As I’m sure that you can see from the photos, Panda was EXTREMELY underweight.  She had every rib and hip bones exposed.  Her feet were in terrible condition, and I could hear her teeth catching on themselves when she ate.  She definitely needed some TLC.

Whenever I bring a new horse onto the property whose history is unknown, we quarantine for thirty days.  During that time, I don’t mess with them.  I let them relax and settle into their new surroundings.  If they are tame, we’ll groom and fly spray, etc. but all grooming tools are bleached, and all buckets are sterilized as well.  We leave them with plenty of fresh pasture and water and feed hay and grain twice a day.  It seems that these kill lot horses are especially nervous when they first arrive, so I like to take this time for them to get comfortable.

Panda and Porter were fortunate, because they had each other.  Although they had never met before being ran into my horse trailer, they quickly bonded and are almost inseparable now.  I’ll be posting Porters progress on this same site once we begin training.

When I begin training a new horse, I assume that they have zero prior training.  I don’t really care about their past because it doesn’t really matter.  I train using all Clinton Anderson techniques, and believe that if we build a solid enough foundation, then all previous issues the horse may have, usually seem to sort themselves out. That goes for good and bad handling from previous owners.  All that I knew about Panda was that she was very skittish and distrusting and that she had been wearing a halter for quite a while, because she had marks on her nose, cheeks and behind her ears.  She also had a massive knot in her tail.  It looked like a baseball bat.  I almost cut it out, but when I started picking it…I’m glad that I didn’t…See photo below.

She was very unapproachable and wanted nothing to do with my affection.  I would try to scratch on her across the fence while she ate for the first month, and it would almost give her a heart attack.  When I approached her in her stall, she would throw her hind end around toward me and run circles trying to get away.  She never once tried to bite, kick, strike out, or pin her ears, she was just scared to death of me.

Before we begin training, I also want to ensure that the horses are sound and healthy.  If a horse is uncomfortable, they can’t tell us.  They let us know through displays of what we perceive as aggression:  kicking, biting, bucking, etc.  So for these girls, we had a dentist come out and take care of their teeth, and while they were sedated, our farrier trimmed up their feet. They had shots and coggins and a general exam from the vet to make sure they didn’t see anything that we didn’t.

When the day came for training, she had been at my house for thirty-seven days.  It was July 1st.  I locked her into her 12×12 stall, and walked in with the halter.  I just stood there for several minutes touching her nose and stepping back when she would begin acting timid.  I used the “approach and retreat” method to get her attention.  This method is incredible and really works wonders on a horses Psyche.  What I did was, when I would put pressure on her, and she would look at me ( it began with her side-eyeing me) I would take it away by turning around and facing opposite of her.  I continued to do this for at least ten minutes or so.  Eventually, she began angling her face towards me instead of one eye.  That progressed to her tipping her nose towards me.  Each time she would make an effort to look at me, i would remove the pressure like my life depended on it.

After about fifteen or twenty minutes of doing this, she began looking at me with both eyes.  Then I started reaching out to her. When she would touch my hand with her nose, I would once again, turn away.  She LOVED when I would take the pressure off.  She started bobbing her nose to me as soon as I would turn towards her.  That was her way of saying “I’m looking at you Summer, so stop pressuring me!!”  It was amazing to witness.  After about half an hour, I was able to start touching her with the halter, then the lead rope, and after A LOT of patience, i could slip it over her nose and tie it.   I didn’t do this originally.  At first, I would put it on, take it off and then walk away.  Once she was comfortable enough to stand there with me slipping it on and off of her, then I tied it.

I could tell that she had been led before, because she followed willingly behind me into the round pen.  Once I got her in, step one was to establish direction.  I sent her off to one side, and held my breathe to see if she was sound.  Not knowing anything about this mare, I didn’t know if she had any previous lameness issues that wasn’t apparent.  To my pleasant surprise, she FLOWED when she moved!  It was breathtaking!  She was so balanced and moved with such ease, I was already in love!  

From that point, I worked on turning to the inside, and then consistently turning to the inside.  This took another thirty minutes or so.  When I asked her to finally whoa, she walked out of our circle a little bit, but she was watching me with both eyes.  And breathing very hard obviously.  The rest of the lesson was just getting two eyes again.  Slowly walking towards her in baby steps until she looked at me, then retreating.  I stood out there for at least an hour doing this with her, until ultimately she would let me rub all over her neck and face.  We ended the round pen lesson here.

I always rinse my horses off after a lesson like that, and with it being ninety-five degrees outside, she would be a sweaty magnet for flies and other insects.  I didn’t know how she would handle her bath, but I started slowly, just as I did with her lesson.  I began spraying facing away from her, and she acted completely relaxed.  I worked my way towards her legs and sprayed the ground around her.  She lifted them off and on, but once the water touched her, she acted very grateful.  To my surprise, she LOVED the water.  She lapped it with her muzzle, and loved when I cleaned her teats and her forehead.  I was even able to spray fly spray all over her- not her favorite thing yet, but progress!

All in all, she impressed the heck out of me!  I have been dying for the opportunity to work with a horse that has her bloodlines, and she didn’t let me down!  She still has a ways to go-weight wise and of course her training, but I’m very optimistic that she will make an outstanding show horse soon!  My plan for Panda is to train her through the Summer and into early fall.  Depending on how her training comes along, I’d like to show her in some local halter classes, just for the exposure.  I’ll be offering her for sale in the fall to an approved home only, and preferably a show home.

Here is the before and after photo of Panda’s tail.  It’s hard to tell from the before picture, but the entire tail was a solid mat. It took two hours to get this knot out, but I’m so glad that I took the time rather than cut it.  Her tail belongs in a Mane & Tail add.  It drug about a foot behind her when she walked!  Whoa! This horse just keeps getting better and better!