A long overdue update!

I am very conscious that I have been grossly neglectful of this blog for ages now. Thing is, this is really the busiest time of year for us teachers, and I have been swamped with work. Mainly however, we have simply been plodding along in a literally unremarkable manner, which is frankly how I like it.

Faith is a lot calmer and less reactive now, and she is groomed and has her feet picked up, rubbed, and generally handled every night, and she is as good as gold with it.

A good friend of mine, who also has a youngster, made a very good point the other day when she said that you should always start training things when you least need to do them. That way there is no pressure on you or the horse, and when it comes to actually needing to do whatever it is, there should be no problem.

So with that in mind, I have started preparing Faith to be rugged. Now she has worn foal rugs before when she was very little, but as she was turned out with lots of other youngsters last winter, with free access to a barn, she was not rugged. So I am pretty much starting from scratch and not making any assumptions about what she accepts and what she doesn’t.
So we have simply started with using a hand towel. Firstly getting her used to it being rubbed all over her. Then I folded it into a thin strip, and practiced placing it over the base of her neck and unfolding it gradually. Now I am placing it unfolded over her neck, then pulling it back down her body very slowly, and over her quarters. Today, I got a bit more blasé, and was swinging it over her back, so that it made a gentle ‘slap’ sound on the other side, and pulling it briskly over her back, and off her quarters. Obviously we have been working at liberty with this, both on the yard and in the stable, and using lots of positive reinforcement, and she is brilliant with it.

Now that Faith is getting calmer and more confident, she has also started to get a little nippy. Now there is absolutely nothing nasty about this, and she is not in the least aggressive. However, it does mean that I have stopped using food rewards for the moment, and am instead rewarding her with scratches instead. This has many advantages, not least that we both enjoy it immensely, but it has the added bonus that it is impossible for her to try to nip when her head is in the air, upper lip extended, and eyes closed in complete bliss!

I should also say that despite being a supporter of clicker training, I still have not felt that it is the right time for me to pick up the clicker. Don’t get me wrong, I am using bags and bags of positive reinforcement, however, I just don’t feel able to be accurate enough yet, as I find myself having to concentrate very hard on what I am doing, concentrate on reading her body language, while exuding an air of calm nonchalance, and monitoring my own body language, and I am afraid that the effort of adding a perfectly timed click to the mix might make my brain explode!

We are having horrible problems with flies at the moment, and there were one or two days when Faith was coming in with an extremely sore and runny eye. For this reason, the horses are now in during the day, and out all night. I am continuing work with the fly mask with Faith, but I couldn’t let her get a sore eye day in, day out until we cracked it!

So today, as well as doing more rug preparation, we had a play with the mask, and I concentrated mainly on getting her used to the noise of the Velcro. Now her mask is brand new and has wide Velcro straps, so obviously it makes quite a lot of noise when ‘ripped’ apart. So I mainly focused on the Velcro straps, and after about five minutes I was able to give Faith a corner of the strap to hold in her mouth, and she was happily ‘ripping’ it off herself! Just as long as she doesn’t start taking the masks off the other horses, then that is fine!

We have nearly finished the last part of our grand ‘new, improved, and vastly extended’ Paddock Paradise track. So currently the neds are out on a U shaped path. Tilly, who at the age of 23 really ought to be the responsible one, has decided that this is a fabulous race track, and spends most of each night racing from one end to the other and back. I know this because part of the track runs under my bedroom window, which is always open at night, and quite often I hear the thundering and squealing as they all race by playing!

Faith has settled in really well with the other two, and there is a really obvious sense of affection between the members of my little herd. We did have a week or so when Faith was pushing the boundaries a bit with the other two, and they did what any sensible ‘parent’ would do, and withdrew their attention from her. Now this was not the aggressive ‘chasing the naughty youngster out of the herd’ behaviour that some would have us believe in. This was a totally non-aggressive, yet complete withdrawal of interaction. For a little while Faith was devastated and miserable, and her emotion was palpable to anyone who spent a little while watching.
Then one day, I saw her and Tommy giving each other a wither scratch, and shortly after, Tilly came over and engaged in mutual scratching with Faith as well. It really did look like the equine equivalent of a hug. From then on, everything has been hunky dory between the herd and as I said, they are all very affectionate to each other. This makes total sense to me, in terms of what I have observed with children. I have taught plenty of children who absolutely thrive on negative reinforcement as a means of gaining the attention they so desperately crave. Withdrawal of attention, and non-reaction to their often extremely provoking actions is far, far more effective, particularly when coupled with the rewarding of positive behaviour. I truly believe that this is what Tilly and Tommy were doing with Faith.

Little Voice

I got my first neigh from Faith yesterday evening. Now I was expecting something high pitched and ladylike from her. So when this deep, throaty rumble emerged, I nearly dropped! Someone has been buying my little mare the odd sneaky packet of ciggies!

Hoof picking has become the most boring thing on the planet, which is just as well, as we have had a bit of rain recently, and if I let the clay soil dry in the horse’s hooves, nothing short of a pneumatic drill will get it out!

Poor Faith has been coming in with the odd bite mark recently. I think she has been pushing her luck a bit with the other two. Tonight I was really pleased that she let me put some Dermoline on the baldy bits, so hopefully the hair will grow back quickly.

A Handsome Stranger Visits!

Today my neighbour brought her young IDxTB gelding to have a mooch around the school, and to help Faith get used to the fact that other horses will be coming and going to use the school.

He is a very handsome boy, and couldn’t resist doing a few fancy moves to get Faith’s attention. Faith was mildly curious, and had a few very lady-like flirtatious moments over the fence. However, faithful Tommy quietly kept putting himself between Faith and the fence, and ushering her away from the flashy young lothario.

So it was another non-event. Just how we like it!

Full House!

My farrier was here today to trim Tilly amd Tommy’s feet, and to trim the one hoof that Faith would not let him do last time.

I have been picking up Faith’s feet every day, and have had no problems at all with this one. To be honest, I had kind of forgotten that there was an ‘issue’ with it at all. My farrier looked a bit doubtful, but was pleasantly surprised when Faith was absolutely perfect. He told me a couple of times that I had done a rally good job with her, which is praise indeed from him.

However, I don’t really feel that I have done much at all, certainly nothing that anyone else wouldn’t have done. I am putting it down to the fact that Faith just feels calmer, more settled and much more relaxed.

My next door neighbour had a very noisy children’s party going on in his garden for most of the day. There were balloons, glittery streamer things, footballs flying everywhere, and loud music blaring out. All things considered, Faith was curious, but generally very chilled about the whole thing. She had a couple of startles, but on the whole just grazed calmly nearby.

The neds have also been in the front paddock, next to the road for the past week or so. The road is not what you would call ‘busy’ but there is a lot of farm traffic that uses it, and people tend to drive very fast. Not only that, but every second car seems to be towing a loud, rattling trailer. Faith has dealt with this really really well, and has surprised me by how calm she is, even when big scary farm machines whizz by.

Faith is two today!

Last night I introduced her to a girl's most vital accessory ... cheerleading pom poms!
As you can see from the vid, she wasn't entirely convinced.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpvmbGdXPo8

Tommy, was pawing away in his stable, desperate to show Faith exactly what to do with the pom poms......but then decided that targeting my phone was an even better way to get some treats!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnwSr3x9sCM