Kicking the bucket!

Or to be more accurate, picking up the bucket, of whatever size and shape, and flinging it around the field/yard/stable.

This is Faith’s new pastime. I’ve just been standing at the kitchen window watching Faith trying valiantly to pick up a large tub trug full of ice, and chuck it across the field. Thing is, she can’t get a great purchase on it (possibly because of wobbly teeth), so at the moment she is more dragging, than flinging.

She has also started doing this with the tub trug of water in her stable, which usually becomes the prime target, having thrown both of her feed buckets over the door and out onto the yard. I just hope to goodness she doesn’t overturn it in the stable, as she will give herself an almighty fright if the floor changes colour! Oh and before anyone mentions it, yes, she has plenty to eat. The EEC hay mountain appears in her stable every night, and I always give her more than she can eat, so she isn’t doing this out of hunger. Having said that, I might see if I can get my mitts on a swede or mangold to see if that will entertain her more.

I don’t really mind these shenanigans, it’s just that the rather expensive ‘horse toys’ I bought for her are littering the place, completely untouched......sigh.....

I Love my Farrier!

There, I’ve said it. Seriously though, he is just lovely and brilliant. He came to trim the neds this morning. I had been running around like a headless chook all morning having to haul water from the house to the stables, and grit the yard, as it had started snowing again, while trying to ensure my little boy ate his porridge up and didn’t spill his juice everywhere. So when he arrived, I was a bit frazzled.

My frenetic mood obviously communicated itself to Faith because she was a little unwilling to let me put her headcollar on this morning, and her demeanour told me that she was expecting something exciting to be afoot.

However, as soon as she stepped out on to the yard, and saw my farrier, she visibly relaxed, and stood like an absolute angel while he rasped her feet. Now there aren’t that many young horses that look at a farrier, and clearly think “Oh that’s alright, it’s you, everything is going to be fine.” I feel it is testament to the fact that my farrier is such a great guy, and so damn good at his job, that the sight of him settled my filly this morning, when I clearly had the opposite effect!

As if he couldn’t get any more wonderful in my eyes, he was going to charge me half price for doing Faith’s feet, because he only had to rasp them. I of course refused, but did remind him that our next appointment was two weeks before I am due to give birth, so he needs to brush up on his midwifery skills, and possibly bring hot water and towels with him next time!

Consistencey is the Key...

Leg densitisation is going very well. I have been using a leadrope folded in half and gently swinging it against Faith’s legs so that she is no longer so alarmed at the feeling of things bumping against her legs (rug straps for instance).

I have had to be really spot on with my timing though, as we have done so much work on foot handling, that Faith will lift her foot at the slightest tap on her upper leg. So initially it was a bit of a challenge to ensure that I was clicking the foot being on the ground, rather than the foot being in the air. Faith learns so incredibly fast that it is easy to teach her the ‘wrong’ thing with a bit of bad timing, but she is also pretty forgiving, and is so eager to learn and do the right thing that mistakes are relatively easy to correct. It is testament to the intelligence of her breed that within a couple of days she can effortlessly distinguish between a tap as a cue to lift her leg, and an accidental tap with a rope. It just goes to show really how incredibly tuned in to our body language and intent horses really are, and how they view what we are doing as a whole rather than just the concentrated aspects.

I shall continue to develop this work to get her used to a rope dangling around her feet etc., as no doubt at some point I shall drop the leadrope/longlines, or fall off and the reins will come over her head etc., and I don’t want her to be alarmed by that.

The last few days had really highlighted to me the importance of consistency in training with young horses. I am sure that our little hiatus with rugs has been partly due to the fact that for a couple of weeks I had really taken Faith’s good behaviour for granted, and was doing very little with her apart from changing rugs and giving her a flick with the brush. She had become quite grumpy with me, and wouldn’t stand still for brushing etc. which I had put down to the sudden cold spell we were having. However, since I have been making the extra effort to go back to doing 15-20 mins or so with her each evening, she has gone back to being amenable and rock steady in the stable, and seems to be happier in herself. So that is definitely a lesson learned on my part. I have to say it is also heartmeltingly lovely to think that she does place some kind of real value on the time we spend together, even if it is just having a chat and a fuss, and practicing foot handling or having a good scratch.

A Gap in My Training

We had a couple of rug related incidents which have shown up a gap in Faith’s rug related training. A couple of weeks ago as I was rugging Faith before turning her out in the morning, Tommy decided that it would be entertaining to run his teeth along the metal grille that divides his stable from Faith’s. This freaked faith out a bit, and she took off round the stable before I was able to do the rug up. Inevitably it slipped back, and for a couple of seconds it ‘chased’ her before falling off on the floor. To her credit she went straight over to it and sniffed it as soon as it landed on the floor, and straight away let me put it back on her.

However, since this incident, she has been a little spooky about having it on, and I confess I have lost my confidence a little with rugging her, mainly because I am heavily pregnant, and feeling a little vulnerable, and defensive of my burgeoning ‘bump’, not to mention the fact that it is also making me a little slow and clumsy. Consequently, I stopped rugging her at night, so that I only had to do one rug change a day. It turns out that she didn’t really need to be rugged at night as nom-nomming on her massive pile of hay has kept her nice and warm. As it has been lovely and sunny for the last week, albeit snowy, I have been letting all the neds out naked to play in the snow, which they have all enjoyed immensely, and once again, big piles of hay have kept them busy and warm.

However, yesterday morning felt a bit dark and cold, and I thought it would be a good idea to rug Faith. However, she had other ideas, and just wouldn’t let me near her with it, so once again she went out in the nuddy, and although she was absolutely fine, I felt rather bad.

So I have started work with the rug from scratch again, and have currently gone back to just rubbing the folded cotton summer sheet over her, and gradually draping it over her shouders and along her back. It is clear that she knows what I am doing, but there is some tension there, so I am keeping up the repetitions and a high rate of reinforcement until it is all utterly boring again.

I must confess, I am disappointed in myself for not being thorough enough the first time, and this time around I am going to make a special effort to get her comfortable with the straps accidentally tapping against her legs, which is another thing that owing to my clumsiness (and my inability to see much below my bustline), had started to happen.

One good thing that has come out of it though, is that I have started to re-think my attitude to rugging, and unless it is wet and windy, I have realised that Faith really is capable of keeping herself nice and warm in a natural and healthy way. I do think that plenty of long fibre food, of good quality, really is the key to keeping a fine coated horse healthy and warm in cold weather.