Review and Hoof Oil

It was my birthday on Friday and I knew the weekend would not be complete without a visit to Gobie. After all, he was kind of my early birthday present to myself.

It's been super hot recently so we've been trying to keep the work brief. He had a bunch of flies on him, which I realize is a never ending battle, but there were at least two huge biting kinds so I figured that some fly spray was in order. If you remember we've been working on not being terrified of fly spray so this was a good review.

Once again he wasn't a big fan of the stuff and tried to get out of the way. But it was much less of a dramatic response and soon he was standing rather nicely to get sprayed. I think he could tell that it was making a difference with those nasty biting flies, too.

Since we were reviewing things, I brought out the dressage whip with the plastic bag tied on the end to see where he was with facing scarey things. I shook the bag pretty strongly a foot or two above his head and he tried to back away but soon was looking right at me and licking his lips. He remembered! Soon I was shaking the bag all over the place: down his back, under his belly, down his legs, on both sides and he handled everything like a champ. It was definitely a conscious effort on his part to not run away from it so I wouldn't say he's desensitized, but he has learned that when scarey things happen he should stand still and look to me--which is even more valuable.

Then it was time to try a little hoof oil. Gobie's hooves are kind of dry and cracky and tend to chip pretty easily. I bought some hoof oil with the hopes that putting it on every so often will help improve their conditioning. You might also remember that I bought some Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and some vitamin and mineral supplement. I made a mixture of that stuff and put it in a feed pan while I tried brushing on some of the oil onto his hooves. He wasn't really crazy about the hoof oil, I'm sure it was a brand new experience for him. But he was pretty good all the same. While he ate, I crouched down by his feet with his lead rope in one hand and the oil brush in the other. I would brush the stuff on his hooves and he would pick his feet up. He wouldn't try to kick or anything, just move his feet out of the way. But soon he'd put them back on the ground and I'd continue putting the oil on and it wasn't long before all four feet were done.

I tried to get a picture of all four of his feet, but as you can see he was too up-in-my-business for that!

Gobie did great! I decided it was probably time for him to enjoy field turnout with his friends without his halter.

Naked pony alert!

Bonnie had asked me about it before. None of the other horses kept their halters on, and generally speaking it's not recommended to have your horse wear his halter all the time since it could get hung up on something and cause injury. Gobie and the rest of horses at HorseNet Horse Rescue kept their halters on all the time for easy catching, so I had just continued that practice.  But since Gobie's always been really easy to catch, we decided he could probably do without.

Our training session was short and sweet--only about half an hour for all that. And thank goodness, because it was pretty hot out. I did hang around longer, though. With Gobie turned out with his pals, I sat in the shade of the tree to watch the herd hang out and be horses.

Nothing like a refreshing drink after a hot day and a little work!