Sorry it's been a few days since the last update. Trouble with the broadband service !
Ritchie and I have started sharing Billy, and are both finding similar problems. Good, it's not just me then ! He is getting better with the carrot stick, but a fraction too much pressure and BANG he blows up. Not enough and he sticks two hooves up and ignores me, on circling game at least. Interestingly he is fine with porcupine games using the stick, and driving games.
Combine them into a circling game, be very afraid and wear gloves. I noticed that when he blew up today his eyes were still blinking and his ears mobile. Is he maybe still LB and just playing his own game at the safe distance of 22 feet. To test this theory when he pulled back hard today I drove him back vigorously, in effect saying "if you want to go backwards let me help you". Two goes at this resulted in a long lick and chew. We then managed several nicely controlled circles. Such a complex horse with so much "baggage" is making me work mentally very very hard. Of course this makes small advancements even more rewarding.
Apparently he has given the farrier some trouble when clipping the hooves. To try and counter this I have been doing lots of work with his legs. To start I massage them, then ask for the hoof to be picked up, then more leg massage as I hold the leg up. Hoof is then picked out, followed by more massage, hoof lowered to the ground, more massage. This may seem over the top but I am trying to counter all the previous times his legs have been handled. Every time previously it will have been for hoof picking, or farrier work. We know that this is good for him and kind, but from his point of view it is just a pain. I want to make "leg" work pleasurable so that he feels I am doing something "for him" not "to him". This seems to be paying off now as he is getting much better around the legs.
I then took Filly for dinner in the field. Very little training today, just no pressure time in the field. Since she was put out with ringworm and bought in with a bad hoof she has been very wary of the outdoors. Again lets look at this from her point of view. Suddenly she is out in a field 24 hours per day, with a filly who when they both come in season severely dominates her, then tremendous pain in a hind hoof as it splits. Not a great outdoor experience.
Now bear in mind that horses probably have a memory that is better than ours and we have an agoraphobic Filly. So making the field a really nice place to be and to try and bury those memories is a priority. All went well until it came to near darkness. A Blackbird then gave an alarm call to which Filly reacted violently. Fortunately she has an odd habit. Just prior to spooking she gives a call which I can only describe as a squeak. I know it is not very chivalrous of me to share this with the world, but then she can't read so will never know I have betrayed her secret. This gives me time to react to the subsequent bolt that I know is coming. We then went to investigate the area the noise came from. Reassured she returned to her grass. My philosphy when it comes to spooky things is to gradually approach the source of the fear, retreat, re-approach etc until she gets bored and eats, certainly not to move away from spooky things.
This makes everything that is scarey a potential toy to play with. Who would have guessed that big scary tractors are actually covered in carrots ?
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