Thousand

Thousand was a scruffy looking stallion with long, long winter hair on his chest. He looked a little knock-knee to me but when he cantered he moved well. Besides we could pet him right then and there. We decided to take him home. A day or two later we had him hauled to Roads End Farm. He took up residence in the stall attached to the round pen just as Shunka had the year before.

Poor Thousand, he was so mud and muck caked and dejected looking when we first brought him home. It is hard to believe the beautiful sorrel pictured above is the same horse.  Still we could pet him the first day just as we had Shunka. We petted him from outside the pen at first as he was a three year old stallion and had been in the holding pens quite a while.  Before long L. T. began to clean him up. It took a very long time using a curry comb to get all of the muck out of his fur.  Still he was such a sweet horse that you couldn't help but love him right away.

After a while L. T. began working with him in the round pen. Everything was fine till L. T. asked him to trot then - all out, full blown panic. I truly think Thousand would have tried to jump over the six foot wooden fence if I hadn't hurried around and started talking to him. You see Thousand and I had become friends just as Shunka and L.T. had. I was able to slow him down and we were able to coax him back in his stall where he felt safe. Still the damage was done. We were back at square one in his training.

It took a while longer but I finally convince L. T. to try clicker training with Thousand.  We started him out in his stall behind a stall guard just as we had Shunka. It wasn't long till he was learning. We have had him over two years now and in spite of having to go back to square one he has learned all the ground work, Shadowing, to play ball, and most important he has overcome the bugaboo that sent us back to square one. He circles L. T. on command at liberty in the pasture at a trot. In fact he loves to trot and run. I take him in the round pen sometimes and let him run around me in the same manner that panicked  him on that long ago day. The difference is now he does it for fun and knows if he stops when I ask he will get a click and a bit of carrot or an animal cracker.  He too is now a happy horse because of clicker training.

Finally in December of last year we had Thousand gelded. We didn't do it to correct behavior problems. We did it because we weren't ever going to use him for breeding and saw no reason for him to live a life of frustration.  Since then he has changed little except to become perhaps even more loving toward L. T. and I than he was before. 1000 was his number and became his name. We could never change his name for Thousand is truly one in a thousand or perhaps in a million.