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Kahsahpay... (Sioux Indian for "Intelligent One")

don't miss the YouTube video of her 2nd day leading outside her pen -- and going BICYCLING!

Or day 27 -- her very first time ground driving!

She's our Guest speaker in the 2009 Learn to Speak Horse from a Native seminars -- JOIN US!

ARRIVED	September 2009 -- Trainer Incentive Program horse (BLM mustang, completely untouched)
ADOPTABILITY	AVAILABLE as a BLM title adoption, just $125!! (contact for details) ; 2/10/10 -- application in process!!
SPONSORSHIP: (Details below)	FEED: needs a sponsor! MEDICAL: needs a sponsor!
BREED/AGE	3-year old (2007 model) BLM Mustang Mare, currently 14.1hh (untitled; contact for details) (read history below the report card)
Skills/Training "Report Card"
Overall Health: A	Kahsahpay is still growing, at age 2, but she is already well built, graceful, fluid. Currently measures 14.1hh. She is already a nice width and an excellent weight. She has no known health problems or injuries at any time in her life. Her legs are in excellent shape; she has not yet had her hooves trimmed as of 10/1/09.
Ground Manners: B+	Day 10: Kahsahpay is only 10 days out of the wild as of this writing. She already approaches people to have her face stroked, comes for her meals, and is reasonably haltered. She is starting to lead and already understands not to yank backward. She likes having her poll and mane scratched, especially her withers, and enjoys her neck and jaw being petted. She tolerates a flat calming hand on her lower rib cage and the upper portion of her front legs, and can be petted all the way down her back to the tail head. Day 17: Don't miss the video of Kahsahpay's second day leading outdoors, outside her pen....including trotting and cantering on a lead while BICYCLING! January 2010: Kahsahpay's 90 day ground school is completed. She leads with ease, is VERY fence safe (all types), loads herself on the horse trailer, and has ground driven.
Basic Riding Skills: NA	Kahsahpay has not had riding training with us. We are encouraged by MHF to complete ground school but leave first rides to the adopter, for them to work to build that bond together. She is exceptionally bright, and curious, and constantly trying to decipher what we are asking of her and what she should do next. With the right partner, she should be an amazing mount, particularly capable of thinking horse sports.
Ideal Career	Kahsahpay's ideal career can't possibly be clear to us yet; however, it appears she will likely take to gaming and thinking sport horse activities such as competitive trail, working cattle, gymkhana games, etc.
Stall Manners B	She currently walks calmly from her indoor roundpen to her stall and back again without a handler. She also goes into her outdoor roundpen easily. She stands calmly in her stall to eat, but is ready to go back to pasture when her grain is done. She doesn't get panicky and seldom paws or bangs. she still waits patiently to be led outside, and is easy to put out to pasture or bring in.
Trailering Skills: B	Day 10: Only trailer rides were to the BLM holding facility then to CWER. We expect her to take easily to the task once her training progresses to taht point. Day 17: Kahsahpay easily loads herself on and off the trailer to eat her grain and hay. She has been closed in the forward stall, window open and shut, for as long as half an hour at a time, without any upset. She is ready to go for her first rides, and ready to go to the next seminar, 10/17, in Savoy IL -- trailering with our ambassador, TESS. Day 30, Kahsahpay has been on multiple brief trailer rides, and does very well. She loads well and is easily closed. She is still a little nervous about traveling.
Companionship / Pasture Manners B	Kahsahpay is VERY clearly an alpha, a leader. She seems to also be fairly easy going about that leadership role, similar to our Tess -- she is confident she is in charge, and doesn't need to beat anyone up to prove it. Kahsahpay has had several other horses allowed in her indoor roundpen with her, one at a time. She is submissive to Tess, but dominant over the other horses. She is playful and not aggressive but still clearly alpha. Kahsahpay began being pastured with our entire herd in December 09. She has settled in well and remains close to Tess and an alpha personality. She is not aggressive or mean with other horses; she is more leader than bully.
Manageability for Routine and Medical Care NA	Farrier: C. Kahsahpay isn't crazy about having her hooves handled, but she is managable. Shots: NA. Dental: She has not needed dental work. Worming: A. kahsahpay does great for worming, holding still and easily accepting her medicine. Grooming: B. Kahsahpay allows grooming of her entire body, but doesn't beg for it like some horses. Ears -- B. Allows her ears to be handled, rubbed, scratched. Clipping -- NA Bathing -- NA, we've not tried. Tying: NA, not tried to teach Kahsahpay to tie yet. Day 17: Kahsahpay has done well with 'sacking out', and allows most items to be rubbed on her sides and over her rump, and has lead briefly, blindfolded. She will stand quietly for a hand on her lower shoulder, but once you touch her upper leg she is still tense and nervous. She is comfortable with a hand half way down the side of her belly, but nervous about rubbing the girth line on the underside of her belly. She is good for having her ears handled, and enjoys her face scratched and her neck scratched. Day 30, Kahsahpay has completed all the basic 'sacking out' tasks, and easily handles tarps on the ground, all sorts of items on her back, etc.
adoption terms	Kahsahpay is at CWER on the Trainer Incentive Program. The adopter gets approval from BLM to adopt, and pays their $125 fee; the adopter does not have to pay CWER for the training time. Contact for details.

Overview: Kahsahpay is a beautiful, graceful, well balanced mustang mare who arrived a clear leader and interested in understanding our world.. The first day, we spent less than 10 minutes in her round pen. The next day she starred in our Natural Horsemanship Seminar #1, and allowed us to pet her face, feed her easily, and move her with gentle pressure about her roundpen.

HISTORY:

We hope you enjoy these posts from the Crosswinds free email list (see cwer.org for details of how to join). AnnMarie worked hard to keep the list current on the progress Kahsahpay was making...

9/18/09: (photo above, left) Here's a quick look at our new girl! She currently has less than 10 minutes of "human time" working in the round pen since she arrived home today. She is a brilliant liver chestnut color, a nice size and build, 2 years old, out of the wild into the holding areas on 7/4/08 (poor gal, ironic action for independence day...) Come meet her as the keynote speaker in our seminar tomorrow, 6-8pm, here at the Sidell Facility (location and details on our site at cwer.org). The seminar, Learning to Speak Horse from a Native, looks to be a great success!!

9/19/09: We had fantastic weather this evening for our first of 4 seminars on natural horsemanship. The new mare, a magnificent liver chestnut with no markings, is as fluid a thinker as she is a mover. She arrived yesterday -- having been selected by Mike and a volunteer because of her size, soundness and nice movement, but most of all because of her clear standing as alpha of the group of mares. she was standoffish and distant, and drove the other horses away from the humans when they were in the viewing pen. When she reached CWER, she hopped from the trailer into our indoor round pen and immediately went exploring this odd new place. We gave her a bit of time to settle while we handled the other 19 horses on the property, then returned to visit with the new girl temporarily nicknamed "electrolytes" (family joke). With less than 10 minutes of light ruondpen work, the curious beauty was inches from human hands, and stopped several times to meet the humans on the outside of the fence. We left her at that, and did nothing more with her until this evening's seminar. As we waited for the magic time to start, the pretty girl was allowing us to touch her nose through the rails. she sniffed at mike, so he gave her a horse treat 'cookie', which we were surprised to see her take and come back looking for more. our past mustangs had taken days to get used to our version of 'food', but she was clearly figuring this out quickly.

And begin the seminar....we explained to our guests how the mare arrived to us, and that while she'd been "in captivity" for the last 14 months or so, she had not had any 'normal' human interaction during that time. Some even argue that a horse fresh out of the wild that's never been held for any length of time with the BLM are easier to gentle. Mike asked the new girl to go to the rail, using a lunge wip as an extension of his arm. When she seemed relatively unphased at the wip, he changed to another which has a plastic grocery bag stuck in the end, so that it is noisy and more encouragement for her to move. She worked fluidly in each direction, clearly preferring to go on right lead or stride rather than left, and very early on was checking for ways to avoid the pressure, licking and chewing, and frequently asking to come in and join up. she also issued several mild challenges.

During our 2 hour seminar this evening, "electrolyte" worked easily at walk trot and canter in both directions; stood still while mike rubbed the lunge wip down both sides and 'scratched her back', and also walked and trotted with it resting across her back; carefully lifted treats from human hands without any threat, ate her first bite of grain from a feed tub, met Tess our 'benevolent dictator' and joined up with her wonderfully; allowed several guests to touch her nose, and allowed mike to stroke her cheek and even brush fingers across her shoulder. We had a great time, and I hope our guests did as well! we hope for a significantly larger turnout at seminar #2, which will be held in either Urbana or Savoy (still confirming), on October 4 (Sunday, 2 weeks from today). To be successful and work that event, our new mare (whose name will be a raffle starting hopefully tomorrow and determined at the end of the event next week at pet fair) will have to lead and tie comfortably, load and unload reasonably from the trailer, and hopefully will also be handling her feet and working on other key skills toward riding. with luck, she will be ground driving like an old pro as well. That seminar will also have a brief discussion of the purpose and background of natural horsemanship, then will expand into safety for horse and human in many areas of ground manners and of rider safety before and after the ride. as always, the key focal point of the seminar will be on understanding how a horse speaks to another, and how we can use that natural discussion to better communicate with our horses. we hope horsemen of all skill levels would find the seminar and discussions interesting and educational. ...

9/12/09: We had a cool thing happen with the Mustang tonight. When a mustang is brought in front the wild it is marked with a brand as well as a rope collar that has their number tag on it. Tonight I was able to sit in the round pen and hand feed her small treats. She really likes her treats. She would reach for a treat from my left hand but I would not let her have it until I could touch her with my right hand. She accepted my touch enough that I was able to untie the knot and remove the collar from her. After I had removed the collar AnnMarie went in the round pen and fed her a few treats. The mustang was even more accepting of AnnMaries touch than she was of mine. The mustang was so accepting of AnnMaries touch that she started trying to lightly move AnnMarie around the round pen. This was not a pushy charge or bulling bighting. She was just trying to move her as a couple of horses will do to each other in the pasture. She tried softly a couple of times and then AnnMarie told her to move. She listened and thought hard about it. This is one thinker of a horse. She stepped away and you could just tell she was contemplating the situation.

10/13/09: Kahsahpay has been leading indoors for about a week now. Yesterday was the first she was asked to lead outdoors. She walked confidently but was unsure what to do when asked to trot on a lead.

Kahsahpay had her second time outside on a leadrope yesterday....including going bicycling! This is the first time she's seen the bicycle -- this video is about 5, at most 10, minutes into their time with the bicycle. Hope you enjoy!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM3Jhoxs2Fg

January 2010: Kahsahpay has finished basic ground school and is enjoying simply being a horse in our herd. She is easily managed, and our volunteers handle her regularly. She has been ground driven a few times, and did well. She needs a little more work on handling her hooves and, rarely, is timid about leading into new areas. She is ready to go on to a great forever home.

Sponsorship: Kahsahpay now needs a feed sponsor. The feed sponsor donates to cover the cost of her feed monthly -- $35 per month at this time.

She also needs a medical sponsor. Her expenses to date have simply been a vet check, dental check, and worming. Soon she will need spring vaccinations as well.