Scary!

You know what' scary? Snow in October! But sure enough--that's what we got this year. In my neck of the woods it wasn't much, but when I went to visit Gobie this weekend there was still snow sticking to the ground.

Snow? in October?!

It was also pretty muddy. I tried to convince Gobie that he should walk all the way in from the field though the gate to the work area by himself, but I ended up meeting him 1/4 of the way. Which still beats having to go the whole way through the mud I guess.

I'll just wait here for you.

The first thing we always do is a quick grooming session. That way I can clean him up a little bit and check to see if there are any injuries or other weird things going on. With the change in the weather his hair has gotten to be static-city whenever I brush it. The big scrap under his mane seems to be getting a bit better though there's still no hair growing. And he's been getting some dandruff/crustiness in some parts. I'll have to pick up some anti-bacterial spray or something. But other than that, he's looking pretty good and getting rather wooly!

Sam was with me on this visit, so we kept it kind of quick and low key. We've been working on leading and going on walks in "unfamiliar" places.

The driveway is scary.

You're so handsome when you're obstinate.

The Yaris is scary, too.

Even though he gets ultra alert and a little nervous about it, Gobie is still very good when he's being lead through scary areas. He's more apt to stop and freeze than run, and for the most part he's mindful of where I am. He's also a good listener--so if we're walking someplace scary and I ask him to back up or turn around he always complies.

We hung out a little big in the grassy area by the apple trees on the side of Bonnie's property. Another thing I've been consciously trying is lounging on, and putting my weight on Gobie's back. He's always been very happy to have me give him a hug, or play with his head and neck.

went on a walk around. There were some scary things. Like the driveway. And the Yaris. Gobie is a little dude. Being nerds. Leaning on Gobie. I think Honey and BooBoo are BFFs now! Poor Gobie. When I returned him back the herd he ran around very passionately. And got completely muddy again.

Two nerds. 

But sometimes a horse can get a little worried if they see you on both sides of them at once. I think it has something to do with that left-brain/right-brain separation. Of course, it's an important thing to get over, because when you're riding a horse they perceive you as being on both sides and right on top of them which as a prey animal is a little nerve wracking.

Anyway, Gobie doesn't mind having someone lounge on him.

It's nice to have a shoulder to lean on, amirite? 

Sometimes he tries to walk off, but so long as you walk with him (or ask him to stop) he's very accommodating. He also doesn't seem to mind the weight portion of it--though I guess the weight you feel with someone leaning on you is different than carrying someone around!

Gobie's favorite part of the leading/desensitization exercise is getting to eat some choice grass.

omnomnom 

Also, sometimes Gobie looks like a regular sized horse, but other times he seems really tiny! I'm constantly re-assessing the practicality of actually riding him. I mean it's one thing to train him to be ridden, and another to plan for me to ride him consistently. We'll take it a day at a time, I guess!

Going back to the field.

When I returned Gobie back to his pals in the field he got a little nuts about it! When we were on the walk around the property Honey called for him, but he wasn't too worried about it. We also stopped to say "hi" to her and BooBoo over the fence. Honey had her head kind of hiding under BooBoo's which made me wonder if they were starting to bond pretty closely. Once I returned Gobie to the field he full-out ran to the other horses and very dramatically started pushing everyone around. I was busy putting his things away to watch it all but before I left I gave him a treat over the fence and noticed that he was muddy again--even on one side of his face! I wonder if during his dramatic return he slipped and landed in the mud, or maybe he just rolled? I hope that Honey hasn't traded Gobie in for BooBoo--though that might be the case. Poor Gobie!

Halloween Fun! Part ONE

I love Halloween, and so my family and friends and animals often patiently indulge my halloweenie activities. Today it was Gobie's turn!

First, a Treat!
We had just been to Larriland Farm for apple picking and pumpkins, so I was sure to share the wealth. I dropped an apple in a felt pumpkin bucket and enticed Gobie over.

Poor unsuspecting bucket.

Gobie made quick work of knocking the little bucket over and it rolled down the stairs of the mounting block leaving the apple on the top step.

You missed the goodie!

But that apple seeking muzzle soon found the tasty morsel and Gobie started noshing away on it. He took it all in one bite, and as he chewed it apple sauce got everywhere!

Delicious!

He very clearly enjoyed the apple, though I had to watch him carefully to make sure he didn't choke on it. It was pretty small. He got juice all over the bucket, checking it once again for more apples!


Bat Ears and Pumpkin Garland
Technically I can claim this was all in the name of our desensitization efforts! But in all honesty, I just wanted to dress up my pony in some Halloween inspired garb.

Bat ears.

Gobie barely noticed when I put a headband with bat ears on him. As far as he was probably concerned, it was just a funny feeling halter piece. He's very good about me messing with his ears, and yielding to pressure on his poll (that's the part between his ears on the top of his head).

The garland was a more elaborate process. It was a pretty long length of plastic-like black garland with reflective orange jack-o-lantern faces. It made a rustling noise when you would touch or move it, and in the sun the orange pumpkins glittered and reflected colored light all over the place.

Step one was letting him sniff and check out the garland.

Using his nose to check out this scary stuff.

Step two was having the garland making a little noise, by shaking it around, letting it move and drape as it would naturally. At this point he started moving away from it, but wasn't running or in a panic or anything. You can see his ears are point to the origin of the noise, but his nose and his eyes are on me.

Not crazy about it, but being very good.

Step three--once he was looking to me about what do with this noisy, glittery thing--was stopping all that noise. He was totally at easy by this point. I untangled the garland and draped it over his withers.

Calm and interested in what I'm doing with that silly stuff.

Draping the garland over his withers. No big deal! 

Once it was over his withers I brought it up by his ears and over his head. Starting with the withers is a good idea because it's an area horses aren't very protective of. It's the spot where other horses mutually groom each other, and one of the first spots where people start petting them. The ears, for a lot of horses, is an area that's sensitive and they can be protective about. Horses that are "head shy" raise their head out of reach whenever you try to touch their ears, which can be a problem when you try to put a halter or bridle on. Gobie doesn't have those reservations!

Garland on his head. Good boy!

I also loosely looped the garland around his neck, like a horse wearing a rose wreath after winning a race. I think he actually started to fall asleep a little.

You win at Halloween!

I was very proud of his good behavior. After all, it's nice to have a friend who will dress up with you for Halloween!

Diamond in the rough

Everyday is a new opportunity when you're training a horse. You have to assess different factors, not the least of which is how your pony is feeling that day. Sometimes it's frustrating--when they're acting like they're complete bozos and have forgotten EVERYTHING. Other times they're perfect and you're convinced they are a diamond in the rough. Today was one of those days. Gobie was SO GOOD.

He and the gang were out eating in one of the back pastures when I first rolled up. I'm super lucky in that whenever Gobie sees me coming he looks up and is interested in me coming out. There are some horses that are hard to catch, but I'm glad that Gobie isn't one of them. He wants to interact and that's half the battle.

Out in the field with Honey (and the rest).

We've been working on leading and he was extremely well behaved being walked from one paddock to our working area. He only stopped a couple times, and then started right back up after a little prompting. When we were in the work area we walked around the perimeter and he was brilliant. He walked forward, stopped when I stopped, backed up when I asked and the whole deal. It may seem like a little thing, but in the language of horses having a pony follow you and respect your space is a good achievement.

We tried a little tying to begin with and he was very good. From our last, and first go at it, I new that if he pulled back he wouldn't freak out about it so I was pretty confident about it. So I took the opportunity to pick out his feet. The front ones were fine of course. For his back feet I put a little food in his bucket (a mix of black oil sunflower seeds and powdery supplement, both for hoof, skin and hair conditioning). It worked like a charm! I picked up his back feet with no problem. It was also a mental feat for me. I'm kind of a wuss for no reason about the back feet but today I decided that I would forget that, and get as close and cozy as possible to his hind end and wouldn't you know it worked out well.

I also put some hoof oil on his feet. It's been a bit dry and the freshness of his last trim is starting with wear off so he's getting a little frayed around the edges. He was good about having the stuff slathered on, like an old pro.

Lookin' good.

I decided I might as well give him a dose of fly spray while I was at it. I untied him for this since I know we're still working on not running away from the spray. The initial squirt he wanted to get away, but I asked him to stand still and he did. Both sides, all up and down his legs, and it was no problem.

While I was spraying I noticed his chestnuts were gone! Chestnuts are rough spots on the inside of a horse's legs kind of like the rough part on your elbow. Except for some horses chestnuts get quite large and knobby. Gobie had these giant ones because they hadn't been picked off or groomed down. They don't serve any purpose, and they don't hurt anything, but they're kind of cosmetically goofy in my opinion. I had been thinking about trimming but, but I'm glad they took care of themselves. I actually kind of wondered if someone hadn't trimmed them off for me, and maybe the extra attention was why he was being extra good but Bonnie assured me no one had. He's just naturally good!

No chestnuts!

Unfortunately for Gobie it was also time for him to be dewormed this month. A deworming schedule is an important part of making sure that your horse and the pasture where he lives is healthy. Horses can pick up parasites just by eating grass and grain and so on so they have to be dewormed on a regular schedule. Gobie, and most other horses, aren't a big fan of being dewormed probably because the paste used to do it tastes yucky. The last time Gobie was dewormed Ben the Farrier did it.  He wanted to get away from the whole thing, but wasn't mean about it.

This time I started by taking his weight using a special measuring tape. The deworming medicine dosage is determined by the weight of your horse so I wanted to get an accurate reading. The measuring take goes around the horse's girth, or measuring around his body behind his front leg. When I first pulled the tape out Gobie was scared, so we did a little desensitization. I waved the white tape in the air and when he looked at me I stopped waving and let him sniff it. In no time he was cool with me wrapping it around his body. According to the tape he was about 800lbs so I set the dial on his dewormer syringe to that.

Gobie's no dummy so when he saw the syringe he threw his head up in the air. It took several minutes, but eventually I could put the syringe by his mouth without him trying to avoid it. Speedily I stuck that stuff in the corner of his mouth and squeezed the paste in and it was all over. Whew! He got plenty of treats afterward and (hopefully!) forgot all about it.

In the paddock we did a little more work walking around, backing up, and doing some general yielding exercises. We also tried a little lunging where we're both getting better. But Gobie's favorite part was working on taking treats politely throughout. Since he was being so amazing I was heartened and clipped the lead rope on the side of the halter and tied the rope end to the other side. With this makeshift bridle, I tested his "give" by standing at his shoulder and then pulling on the left rein to turn his nose in to touch his shoulder, and then on the other side the right rein to do the same. He offered no resistance at all! For a moment I thought: "I bet I could jump on his back right now and everything would be fine." But I resisted the urge :)

Ending on a great note, I turned him back out with his friends. Even though I'm pretty sure Gobie enjoys our interaction, he still runs to great his friends.

I went out to relax with the horses in the field. Since it was hot I went down to the tree line and sat under a pine tree. The other horses pretty much ignore me, but Gobie always comes over to say hi. It's pretty cute sitting on the ground and having Gobie curiously amble over and sniff my face and knees and feet. As if to say, "what are you doing out here with us, silly human?"

Under the pines.

Before I left I joined the horses in the sun out in the field and itched Gobie on the shoulder a little. He treated me to a little mutual grooming by using his upper lip to itch behind my ear. His muzzle was right in my face, so I breathed gently into his nostril. I had been drinking orange juice earlier, which must have smelled funny, because he flipped his upper link into the air making that silly face horses do when they smell something they have a strong opinion about. It must not have been too offensive, because he went right back to messing with my hair as I itched his shoulder.

Here he comes to say hi...

He looks like a giant from down here, right?

teehee! what a wrinkly muzzle.

I know not every day will be a productive and warm-n-fuzzy as today, but I'm happy to bask in what a great little pony he is.

More work!

As you can tell I've been pretty slacky about doing actual WORK with this pony. But I had several good reminders that it's time to get back to training.

First, Gobie had his feet trimmed again on Friday. His feet are actually looking pretty good! They're still kind of dry and cracky, but they're definitely benefiting from some consistent farrier work. That's the good news. The not so good news is that he was a bit of a jerk for Ben, the poor farrier. He handled the naughty pony extremely well, mind you. And Gobie wasn't dangerous or anything. But I felt bad about him trying to grab his feet away, trying to run away, etc. We didn't use nearly the amount of feed as we did the first time so it was certainly evident that Gobie wasn't so good the first time because he wanted to be--it was because he was distracted by all those delicious noms.

Before Gobie got trimmed he was positively dramatic about being separated from Honey, who was first to have her feet trimmed. Honey's feet are pretty terrible and she needed the farrier most of all. Her feet are super dry and cracky and she even lost a shoe which took a good chunk of her hoof with her. She was being antsy about having her feet done, which isn't characteristic. And Gobie was very passionately calling to her, and running along the fence. He was less nutty when I joined him at the fenceline.

Second, apparently the horses engaged in some stupidity that ended in knocking over Bonnie and her hitting her head! She is fine but has a good lump on the back of her head. Poor Bonnie! I don't know the specifics, but she was out with the horses and Gobie and Cinder had some kind of an altercation (probably about Honey?) and someone knocked Bonnie over. Rude!

So today I went out with the firm intentions of doing some ground work. Sam and Locksley accompanied, to get out of the house. We got right down to business, and Gobie willingly left a little mound of hay he had been munching on.

As I led him from one paddock to our working area, he stopped. I had been trying to get him to move by moving off to a 45 degree angle and starting again, but he was getting wise to that and walking only a couple more steps. So I tried an apparently much better tactic: wiggling the lead rope and bumping him under the chin annoyingly until he took a step forward. This got him moving in no time, and each time he stopped, we repeated the exercise. He definitely got it, and tried my resolve a couple times but as a way to keep him moving (and keep me moving not so much) it worked like a champ.

The first thing we did was the usual backing up, and turning on the forehand yielding exercises. He's quite good at these so I feel like it's always a good place to start and judge how he's feeling. As usual he was very accommodating.

Next was the fly spray. It's a training exercise all by itself, but it also makes other things easier if your pony isn't swishing his tail and stomping his feet to get rid of flies and other nasty winged biters. I'm happy to report that Gobie was pretty perfect when it came to the fly spray. He was a little flighty at first, but I ask him to stop and he did. I was able to spray up and down on both sides and he stood still like a champ. If he did start moving, he would stop when I told him. He's practically an old pro now.

Heartened by his fly spray expertise, we moved on to some desensitization. I have a white plastic bag tied to the end of a dressage whip which I shake like a crazy person all over the place. He was really good about this, too! He wanted to move away at first, but I ask him to stand still and he did. And I was really shaking it--loud, and furiously! And he stood there, a bit unsure, but very well. Now we'll have to start using other things and see if he remembers who to look to when scarey or novel things happen.

We then tried a little lunging. To be fair, I'm not that great at lunging in general. But he was doing a pretty good job at figuring it all out. I got him moving around in a circle pretty effectively, though he would decide to stop on his own and then no get moving again. But he did have good brakes when I asked him to stop. He would even turn in and come up to me when I asked. It was the getting him moving and staying moving in a particular direction which was tricky. I even got him to go from a walk to trot (though I don't know if you could technically call it a trot). So as soon as I can figure out if I'm doing everything correctly, I expect the actual lunging lessons to go pretty well.

After lunging a bit, we tried being tied. As far as I know, Gobie's never been tied for any length of time. So I thought now would be a good time to start as any. Step one was wrapping his lead rope once around a round fence post, taller than his withers. He's a pretty mellow dude, and barely even noticed for the first couple of minutes. Because I was standing right there, with the end of the lead rope in my hands, I gave him enough room to put his head down and get grass. Eventually, though, he pulled back and realized he couldn't go anywhere. No big deal, though. He just moved forward like he was supposed to when he calmly realized pulling back wasn't getting him anywhere. If he freak out, I could give him extra rope so he could back up, and then take up the slack again when he was relaxed. But he was pretty good about the whole thing. He was dancing around a bit, going parallel to the fence this way and that. And he also neighed to his friends. But for the most part it was an uneventful first go at being tied. Next time we'll do it again, only for a longer period of time.

It was super hot out so Gobie got a break for some water and a wander around the paddock. I should probably mention that the whole time Locksley was barking his head off. He's not a farm dog by any means, and is pretty observant of anxious animals and humans. So whenever he see me working with Gobie, he's very concerned about it. The more he sees it, though, the more he's bound to get use to it.

The last thing we did was picking up feet. I had Sam stand on the other side of the fence with Gobie's lead rope, while I picked up his feet. He was very good with his front feet. But, as I kind of expected, he wasn't good at all with his back feet. It's partly my fault. I'm a giant wuss, for no practical reason, when it comes to back feet. I'm pretty sure I don't stand close enough, and I'm pretty sure I don't hold the foot securely/reassuringly enough. That's because I want to jet out of there quickly in case he wants to kick. Academically that makes sense, but I've never been kicked before so there's no practical knowledge for that. Because of these failing on my part, I think he wiggles his foot around which reinforces my "better stand away!" behavior. Instead of going for picking up the foot I think I need to scale back and be happy with being able to touch the leg, stand close to the leg, and work my way up to picking it up and picking it out. And I probably need to psych myself up for getting cow-kicked a little and just get over it.

So actually the last thing I actually did was the yielding exercises. To end on a good note. I was getting a little frustrated about the feet thing, so I didn't want to end negatively for me or the horse. He was of course, great with backing up and everything. So I let him join his pals in the shade.

The whole thing took maybe an hour and I felt like we cover a lot of stuff, most of it kept short and sweet and positive. I wish I was able to come out more frequently since the lots-of-short-sessions method seems to work really well for me (who gets tired/frustrated/lazy) and the horse. I am also coming to grips with the fact that it's been a zillion years since I've trained a horse, and I've forgotten in muscle memory and actual memory some of the stuff. I need a refresher, and maybe a buddy! And patience and sustained motivation! Wish me luck, friends :)