Onyx was the black and white pinto gelding from the 3 wild 3 year olds we took on at Fox Fire Stable. This was in the early '70's. There were no books or methods available (that I could find) about humane techniques to gentle the horse who had never seen a human being until the age of 2, 3 or 4. I was young but had a lot of experience riding and training horses and ponies who had seen people, so I figured the main task at hand was to get these youngsters accustomed to seeing, hearing, smelling and being touched by people. Then, I could use my skills like usual. (It did work, by the way - but it is much like the instructions for replacing a kitchen faucet, they say, "first - remove old faucet...") The hard work was the first part!
Onyx was lovely. He moved with anti-gravity, had suspension of stride and his own version of airs-above-the-ground. His sensitivity made him reactive to all the normal goings on in a stable yard and I was wondering if we should just turn him out on the forty acres, provide food and water and simply admire him. Leon claimed him and my brother and I supported him in his quest to tame the black and white colt.
He was wearing a halter, was gelded now, had a tolerance of us in his boxstall for mucking or feeding, could be loose in the barn aisle and could be "herded" to the large round pen to have a run.
We had built a stout round pen instinctively after the wild ones arrived. I found that corners in the stalls gave them places to get stuck and panic, so we decided to have a large space without corners. We could gently get hold of the short cotton fob we left on Onyx's halter, then attach a lead or longe line. In the round pen, I started him on the longe without a whip (I do call them wands because it is only a noun and whip can be a verb - that I do not do). I used my body position to explain to him how I wanted him to move. This was instinctive for both of us - I had been around horses all my life and he had, too. I would then leave him in the pen with water and some grass hay and each day I would toss something new in with him. At first it was a feedtub, then a tire, then a stuffed toy dog, then a bright red ball, then a small canvas tarp - and we left each object so they collected in there. A couple of times I fell over things while longeing him, but even that was good for him to experience.
One thing I never did with any horse was to act like a preditor; to sneak up to them or push them aggressively. The only times any of us had to be loud or make ourselves big and forboding were when a horse tested the boundaries by being aggressive with one of us.
Onyx needed slow, consistent, clear experiences with humans. He got plenty of exercise, but was not in race or endurance training, so he received no grain feed. Only grass hay, alfalfa hay, wheat bran mashes a few times a week with herbs and the trace nutrient supplement "Source" that had recently come out. I will be honest with everyone right now - his first and second hoof trimmings were done tranquilized. I fed it to him well before our farrier and friend (Mr. Jim Keith) arrived. I reasoned that, since it HAD to be done, why let it be scary for the colt?
Leon was grooming him finally with no over reactions to being touched. Leon apprenticed with Mr. Keith and eventually was trimming all the wild ones' hooves. They were starting to accept us within their own time frames and that was just fine with me! We were all learning so much.
