Cold rain... yuck. Reminds me of home and not something we get much in Colorado. I had to skip training after work and get ready for keeping horses warm and healthy. I pulled all the blankets out and tested them for waterproof capabilities. I put blankets on a few of the horses (Tina, Z and Abby). The other horses are heartier and don't have as much trouble in the cold. The cold weather has come before the horses have developed their thick winter coats so...
I also got Z's wound rewrapped and cleaned. I'm so pleased - it looks a ton better and I think she'll be good to go for the clinic. Excellent.
I watched horses a bit, paying close attention to how Tina is doing. She's buddied up with Abby, the nice Thoroughbred mare that I board. Abby has been the lowest on the totem pole around here. Tina has allowed Abby to leave the bottom rung and become 2nd to last in the herd. However, Abby is pretty good to Tina and they stay together most of the time. I'm glad Tina has a buddy now. She's extremely submissive with the herd and I'm curious to see how they develops while she's here.
I did my chores, cleaned up and called it a night. Darn. I had plans for horse development tonight.
Showing posts with label Abby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abby. Show all posts
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Nina hits the trail and Trailerloading
Great day - gorgeous weather and time on my side. I started with Cowboy. My plan was to get him more comfortable with the trailer. So, we played online, especially sideways, back, squeeze and circle. I'm asking more for cantering in the circle online without any guff. :-) He's doing really - progressing nicely. Then, we went for trailer loading. He knows how to load, but he's not comfortable in there alone and he seems to feel claustrophobic when I close the panels on him. So, I worked on loading him and unloading him, closing the panel when he's in and I even asked him to step only the front feet out and then back in with the hind feet already in the trailer. It was a good session and he was quite accommodating. More tomorrow. I'd like to get him on the trail and load him some more. Time to progress with our games, also.
Then Nina. She was quite an LBE on adrenalin and got away from me a couple times. I have a couple new learn burns from her. She's learned to whip her head away and I had to be ready to hang on and not allow her to think that was a worthy solution. She eventually learned that pattern was not so effective - that's after I learned that it was coming and to be effective. After about 20 mins, she was calm, cooperative and obedient. She still needs more friendly game with the stick and string and we'll work on that next. Then we worked on loading into the trailer. like Cowboy, she loads fine but doesn't feel confident about the panel being closed on her. So, we took our time and gained some confidence. She was doing great after about 20-30 mins and I moved on.
Water! It was warm enough for the hose and my horses are all dirty and dusty. I also thought it was a good time to see how Nina felt about being sprayed with water. She struck at it with force and kicked at when it splashed behind the drive line. I played approach and retreat and she got better, much better. She looked nice and shiny with all the dust removed. She's so much bigger than last summer, too. I sprayed off Cowboy and Rain - they both needed it badly.
It was time to go hit the trail. I loaded Rain and Nina and headed to Hidden Mesa to pony Nina on her first trail ride. It was a fantastic ride! The first 1/2 mile, we came across a man running while driving his 2 donkeys in front of him. That scared the crap out of both of my horses! He was running towards us, which didn't help a bit. Nina went completely right-brained, moving her feet, pooping... I hopped off hoping that I could be more effective on the ground with her fear. Luckily, the guy cut me a little slack and came to a walk. That helped tremendously. We watched him go by and I hopped back on and off we went.
Nina crossed water - she had a little trouble, but following Rain she quickly realized she was going to be fine. We encountered numerous bikers - some who yielded to us (as they're supposed to) and some who zoomed by (very annoying). We encountered walkers, runners, even an ATV (not supposed to be there!). It was a busy day at the local trailhead and great for Nina!
She loaded up beautifully when it was time to go and we all relaxed into our journey home. When we got back, Abby was laying in the pasture and I was sure something was wrong. She didn't move at all when we drove up, which was bizarre. I grabbed Steve and went to check her out. She didn't move until we were next to her, touching her. It was doubly-unusual that the other horses were standing over her and also didn't come to meet us at the trailer when we returned. It was a somber sight. I walked Abby to the barn and checked her out. She stayed in a stall/run all night for monitoring. She seems ok - lethargic and tired. Not the typical Thoroughbred.
A great day with a lot of progression for multiple horses and for me. I'm missing Gemini - maybe I'll do something with him today.
Then Nina. She was quite an LBE on adrenalin and got away from me a couple times. I have a couple new learn burns from her. She's learned to whip her head away and I had to be ready to hang on and not allow her to think that was a worthy solution. She eventually learned that pattern was not so effective - that's after I learned that it was coming and to be effective. After about 20 mins, she was calm, cooperative and obedient. She still needs more friendly game with the stick and string and we'll work on that next. Then we worked on loading into the trailer. like Cowboy, she loads fine but doesn't feel confident about the panel being closed on her. So, we took our time and gained some confidence. She was doing great after about 20-30 mins and I moved on.
Water! It was warm enough for the hose and my horses are all dirty and dusty. I also thought it was a good time to see how Nina felt about being sprayed with water. She struck at it with force and kicked at when it splashed behind the drive line. I played approach and retreat and she got better, much better. She looked nice and shiny with all the dust removed. She's so much bigger than last summer, too. I sprayed off Cowboy and Rain - they both needed it badly.
It was time to go hit the trail. I loaded Rain and Nina and headed to Hidden Mesa to pony Nina on her first trail ride. It was a fantastic ride! The first 1/2 mile, we came across a man running while driving his 2 donkeys in front of him. That scared the crap out of both of my horses! He was running towards us, which didn't help a bit. Nina went completely right-brained, moving her feet, pooping... I hopped off hoping that I could be more effective on the ground with her fear. Luckily, the guy cut me a little slack and came to a walk. That helped tremendously. We watched him go by and I hopped back on and off we went.
Nina crossed water - she had a little trouble, but following Rain she quickly realized she was going to be fine. We encountered numerous bikers - some who yielded to us (as they're supposed to) and some who zoomed by (very annoying). We encountered walkers, runners, even an ATV (not supposed to be there!). It was a busy day at the local trailhead and great for Nina!
She loaded up beautifully when it was time to go and we all relaxed into our journey home. When we got back, Abby was laying in the pasture and I was sure something was wrong. She didn't move at all when we drove up, which was bizarre. I grabbed Steve and went to check her out. She didn't move until we were next to her, touching her. It was doubly-unusual that the other horses were standing over her and also didn't come to meet us at the trailer when we returned. It was a somber sight. I walked Abby to the barn and checked her out. She stayed in a stall/run all night for monitoring. She seems ok - lethargic and tired. Not the typical Thoroughbred.
A great day with a lot of progression for multiple horses and for me. I'm missing Gemini - maybe I'll do something with him today.
Monday, January 5, 2009
My fascinating herd...
For the first time, I've put all 6 horses out together. I've been keeping the 2 geldings separated - keeping 1 in the stall/large run while the other is with the mares and for the most part, Cowboy's had to be the one in lock-down. After all, he's only been here about 2 weeks. These are, for all intensive purposes, Gemini's mares.
Well, yesterday, Cowboy had a 2nd day with the mares while Gemini had to watch. I hate to do it, but I'm trying to be safe as possible and also try to get to a point where all the horses can find there place in a herd together. That seemed to go ok. This morning, no one had a bite mark or a worry. However, there was obviously lots of feet moving outside of the run where Gemini spent the night. The snow is majorly shuffled in that area. Nina seems a little defensive with Cowboy and she's staying pretty close to Abby. Which is very interesting.
So, I decided to let Gemini out and see what would happen. It was amazing and it went like this...
Gemini immediately went to roll. After 12-16 hours in a run, he needed to ROLL! As I stood there, my two mares Rain and Zarah trotted over to me and hung with me. They DO NOT like Cowboy. They both are offended by his very presence. They've obviously been buddying up. When Gemini was let out, they followed him around a bit but what was very interesting was that Nina and Abby followed Cowboy. Do I have 2 bands?
Gemini trotted around with some energy and Z stayed by his side like a faithful soldier. Rain followed him a little, with only a little energy, and then she did an amazing thing. She stopped, turned back to me and stood and stared at me. It was as if she was saying, "Aren't you coming?". Then, I just stood there and waited and about 2 mins later, she came trotting back to me from a whole pasture away!! She left the herd and came enthusiastically back to me! When Z took notice of what she was doing, she followed suit. When Gemini realized his mares were leaving, he jumped on the bandwagon and then all 3 were trotting back to me! Wow.
Cowboy stayed way out there and so did Nina and Abby. He slowly came back from across the pasture and his mares slowly followed him. I'm going to try to sit out there and watch more of the herd behavior after a couple of my work conference calls. I'm fascinated. The good news is that it seems there's little physical unrest - no biting, kicking, rearing. There's definitely antics, but it seems to be harmless at this point.
What a cool display of herd behavior. I love watching and learning about them and how they think and work.
Well, yesterday, Cowboy had a 2nd day with the mares while Gemini had to watch. I hate to do it, but I'm trying to be safe as possible and also try to get to a point where all the horses can find there place in a herd together. That seemed to go ok. This morning, no one had a bite mark or a worry. However, there was obviously lots of feet moving outside of the run where Gemini spent the night. The snow is majorly shuffled in that area. Nina seems a little defensive with Cowboy and she's staying pretty close to Abby. Which is very interesting.
So, I decided to let Gemini out and see what would happen. It was amazing and it went like this...
Gemini immediately went to roll. After 12-16 hours in a run, he needed to ROLL! As I stood there, my two mares Rain and Zarah trotted over to me and hung with me. They DO NOT like Cowboy. They both are offended by his very presence. They've obviously been buddying up. When Gemini was let out, they followed him around a bit but what was very interesting was that Nina and Abby followed Cowboy. Do I have 2 bands?
Gemini trotted around with some energy and Z stayed by his side like a faithful soldier. Rain followed him a little, with only a little energy, and then she did an amazing thing. She stopped, turned back to me and stood and stared at me. It was as if she was saying, "Aren't you coming?". Then, I just stood there and waited and about 2 mins later, she came trotting back to me from a whole pasture away!! She left the herd and came enthusiastically back to me! When Z took notice of what she was doing, she followed suit. When Gemini realized his mares were leaving, he jumped on the bandwagon and then all 3 were trotting back to me! Wow.
Cowboy stayed way out there and so did Nina and Abby. He slowly came back from across the pasture and his mares slowly followed him. I'm going to try to sit out there and watch more of the herd behavior after a couple of my work conference calls. I'm fascinated. The good news is that it seems there's little physical unrest - no biting, kicking, rearing. There's definitely antics, but it seems to be harmless at this point.
What a cool display of herd behavior. I love watching and learning about them and how they think and work.
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