking. That was with just a saddle and no rider. He probably would have made the bucking string if Chuck would have tried him out.
The irony of this is that the person who has turned Chamiyo around is somewhat a friend of Chucks. He asked about Chamiyo for me and found out he was indeed a rez horse. These people who have helped my horse are very kind and good salt of the earth people. I am grateful for their help with Chamiyo. I am grateful to have found Chamiyo the little red horse with a good mind and a heart that won't quit. And I am proud to say that after nearly two years of doubt and questioning my own sanity for getting this horse, that I was able to have my first ride on him in October. It was short, no longer that 15 minutes in a round pen but he was perfect and I was smiling on my face and in my heart. ;D
Chamiyo went from being an unwanted and unloved horse to a horse that has two other people that would buy him in a heartbeat if I decided to sell him. The trainer is one, he never doubted him. The other is his friend who saw Chamiyo in all his wild glory and thought the trainer was crazy for working with him. To the Chamiyo now that carried the trainer through mud bogs, up a mountain and never faltered once. He fell in love with him too. So that is Chamiyo's story, I made a lot of poor choices and in the end I am glad I did. It got me to here and him too.
edited for massive typing errors
