Wildairo's first week home.

I'm very pleased with my new darling 2 year old mustang. I cannot walk because I'm recovering from getting my ankle replaced. It'll be 4 more weeks till I can put any weight on my repaired ankle. So I sit outside the pen and talk to Wildairo. Within the first few hours he nuzzled my hand, let me pet his nose and learned to eat out my hand. During the first few days if I petted him in the 'wrong' place or were too slow getting treats out of my pockets he'd lash out with his front hoof. I had to let him know I wasn't one of his wild buddies by clapping loud every time he did it and shout "No"! He'd bang the metal gate really hard with his hoof and I'm glad it wasn't my knee.

I'm impressed how the little stinker would rather stand and fight rather than keep away from me. I'd rather work with a bold fearless horse than a spooky one any day. I noticed his herd interacted with each other by using their front hooves and biting each other. I did note though that none of them had any wounds. He will put his ears back and threaten to bite if he reads my actions wrong. I'm being very careful not to become an irritation to him.

I've owned horses since 1970 but Wildairo is my first wild horse and I'm finding out that he has no idea how to interact with humans, so he's treating us like other horses. He hasn't lashed out with his front hoof since about the third day but he still threatens to bite if you make a move he's not sure of. Almost 40 years ago I cured an Exmoor pony of biting by biting HIS ear, what can I say.. I was a kid, but it worked and up until the day he died, decades later, I never heard of him trying to bit anyone again. I think Wildairo will stop once he doesn't feel threatened anymore. He will be a very sweet and gentle horse.

I have been scratching him all over with a bamboo pole and I'm amazed he has no fear of it, in fact he loves it! He also has no fear of plastic bags and quickly learned that they can contain treats. Because I can't walk I had my husband go in the pen and instructed him what to do with Wildairo. Here are some photos I took of Brad and Wildairo after he had been home for a week. Although it must be noted that Wildairo was at this stage within a few days of being home. I was shooting into the sun, so the quality isn't very good.








By the end of Wildairo's 'wild no more' lesson he was following Brad. He did threaten to bite when Brad raised his hand too quick. He'll get used to us very soon because as you can see he's a little darling. Brad became convinced he was tame and wanted to lead him around but I said to wait because Wildairo is not ready and I didn't want to push him. He's only 2 and up until a week ago was considered a 'wild horse'.

Next week he'll go into a much larger pen and he won't feel so defensive.