in which Wild Pony comes home
Wild Pony (who still doesn't have her true name, yet) came home Wednesday night and I am totally smitten.
Tuesday morning was a bit of a panicflail because the stock trailer tires looked a little splashy and the spare we keep for the other trailer doesn't fit the rims, so I ended up driving to the dealer to pick up a spare tire and new rim just in case. Ran back home and loaded the pickup with bags, paperwork, maps, halters, ropes, tools, boots and gloves and anything we could think of. Headed out just after lunch - much earlier than I'd thought, thanks to the cold rain keeping the combine parked in the shed - and I drove the first stretch. The Elm Creek facility is right off I80, but since there's no good way to get to I80 from here, the route involves *hours* of twisty, hilly, two lane highway before we leave our state and finally hit the interstate. Husband said, "You need the hauling practice and at least there's hardly any traffic!" Which was true - but the traffic was all farm vehicles and semi-trucks, and it was raining, and I hate to drive, and the trailer was blowing around in the wind, and by the time we stopped for fuel my hands were cramped into white-knuckled claws. :P He drove the rest of the way...
We got to Kearney, Nebraska around... 9:15, I think? And checked into the first hotel we found with room to park a trailer. (It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night in the middle of Nebraska!) Had a lovely dinner and tried to sleep, though I was too excited to do much besides doze off.
Left at sunrise Wednesday morning and made it to the BLM corrals at 8:15. The Elm Creek facility is bigger than I'd expected, with over 400 horses there waiting for adoption. (Anything 2 and older is only $25 - the head wrangler saw the size of my trailer and said, "Hey! You have room for at least three more! Come see our geldings... they're all friendly!" Husband covered my ears and dragged me away. :P) My filly was in a pen with two other internet horses waiting pickup - was fun to recognize two of the others I'd been watching - and he told me to look her over and see what I thought. (You are not required to accept a horse you've adopted from the internet - if s/he doesn't meet your expectations or if there is a problem, you can turn it down and get something else). He'd been telling my husband that he thinks the internet adoptions are great for generating interest, but really the wrong way to go about getting a mustang. (To be fair, I'd say he's right. 99% of the time...) He was saying he wishes people would visit in person, and pick one out from the pens based on personality and connection, rather than color and pictures. So I was starting to get a little nervous that maybe I'd made a mistake - maybe I shouldn't have picked a horse out based on a handful of photographs and a vague impression...
But then I walked into the pen and my filly came RIGHT up to me. The other two darted away, but she was too curious to follow them. She circled me a couple of times, extending her neck and almost brushing my hand with her nose.
Then she trotted away and I got to see her movement in person - GORGEOUS. :D I knew I'd made the right choice for me. :D
The wranglers got her sorted into a pen by herself and again I was invited to step in and see what we thought of each other. Despite being a little nervous at the sudden separation, Wild Pony was bright and curious and came right up to me. A guy waiting for his horse happened to be watching and commented, "Looks like you two are going to get along just fine, eh?" And that just tickled me. :D
Husband and I backed the trailer up to the loading chute and... well, things got a little rough. Wild Pony panicked in the chutes and dinged herself up a bit, and I was *really* starting to worry about what I was in for - and then she stopped by the trailer door, sniffed the floorboards, and calmly stepped up and in as if she'd been loading herself her entire life. She didn't spook when we shut the doors and even nibbled a bit of the timothy flake I'd tossed in. Wrangler had warned me she was a "little goofy" and high-energy, but after we'd gotten her loaded he laughed and said, "If she loads that well every time you'll be in good shape!"
(Also, Husband told him that he should see the other mustangs we've got at home. Wild Pony - for all her panic in the chutes - was still NOWHERE near as wild and spooky as Ranger and Gypsy were...)
((We also had the option of having them wrestle a halter on her head while she was caught in the loading chute. I know many people do it this way because it makes the initial gentling and training go faster, but... well, they did that to Ranger and within 24 hours he'd yanked the halter off - along with most of the skin behind his ears. He's been a little headshy ever since. I didn't want to put the filly through that, and besides, she's only a yearling. No reason to force the issue yet. Also, she was so curious about me I didn't think getting a halter on her would be *that* difficult. Heck, if I could put a halter on GYPSY the war mare, I didn't figure this gal could be too tough! I politely declined the offer.))
So, anyway! The drive home was... long. And rainy. And I did drive for a couple of hours, but hauling a horse is even more stressful than hauling an empty trailer and I just... I couldn't handle it on those hills and twisty roads. Husband likes to drive and he seemed happy enough to take over, so I let him.
We got home around 7 - just at sundown, really - and backed up to the BLM-approved pen. Wild Pony once again acted like a pro - she calmly stepped out of the trailer when the door was open, looked around, took a step - and then FREAKED OUT. She hit the corral panels and bounced off, flipping herself ass over ears. I was TERRIFIED that she'd broken her neck or her back or her legs - but she stood up, shook herself off, and trotted around in circles until the other horses came over to observe from a slight distance.
She did settle down, then, but I couldn't stop shaking. I knew she'd scraped herself up pretty badly, but by this time it was full dark and (still) raining and she was upset and I was upset and there wasn't anything I could do until morning. I didn't sleep at all that night because I was so worried about her.
Waiting for dawn was SO HARD - I paced the kitchen and drove my kids nuts until they got on the school bus - but AS SOON as the sky had lightened enough to show more than dark shapes, I ran out to the pen to check on Wild Pony. She came right over to see me and looked bright and alert and eager. A little sore, for sure, and rough around the edges, but her ears were pricked and she didn't seem overly fearful or stressed. I went ahead and turned her out in the round pen where she'd have room to stretch her legs and nibble the weeds I didn't get mowed down in time, and I think that was the right decision. She trotted around a few times, kicked up her heels, and then came right back to me to sniff my hands and taste my coat sleeve. :D
Yikes - have to run back to the field so I need to cut this short, but more details to come this evening. Here, have a picture!
Tuesday morning was a bit of a panicflail because the stock trailer tires looked a little splashy and the spare we keep for the other trailer doesn't fit the rims, so I ended up driving to the dealer to pick up a spare tire and new rim just in case. Ran back home and loaded the pickup with bags, paperwork, maps, halters, ropes, tools, boots and gloves and anything we could think of. Headed out just after lunch - much earlier than I'd thought, thanks to the cold rain keeping the combine parked in the shed - and I drove the first stretch. The Elm Creek facility is right off I80, but since there's no good way to get to I80 from here, the route involves *hours* of twisty, hilly, two lane highway before we leave our state and finally hit the interstate. Husband said, "You need the hauling practice and at least there's hardly any traffic!" Which was true - but the traffic was all farm vehicles and semi-trucks, and it was raining, and I hate to drive, and the trailer was blowing around in the wind, and by the time we stopped for fuel my hands were cramped into white-knuckled claws. :P He drove the rest of the way...
We got to Kearney, Nebraska around... 9:15, I think? And checked into the first hotel we found with room to park a trailer. (It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night in the middle of Nebraska!) Had a lovely dinner and tried to sleep, though I was too excited to do much besides doze off.
Left at sunrise Wednesday morning and made it to the BLM corrals at 8:15. The Elm Creek facility is bigger than I'd expected, with over 400 horses there waiting for adoption. (Anything 2 and older is only $25 - the head wrangler saw the size of my trailer and said, "Hey! You have room for at least three more! Come see our geldings... they're all friendly!" Husband covered my ears and dragged me away. :P) My filly was in a pen with two other internet horses waiting pickup - was fun to recognize two of the others I'd been watching - and he told me to look her over and see what I thought. (You are not required to accept a horse you've adopted from the internet - if s/he doesn't meet your expectations or if there is a problem, you can turn it down and get something else). He'd been telling my husband that he thinks the internet adoptions are great for generating interest, but really the wrong way to go about getting a mustang. (To be fair, I'd say he's right. 99% of the time...) He was saying he wishes people would visit in person, and pick one out from the pens based on personality and connection, rather than color and pictures. So I was starting to get a little nervous that maybe I'd made a mistake - maybe I shouldn't have picked a horse out based on a handful of photographs and a vague impression...
But then I walked into the pen and my filly came RIGHT up to me. The other two darted away, but she was too curious to follow them. She circled me a couple of times, extending her neck and almost brushing my hand with her nose.
Then she trotted away and I got to see her movement in person - GORGEOUS. :D I knew I'd made the right choice for me. :D
The wranglers got her sorted into a pen by herself and again I was invited to step in and see what we thought of each other. Despite being a little nervous at the sudden separation, Wild Pony was bright and curious and came right up to me. A guy waiting for his horse happened to be watching and commented, "Looks like you two are going to get along just fine, eh?" And that just tickled me. :D
Husband and I backed the trailer up to the loading chute and... well, things got a little rough. Wild Pony panicked in the chutes and dinged herself up a bit, and I was *really* starting to worry about what I was in for - and then she stopped by the trailer door, sniffed the floorboards, and calmly stepped up and in as if she'd been loading herself her entire life. She didn't spook when we shut the doors and even nibbled a bit of the timothy flake I'd tossed in. Wrangler had warned me she was a "little goofy" and high-energy, but after we'd gotten her loaded he laughed and said, "If she loads that well every time you'll be in good shape!"
(Also, Husband told him that he should see the other mustangs we've got at home. Wild Pony - for all her panic in the chutes - was still NOWHERE near as wild and spooky as Ranger and Gypsy were...)
((We also had the option of having them wrestle a halter on her head while she was caught in the loading chute. I know many people do it this way because it makes the initial gentling and training go faster, but... well, they did that to Ranger and within 24 hours he'd yanked the halter off - along with most of the skin behind his ears. He's been a little headshy ever since. I didn't want to put the filly through that, and besides, she's only a yearling. No reason to force the issue yet. Also, she was so curious about me I didn't think getting a halter on her would be *that* difficult. Heck, if I could put a halter on GYPSY the war mare, I didn't figure this gal could be too tough! I politely declined the offer.))
So, anyway! The drive home was... long. And rainy. And I did drive for a couple of hours, but hauling a horse is even more stressful than hauling an empty trailer and I just... I couldn't handle it on those hills and twisty roads. Husband likes to drive and he seemed happy enough to take over, so I let him.
We got home around 7 - just at sundown, really - and backed up to the BLM-approved pen. Wild Pony once again acted like a pro - she calmly stepped out of the trailer when the door was open, looked around, took a step - and then FREAKED OUT. She hit the corral panels and bounced off, flipping herself ass over ears. I was TERRIFIED that she'd broken her neck or her back or her legs - but she stood up, shook herself off, and trotted around in circles until the other horses came over to observe from a slight distance.
She did settle down, then, but I couldn't stop shaking. I knew she'd scraped herself up pretty badly, but by this time it was full dark and (still) raining and she was upset and I was upset and there wasn't anything I could do until morning. I didn't sleep at all that night because I was so worried about her.
Waiting for dawn was SO HARD - I paced the kitchen and drove my kids nuts until they got on the school bus - but AS SOON as the sky had lightened enough to show more than dark shapes, I ran out to the pen to check on Wild Pony. She came right over to see me and looked bright and alert and eager. A little sore, for sure, and rough around the edges, but her ears were pricked and she didn't seem overly fearful or stressed. I went ahead and turned her out in the round pen where she'd have room to stretch her legs and nibble the weeds I didn't get mowed down in time, and I think that was the right decision. She trotted around a few times, kicked up her heels, and then came right back to me to sniff my hands and taste my coat sleeve. :D
Yikes - have to run back to the field so I need to cut this short, but more details to come this evening. Here, have a picture!