Back to work....

Not Faith, obviously, nor me (God forbid!), but poor old Tilly. After having the best part of a year off work due to my pregnancy, the poor old girl is facing being conscripted once again into the world of honest labour, hauling my fat butt around the place.

Now obviously this will mean that Faith will have to face being in either the field or the stable on her own, now that Tommy is no longer with us. Now I’m quite sure that Faith would be absolutely fine in the field on her own if I was working with Tilly in the school, because the school adjoins both paddocks, so there would only be a fence between us.

However, if I wanted to take Tilly out on a hack, or if I wanted to keep Faith in the stable while Tilly and I were in the school, then obviously we would be out of sight, and I need to know that Faith would be OK with that. I could of course keep her out in the field on her own while Tilly and I were out and about. This would mean that she would still be able to see my neighbours horses who are two fields away. In theory this should help lessen her anxiety, but having said that, it didn’t seem very soothing to Tommy who injured himself badly in that same situation. So badly in fact that he was never sound again. Now it should go without saying that if Faith injured herself tomorrow and could never be ridden, she would still have a home with me for life, and be loved every bit as much as ever. But still, I’d rather she didn’t hurt herself. Also I think it is important that she should be able to stay in the stable by herself and not worry about it, as who knows what scenarios may arise in the future.

So with all this in mind, as well as the fact that Tilly is not in any physical condition to begin proper ‘work’ right now, I thought I would combine Tilly’s gradual re-introduction to ridden exercise, with helping Faith overcome her seperation anxiety.

So this evening I tacked Tilly up, mounted and just stood next to Faith’s stable for a minute or so. I then rode Tilly through the barn and into the back field, keeping within Faith’s line of sight at all times. Before Faith could get too worried, we turned and came back in and stood next to her stable. We repeated this about six or seven times over the next fifteen minutes or so, staying withing Faith’s line of sight the whole time, but not going back into the yard until she was standing calmly in her stable. After the seventh time, we left it at that.

So the plan is to progress like this in tiny increments, always staying within Faith’s line of sight. When she is happy with us being out in the field for a reasonable amount of time within her sight, then we will start disappearing from her view a second at a time. Obviously if anyone has any other suggestions as to how we should progress, all ideas are gratefully received!

Getting back into the swing....

This was the third beautiful evening that I have been able to get Faith out on to the yard again, and this evening she was visibly more relaxed.

We had a lovely groom, and as I managed to get about half a gallon of conditioner into her mane yesterday, having that brushed through was a more pleasant experience for both of us, and took considerably less time than it normally does. She was also brilliant having all her feet picked up and handled.
Nobody got any electric shocks this evening, although I still can’t work out what the trigger is.

Up until this evening Faith has not crossed the ‘drain of doom’ , even though the yard has been perfectly dry. However, this evening I wondered across to the other side of the yard to get something, and lo and behold Faith followed me! When she decided to go it alone back in the opposite direction however, she felt it necessary to execute an enormous leap over the drain, and nearly crashed into the wall of the stable block on the other side!

My neighbour happened to be exercising her youngster in our hayfield, and her companion mare was going ballistic in her paddock, hooning around and neighing her head off. Faith suddenly became very alert at this point, and grew to about 18hh. I stepped back from her, expecting her to rush towards the yard gate, but she just stood like a very impressive statue staring at the little mare running around the field. I went over and stood by Faith’s shoulder and just started scratching her withers and neck, and within seconds she visibly relaxed, and I clicked and treated every time her head dropped and her muscles relaxed.

I was even more pleased when I asked her to walk away from the spectacle, and follow me into her stable, which she did without a moment’s hesitation. So I gave her her jackpot, and left it at that.

A Shocking Experience!

Just a quick update from me, as Faith and I haven't really been doing anything very exciting.

We have however, encountered a bit of a hitch with our clicker training. Faith and I keep giving each other electric shocks!

This has never happened to me with any other horse, nor does it seem to correspond to what I happen to be wearing, and Faith is always naked anyway. My brushes are made of natural bristles, so it can't be them.

So every once in a while I click and go to give Faith a treat, but instead end up giving her a massive static shock. The poor girl is becoming very suspicious of me indeed, and I am slightly worried that this is going to have an adverse effect on our training. Some people have suggested to me that I wipe her all over with a tumble dryer sheet first. It may not work, but at least she will smell nice!

If anyone else has encountered this problem and found a solution, both Faith and I would be extremely grateful!

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.