KBR / LRTC Training Case Study"Hoonah"A BLM Mustang |
Hoonah visiting with the volunteers
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"Hoonah" is a Blackfoot Indian state of being verb that can be best described with the phrase, "My spirit lies quietly in the morning mist." He is out of the Twin Peaks HMA near Susanville, CA.
Hoonah is an adoption turnback. We received a call from BLM asking us to pick him up as his adopter was not satisfied with him. He managed to get his halter twisted on his head, his original adopter couldn't correct the situation and it was digging a nasty sore into his head behind his ear. What we found when we picked up Hoonah was a delightful 3 year old gelding who instinctively wanted to get along with everyone. It hurt Hoonah for the halter to be touched so removing it was going to be tricky. The volunteers in Lincoln, and later at KBR worked with him so that he would remain calm in the safe squeeze in order to get the nasty halter removed. We were able to get the halter off safely, although the process was undoubtedly uncomfortable, yet Hoonah still chose to interact with the volunteers afterwards so the process wasn't too traumatic to him. Hoonah is a classic example as to why adopters need to ask for help when they get into trouble. Hoonah is now justafiably protective of his head and we had to wait for the sore to completely heal before we could comfortably halter him again. Volunteer Roxanne Mouldry quickly became attached to Hoonah and applied to BLM to be his sreassignment adopter. Hoonah quickly bonded with Roxanne and he was soon well on his way to becoming a happy, domestic horse.
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Hoonah at Foster Care
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| After giving Hoonah a few days for his halter sore to heal we started working with him. Since we couldn't halter him our approach was to make contact with the bamboo pole and work with him in the safe squeeze. As soon as he realized that being scratched with the pole felt good, we moved him into the squeeze, scratched some more and within a couple of minutes we could scratch him with our hands. |
Roxanne with a brush - "Getting to know you."
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By the end of the first session he was starting to relax to being quietly groomed along his back with a brush. On the second session we haltered Hoonah in the chute. We used a rope halter and made sure it didn't apply any pressure near his healing sores. He was fairly easy to halter so long as we stayed quiet and he faced up nicely after a few minutes on the line. |
Second day - doing pretty well
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Roxanne practiced haltering Hoonah in the squeeze during the third session. She haltered again and again until it was a totally relaxed process for both her and Hoonah. She also groomed him for a while.
After coming out of the chute, Hoonah came up to visit with Roxanne. |
A pretty nice bond starting
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By their fourth session haltering was a breeze, Roxanne was starting to be able to touch the upper part of Hoonah's legs and when at liberty, Hoonah would follow Roxanne around and visit with her.
By the sixth session Roxanne could halter Hoonah in his pen and the round corral, he was starting to lead, and he was being handled by more people including Roxanne's partner Larry. |
Fourth day - off lead
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