Quick update on Filly first. She seems to have settled into her field now with the other filly. Very interesting watching their interactions though. Filly is definitely not the alpha. There were piles of hay in the field and it was noticeable that she always yielded her place when the other came over. Not even letting the other filly get close before moving on. I am actually quite pleased about this. It is to my knowledge the first time that she has spent a long period of time not being the alpha. She has of course be seriously attacked by other horses in the past, but I'm fairly convinced that this was because she did not know how to yield to a dominant horse in proper horse style. Hopefully this has now been cured. As to her ringworm she still only has the one small outbreak on her face, but this is dry and the lump appears to be receding. It is hard not being able to stroke her however, and it is clear from her look that she can't understand why I won't get within 5 feet of her.
As a result of this I am of course starting to work with Billy. Why do people insist on saying they "work" with their horse ? For me horses are a hobby, so it is more accurate to say that I "play" with Billy. Anyway I went to the field and again Billy left the other two and walked over to greet me. I started by putting the rope and halter on the ground for him to thoroughly investigate, and he really gave them a good examination. It's really only polite to let a horse have a good look at what is about to tie them up with after all. Haltering went much easier after this procedure ( I stupidly forgot to do it last time ) and we started with the ever popular "porcupine" game (steady pressure from a stick). First of was hind quarter porcupine. This resulted in him reversing about 100 meters. I kept the pressure on and eventually the hind quarters swung away and I removed the pressure. The look of "OH, that's what you meant" was obvious. Pause to let him lick and chew on it and the next attempt was only 10 meters back and then yield. Progress !
We then moved to fore quarter porcupine. Filly really really resisted this one, but Billy was much better. Still a bit reluctant but OK. Only asked the head and neck to move this time, but we will work up to feet later. Also played lots of YoYo. Getting pretty good at the back up. Started having to go as far as phase 3 on the rope wiggling, but came down to phase 2 after a while.
This had all taken place with the other horses nearby. At this point they noticed something at the gate and shot over there in hopes of an apple I guess, leaving Billy with me. Now horses like Comfort and Safety. Well Billy was obviously comfortable in his own field, but with the rest of his herd, including his "leader" the mare, leaving he no longer felt safe. I am not enough of a leader to him yet to act as substitute. So he went into Right Brain Extrovert mode (RBE). Right brain means that he has become unconfident and liable to be "spooky" and extrovert means he wants to move his feet, and he did. Suddenly I had a 450kg animal pulling on the end of the rope. Fortunately using a rope halter this is almost as uncomfortable for him as me. I follow the principle that as soon as he stops moving I take all the pressure off the rope as a reward. If he runs around then there is pressure and the rope wriggles to add to the commotion. As soon as he stops moving then the pressure goes away and so on. After about 5 minutes of this he learned to stand still. A few long snorts ( I always think of the snot coming out as his adrenalin leaving him ) and he settled down. I then approached him and he remained calm so I took off the halter, played some friendly game and let him return to his herd.
This horse is going to be a lot of fun to train. He is very quick to pick up new ideas, with enough spirit to never be boring
No comments:
Post a Comment