In April 2010, I bought a 5 year old Quarter Horse by the name of "Docs Patti is Playin'" aka "Bundi". This blog will act as a log as I train this very green horse to become a rock star search and rescue horse.
As Bundi goes through all kinds of ground work, under saddle work in the arena, trail work, obstacle work and sensory stimulation she progressively gets more confident and more "bombproof" - just what we want in a MSAR horse. Yesterday, my 9 year old niece and my 6 year old nephew came to the ranch to visit Bundi.
With Grandma and Grandpa watching and after I finished doing some arena exercises, we first started with me putting one kid up on Bundi's back and leading her around. I knew Bundi would be good as I've already done this with my own kids (ages 4 and 5). We then switched kids and my niece asked if she could lead Bundi. Sure! Why not? So my 9 year old niece led Bundi around with my 6 year old nephew on her back - both with big smiles on their faces and Bundi with her head down and plodding along completely relaxed and almost asleep.
But then the big change! The 9 year old mounted and the 6 year old led. Bundi wasn't quite as sure what to do with that and tried to follow me at first, but when I instructed her to walk and pointed in the direction the little boy was going, she went along and accepted the fact that she's even lower on the totem pole than a 6 year old human and better do as she was told.
What was even more impressive was when my niece decided she wanted to try a trot - never done that before. Bundi has one of the smoothest western jogs and I figured with me at the head leading her, I could stop her immediately if anything went wrong so we decided to give it a try. I jogged with Bundi in hand and she followed me with her smooth jog. My niece was bouncing all over in the saddle and giggling hysterically, but this didn't phaze Bundi at all - what a good horse to tolerate all of that on her back and for a child's entertainment!
I posted one of these photos on my Facebook page and Bundi's previous owner (who is now one of my "friends" on Facebook) made the following comment:
Holly cow! I never thought I would see the day a beginner rider, let alone a kid would be on her back! Nice job. She looks GREAT!!
And so we have proof that all that desensitizing work I've done on her back (slapping my legs on her sides, patting her behind and all over her body while mounted) has paid off and made her a quiet, safe mount for beginners and even kids - at least in a place she's familiar with. Now maybe someday I'll blog about the walk I did with her today out in the flower fields...with the wind howling...among the eucalyptus trees creaking...down a very claustrophobic, narrow trail bordered by high, dead brush that rattled in the wind! Glad I wasn't on her back then! But with a little more time, experience and training... No problem!
Cal Star helicopter at our last 16 hour horse training
(Bundi is the second horse from the right and very light colored)
Helicopter Heroes!!
As part of our 16 hour MSAR horse certification class, we have a helicopter (usually CHP or Cal Star) fly in to teach us hot and cold loading and to also help desensitize the horses to the noise and wind. Bundi's been exposed to the helicopter twice and has done pretty well (a little spin the first time, but more relaxed the second year). The video to the left is not of Bundi's ears, but shot from the back of another horse as the helicopter hovers and spins in front of us and gives you an idea just how close it is to the horses and how well they tolerate it with a little exposure.
Cal Star helicopter hovering in front of a line of horses
But this blog isn't about desensitizing the horses to the helicopter, it's about a fantastic opportunity I was given to ride along with the nurses and pilots that fly these machines to the scene of terrible accidents to try to save the worst of the badly injured.
Triple Duece Helicopter (the largest they have) ready to go
Preflight and getting ready for the day
When I first became a nurse 20 years ago, I really wanted to be a flight nurse, but my life path took me in a different direction. So on October 1st, I actually got a chance to see what might have been and I met the Cal Star crew I would be flying with for the day (I had eagerly anticipated this ride along for about 3 months).
We started the day around 10 AM with a quick phone call to the other Cal Star crews to get report and then headed out to the helicopter (via the "Bat Mobile" - a golf cart!) to check on supplies, do a pre-flight and orient me to where I would be sitting, use of the seatbelts, etc. During this orientation, we were called out for our first flight and all we were told was that it was a "deputy down". Hmmmm...as a volunteer for the Sheriff's office, that hit a little close to home, but half way to the site we were cancelled on route and had to turn around to go home - DARN! But if that's all that happened for the day, at least I got one flight in and I was grateful for the experience! The video below is of a take off from the base as we head out.
My view from the back seat looking forward
Upon returning home, I was full of questions. I asked the crew (consisting of two nurses and one pilot) everything I could about their training and what types of missions they flew. About an hour in to my interrogation, we got another call. Yippee! I get to go out again!
This time, it was a bicyclist down in a local county park and the short video above shows our landing on scene (note the emergency vehicles and the crowd of people around the injured). We landed in a large field on top of a ridge and tended to an adult male that had flown over the handle bars of his bike and hit his head. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet and his injuries didn't seem too bad, but we transported him to Valley Medical Trauma Center for a thorough check anyway. Once there, we landed on the roof of the hospital and rolled him in to the ER.
Transporting bicyclist (I'm now sitting in the front seat looking back)
It was 3 PM when we got back to base after this transport and finally got time to eat lunch! We were lucky to get two hours of rest before our next callout - a 5 year old child struck by a car! Oh no! Having a 5 and 6 year old myself, that hit WAYYY too close to home and I worried about how I was going to react to seeing that kind of a trauma on a child the same age as one of my own. We got to the site and circled the area several times. On the ground, I could see emergency vehicles and lights, but after our third circle, they canceled us. Phew! Didn't have to go through that trauma after all and the assumption was made that the child was either OK or the injuries were minor enough to tolerate a standard ride to the hospital by ambulance or car. The video below is of us landing back at base.
We returned to base, shut down the helicopter, got in the golf cart "Bat Mobile" to go back to the house and no sooner had we backed out of the driveway and turned onto the road when we got ANOTHER callout! This time it was for a 3 YEAR OLD CHILD hit by a car. UGH! Apparently, I was not going to get out of a pediatric trauma!
Nurses working on the pedi trauma (see the little foot?)
We flew to Monterey airport where we met the ambulance with the child and his mother. Fortunately, it was a very low impact collision and the child did not appear to be too badly hurt. We transported him to Valley Medical Trauma Center for a check and even before we left the hospital, he was already sitting up and coloring with crayons. The rumor was that he would probably be discharged home later that day - good news.
Proof that I really did fly with them! I sat in the back when we flew out to a mission, but then moved to the front seat next to the pilot for the trip to the hospital. The patient's empty gurney is on the right.
Roof top of Valley Med Trauma Center
For the second time that day, we left the rooftop of the hospital and headed for home. The sun was starting to set and I figured this would be my last ride because of their "no ride alongs after dark" policy. We landed at base, shut down the helicopter and didn't even make it to the golf cart before another callout came in - a transport from one hospital to another. As badly as I wanted to go with them, I had to stay behind and wave goodbye. All told, I flew out with them 4 times that day (comprised of 8 take offs and 8 landings) and found out later that they had a very busy night, too - not the usual kind of day for them.
Sunset and off again! The crew uses night vision goggles to assist with the night missions.
My hat's off to these hard working nurses. Their medical skill and ability to perform in stressful situations and within the confines of a helicopter is truly amazing. My career may have taken me on a path different from the one I originally wanted, but for one day, I got to live and experience my dream. Should I (or anyone in my family) ever have to ride along with them as a patient, I know I'll be in very good hands. After all, these nurses have wings.....just like angels.
A good MSAR horse must be desensitized to so many different things: Things like visual stimuli (ie. a tarp or flag flapping in the breeze), auditory elements (traffic, motorcycles, jackhammers, marching bands and bagpipes) and even tactile stimuli (like ropes or tack slapping against their sides). At times, it can seem overwhelming the amount of desensitization training that must go into these horses, but in the long run, when that bus pulls up next to you and lets out a loud hiss of air brakes, you'll be glad you put the time into it! Teaching a horse to think, and trust and listen to their rider instead of reacting on their instinct to run could potentially save your life!
So today was spent on auditory desensitization training with help from a very noisy CD entitled the "Mounted Horse Patrol Edition" from Spook Less Sound Conditioning.
I pulled out my portable CD player with two small speakers and set it up just outside the round pen. My plan was to lunge Bundi first and get her a little tired before I turned on the CD. The idea being that if she's a little winded, she'll be less likely to want to jump and run from the noise (as it turned out, we didn't have too much of a problem there). I had the volume turned up full blast on the the little CD player, but overall it just wasn't very loud and Bundi was pretty nonreactive. I think she took a step back when the bagpipes came on and that was about the extent of her blow up. Obviously, I need to get a more powerful boombox and turn the volume up a little more, but even so, this was an excellent introductory lesson for her and she did awesome. It's important that I don't scare her, just desensitize her and now that she's so accomplished at the lower volume, we'll bring it up a notch (or two).
Below are some short video clips that I took of her "reacting" to the various sounds and noises. At one point, she was so obviously frightened (said with extreme sarcasm) of the chainsaw sound that she tried to eat the speaker (video below)!
Alarms and Sirens - not much reaction to this since she had at our certification clinic earlier in the year and that was at full volume complete with patrol car and lights!
Gunfire! Also sounds a lot like firecrackers which she's not real fond of, but handled this low volume test well.
How about some rattling cans? Nope, not much of a reaction here, either...
Bagpipes and real dogs! Bagpipes tend to really freak horses out and inevitably when we ride in a parade, they will put us in front of the bagpipes or the marching band. The bagpipes was one sound that made Bundi pay attention and step back, but even so, she was very good. In this video, not only is she being subjected to the bagpipes, but live parking dogs, too (both auditory and visual sensory here).
More bagpipes and drums
And finally, something that gets on all of our nerves: Screaming kids!
It's important to note that of the 1.5 hrs that this CD played, I was standing right next to Bundi the entire time. Not only is it important to desensitize the horse to the specific sounds, but to watch the reaction and adjust the volume if they become frightened. The point is not to scare them, but desensitize and establish trust. Also, safety is a huge factor. At the beginning, I held her lead in a contained round pen to see how she would react. Where you see Bundi tied, she is purposely tied to a very stout tree and on a special "Tie Blocker" so that if she really spooked, she could easily get away and not pull down and drag any tie posts with her. But the most important reason for staying with Bundi while the CD plays is to teach her to listen to ME, that she can trust ME and when she encounters something scary, instead of reacting and running away, I want her trained to listen to ME and stay calm. With each of the sounds that were played, I was constantly reassuring her with, "It's OK, good girl." Those very words have saved my life multiple times with my old horse, Tina, and our encounters with wild pigs, a mountain lion, loose horses in a parade, and any new scary experience she came across. She may have been trembling with fright, but she listened to my reassurances, stood quietly and did exactly as I asked her to so we both lived to tell the tale!
Bundi did great with this training and is making awesome progress towards becoming that rock star search and rescue horse! Now to go buy a bigger boom box...
Well Bundi has the day off from training today, but that's not true for me. This morning I'm going on a 3 mile run. Thanks to my sister who is a certified Chi Running instructor and who recently did a clinic with me, I will head out and practice my Chi running skills (you can follow her blog at movinginbalance.blogspot.com as she trains for a 50 mile run - and yes, that's 50 miles in one day!) . As important as it is for our MSAR horses to be conditioned and of sound mind, it's also important for the riders to have some conditioning, too. Not all of our callouts and searches are suitable for horses so that means that sometimes, we have to leave the horses behind and resort to our own means of locomotion! ;)
So today, I swap my riding boots for my running shoes!
My trainer, Clinton Anderson with Downunder Horsemanship (more on him in another blog later), has made it clear that in order to have a well balanced horse, the horse must get an equal dose of long rides (many miles out on trail), wet saddle pads (lots of cantering to make them work and sweat hard) and concentrated training (bending and suppling exercises, teaching the horse to move the 5 different parts of his body, etc.). The previous two training days this week focused on concentrated training and wet saddle pads so today is a long ride day (or as long as I can make it since I don't trust Bundi to ride out alone and will instead lead her out in-hand).
So I don my rain boots (it's so foggy out there it's nearly raining), grab my training stick and most importantly, remember my leather gloves (I once got second degree rope burns on my hand when Bundi copped an attitude and pulled the rope out of my hand when she went balistic) and head to the ranch...
To the right is a photo of my training gear and necessities - my gloves ( no more rope burns), my fanny pack with camera and cell phone, my training stick and string and Easy boots for Bundi.
Bundi is barefoot (that's another thing I'll blog about later) so when I go out on trail, I always put on Easy boots to protect her front feet which carry 60% of her weight. I also use splint boots on her legs to protect them from stepping on herself or getting cuts from rocks or logs. The photo below is Bundi dressed and ready to go.
We spent about an hour and a half out on the trail as I hand walked Bundi. I don't lead her because I want her to build some confidence being the lead horse herself. I stand next to her so that her head and neck are out in front and she gets the feeling that she is leading. Also, the funny thing about horses - when they spook, they see that you are OK and since where you're standing is safe, they have a tenancy to want to jump on to you and take your spot - I try to discourage Bundi from jumping on me!
Once we get to an open area on the trail, we do some lunging work and get a sweat up. The video below is of me lunging her out on the trail.
We're very lucky that we have a cross county course, albeit a little rustic, but still usable, out in an open field. It was a great sensory experience for her to look at all the different jumps and to walk over the smaller ones. She was a little snorty at first, but she's starting to realize that when I ask her to do something, I mean it! So I'm getting fewer fights and balks from her now and as she does these things, her confidence grows and her fear is becoming less. Wish I had some photos of her and the cross country course, but the battery in my camera died. Next time...
I think we'll have a rest day tomorrow, but she sees the vet for her Fall vaccinations on Saturday and I'll trim her hind feet afterwards. I'll write more then...
Every time before I ride, I get butterflies in my stomach and feel nervous. Why? I'm sure it is fear driven and my body's way of saying, "What the hell are you doing?" Why is it that something that I am so drawn to and love so much can scare me so much? Well, horses are one of the most dangerous hobbies to partake in. There's no less than three very serious horse related injury accidents that are used as examples in my "Manual of Clinical Trauma Care" book for training nurses. As I write this, a friend of mine is in the hospital after a recent horse related accident that has left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. He's currently in rehab and with a little luck, he might walk again in another 6-8 months. I won't even go into my own horse related injuries, although fortunately, there aren't too many and none that were too serious or lasted for longer than a couple weeks.
So here I am, climbing on to the back of a 1000 pound animal with a mind of its own and because of the horse's very nature of being a prey animal, tends to be more reactive and flighty when unsure or frightened of something. While in flight, the whole purpose is to go as fast as possible to escape the scare without much regard to cliffs, tree branches, jumps, holes, etc. Now throw in the fact that horses have quite an arsenal of effective defense (and intimidation) tactics including bucking, rearing, striking with the front feet, kicking and biting. Below is a video of not only what a horse can do, but specifically, what Bundi can do. Outside of the general sassiness (head tossing, threatening to rear and racing around), note the initial buck and then the deliberate kick at the handler a few seconds later. This video was taken when I first went out to look at Bundi and AFTER she had settled down a little bit - I didn't get her first bucking spree on tape - she was a real rodeo bronc then!
(Even after that display of attitude, I still got on her back and she was great - the proof is the photo at the top of this blog).
Now top off all of the above with the fact that it is a riding "training" day. The word "training" implies that this horse is not fully trained and therefore could potentially do anything or everything.
Gee, I wonder why I get those butterflies...???
So, anyway, how did my ride go? Well I lunged her for 10 minutes to do an attitude check and she didn't buck so I took that to be a good sign and climbed on. Bundi tends to be very lazy in the arena so the brakes work really well (almost too well because if you sit deep, she will stop so fast you'll nearly fly over the handlebars), but the gas pedal is sluggish and slow to respond and sometimes backfires. So we worked on stop and go today. The backfires tend to occur when I ask for the canter and she responds with a "crow hop" which is a small buck in protest to my request. Fortunately, it is small enough that it is easy to ride out and all it earned her was a sharp smack on the ass. Sometimes that will elicit another buck, but fortunately, she didn't feel like doing that today. That's a game that I must ALWAYS win - you buck, I smack you on the ass, the game ends so just don't buck in the first place - she's still learning the rules to that game, but the bucks are happening less frequently now.
Just for fun, I decided to video some of my ride from the back of Bundi. This is riding a sitting trot, progressing to a posting trot and then practicing an emergency one rein stop.
I rode for 45 minutes and any ride that you purposefully dismount of your own accord is a good ride. So I would call this another good ride and I walked away with my spirit and confidence buoyed. I love riding and I love being around horses (until just before I ride again and those butterflies reappear...)!!
Tomorrow? A trail day and all those scary things associated with that...
Being a full time mom and self employed, my time is limited, but I'm determined to train Bundi at least 3 days/week. Essentially, the training schedule is:
Day 1 - Round pen work to release built up energy, review lunging skills, build respect, trust and confidence. After round penning, she stands tied for about 30-45 minutes while I do barn chores. This teaches her to stand quietly and patiently (something we're still working on since she does a lot of pawing at the ground).
Day 2 - Riding in the arena. I always lunge first to do a quick attitude check and get out any bucks then hop on and immediately go to lateral flexion exercises so she doesn't learn to walk away when I get on. When we start moving, we're currently working on emergency one-rein stops, flexing with the bridle and the cruising exercises at the walk, trot and canter. At the end of the session, she again stands tied to think about things and learn patience.
Day 3 - Trail day. It's important to take your horse off the ranch and expose them to new things, but doing this by yourself isn't always the safest thing. Right now, I'm leading her out on the trail and while we are out there, I still make her work. By moving her feet, I'm asserting my dominance over her and teaching her to respect me out on the trail, too. Eventually, we'll get to riding more out on the trail, but for now - safety first. At the end of the trail ride/walk, we always go to the arena and do another 10-15 minutes of lunging or riding. This helps keep a horse from getting barn sour. They quickly learn there's no rush to get home when getting home means still more work in the arena. After all of this, guess what? She stands tied for 30-45 minutes!
So today was a round pen day. She lunges at liberty, but when she turns, she must turn towards me, not away. Showing me her butt and heels is a sign of disrespect. Right now she has no problem turning towards me as she moves to the right, but for some reason, the other way is more difficult for her - something we're working on. A lot of what I do in the round pen is ground work exercises and desensitizing work to teach her to not be afraid of the tools I'm working with and to use the thinking side of her brain.
Below is a video with an example of how I'm desensitizing Bundi. I'm whipping the ground and the air around her with a whip, but she has been trained to stand quiet, calm and still despite all the noise and movement - that's exactly what I want her to do. It also helps to instill trust in me that despite all that is going on around her, she must use the thinking side of her brain (as opposed to the reactive side which says "run away") and realize that I've asked her to stand still and she is OK and not being hurt by obeying me.
And one last video - I'm using the same whip to "flog her with kindness" as my trainer calls it. This gets her used to the whip touching her and she learns that the correct response is to just stand quietly. This is a great exercise for real flighty horses and head shy horses to build trust in the handler and learn to relax with their head. You'll see that I can "flog" her with the whip all over her body and she doesn't mind at all, even when I accidentally lay the whip across her eye and pop her in the nose! Good horse!
Athena's Victory, aka "Tina", was a beautiful bay, Morgan mare with a thick neck, athletic body and rock hard hooves. I bought her when she was 13 years old in 1997 from a Morgan breeder that mostly used her as a brood mare and as a secondary horse that could be ridden when visitors came. Over time, Tina and I did endurance riding (NATRC) and then eventually found a mounted search and rescue unit to join. When I first got her, she was afraid of her own shadow since she had only been used as a brood mare, but with lots of miles and time, she became very solid and confident and one of our best MSAR horses participating in parades and many different kinds of PR events with lots of sensory.
On April 14, 2010, at the age of 25, I had to put Tina down due to health issues. Two weeks earlier I bought another horse and brought her home the same day I put Tina down. It was as if Tina had waited for me to find her replacement before her health got really bad.
My new horse was a beautiful, 5 year old Palomino Quarter Horse with a good mind, but very, very green. This blog will act as a log as I work with and train "Docs Patti is Playin", aka "Bundi" to become another rock star MSAR horse like my Tina.
