Monday, October 10, 2011

In which Indigo teaches us horsemanship

This is Midnight.

Midnight is Indigo's daughter. We had a bit of a mother-daughter reunion.

Remember this picture from the previous post?


Well this was about .5 seconds later. Her old owner is just about to say: "Well Indigo hasn't changed".



To answer some of your questions, YES horses do remember past horses. Indigo has remembered many we have been around and has been friendly with them.
However Indigo has a real issue with ANY horses within her 15 foot personal bubble without her permission, daughter included. Stay out of her personal bubble with another horse and shes quite pleasant.

After we rode to the lake we turned the two out in the round pen after the first pictures of Indigo's old owner holding both girls.


Indigo likes to be queen of the round pen. It's her personal continent and she will not have any peasants defiling her grass...err weeds.
Indigo chases every horse that we put in there with her that she can. It's the game of face making (which shes pro at), charging, ear pinning, squealing and striking, biting and kicking threats.

Midnight snuck slowly over to Indigo. Her long lost mommy, boss of the herd, love!!

The response she got was probably not what she expected. I've seen Indigo act it out a million times. Shes a witchy, crabby, squealy, ear pinning mess when another horse is involved that she can boss around. She rules her underlings with an iron hoof.


"You will remember who's boss!"

Indigo started to round pen Midnight, who did not object to her every body motion on where to move. Mom is boss!Midnight tried to stop once and change direction but that was not going to happen.

Oh she was angry.

Watch as Indigo shows us humans how to work a horse like we try to mimic in a round pen.

She got results, no special sticks, $500 DVD set or secret club to join.



Notice Midnight has one ear on the person (horse) working her the whole time.



"Turn now!"


"Not fast enough!"



"Pay attention, I said the other direction!"

Was Indigo being unusually mean about her visit with her daughter?


I don't believe so. Indigo saw fit that Midnights manners were put back where they belong. She worked Midnight until she was showing the respect she wanted to see.


After a few minutes of chasing Midnight around to where she obeyed Indigo's body language they went back to eating near each other like old buddies. Well until Midnights owner went to go get her, then Indigo had to put her two cents in about not being lead out first.

It's all about respect. Indigo was saying "pay attention to me and listen to where I tell you that you can or cannot go." When she seen that Midnight had her attention plastered to her, Indigo backed off and went back to eating. The second she took a step that was considered disrespectful (maybe in her direction, or moving without her permission) Indigo would chase her and make her change directions to her pleasing. It was pretty black and white really: Disrespect earned Midnight more work. Respect earned her a moment of grazing.

The world of horses is so simple that we tend to make it complex. Sometimes we place human emotions on them and forget to watch them for what they are; horses.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Mother-daughter reunion

As some of you might know Indigo has one daughter.

Her daughter is going to be fleabitten grey like her only she has charcoal flea-bite spots instead of Indigo's reddish spotty-ness.

Her daughter's name is Midnight. Midnight is 11 years old and has a lot of mannerism's Indigo does but isn't at all as fine and fancy as Indigo. Shes more like a stocky quarterhorse.

Midnight and Indigo have not seen each other in about 5 or 6 years.

Indigo's old owner came out for a trail ride with Maverick and I and brought Midnight. This is her in the pictures holding both mares.

We had a bit of a mother-daughter reunion. Stay tuned for the next blog post revealing the reunion pictures...
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