Feet and an Earthquake

Last weekend Gobie had his feet trimmed, again. The farrier was due out on a Friday, but he got tied up so we ended up taking at Saturday morning to do it. We were going to try having Gobie trimmed on the driveway, where the rest of the horses are trimmed and shoed but he ended up being too nervy for that. So we moved him closer to the fence, and he was much better. Instead of giving him a bucket of feed to occupy himself with, I gave him treats. That worked pretty well, except to make them last long I was being a bit of a tease with them--holding them in my hand and making him work to get them out. At one point he grabbed a bit of my finger along with the treat! I got a little blood blister from it, but as soon as I let him know THAT WAS MY FINGER THANK YOU he let go. Oops!

Otherwise the feet trimming went great and they look beautiful!

It was also a good note that I should be walking him around the place to get him exposed to different areas. He's leading quite nicely now, so that's the next logical step. This way he will learn that following me and listening to my cues not only goes for in our usual work areas, but all around the place and in "foreign" territory as well.

That weekend I also made some exciting internet purchases (still waiting to arrive in the mail): a surcingle and a mustang nylon bitless bridle.

The surcingle I've used before and loved. It goes around the horse, where a girth on a saddle would go, and it can be used to train horses to drive (like a cart), and generally listen to left, right, back, and "go" cues without having a person in your eyesight.

I haven't used this particular bitless bridle before, but I thought I would give it a try because it was cheap! Cinder, my first horse, was broke using a Happy Horse Bosal which doesn't use a bit and instead relies on a horse yielding to pressure around the nose. But I don't think they're available anymore. I've never used a bit to train a horse, and I've only ridden other people's horses in a bit so I figured I'd better stick with what I know instead of trying to train us both on something new! We'll see how it goes.

The big excitement this week was the earthquake that hit the DC metro area. Normally I make it out to the barn on the weekend but I was sick on Tuesday, and then when the earthquake struck I figured I'd better check on Gobie. It wasn't a devastating earthquake by any means, but I wanted to make sure Gobie wasn't worried after the fact or anything like that.

I came around feeding time and was glad to see everything was where it should be, and the horses all seemed calm and happy.

 Doing what he does best: eating!

 Cinder, the old, crippled horses.

 I could just grab some mane and hop on, right? Riiiiight.

 Having a twilight nibble along the fence line.

 Silly lip! "Where my treat?"

 The 6-year-old girl in me thinks he's saying, "Follow me through the gate to a magical land!" here.

Bye!

This weekend is looking like it will be a rainy one as Hurricane Irene makes it up the coast. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of this crazy weather!

Thunderstorm and a little work

It was a quick visit to Gobie today, thanks to the weather. The forecast was a 50% chance for thunderstorms all day, but Sunday was a 90% chance so I figured I'd give today a shot!

When I got up to the barn I headed straight to the tack room. I wanted today to be a work day since the weather was cool, it was nice and overcast and I had been pretty lazy the last couple of visits. I had the halter and lead rope all ready to go out in the field and get Gobie, but he was way ahead of me. He must have seen my car pull up, because he walked from waaaay down the far right paddock, to right where I was at the tack room and was waiting at the gate to be let in!

I gave him a treat and put his halter on and we took a walk around the paddock. Remember when it was a struggle to get him to follow anyone anywhere on a lead rope? No more, friends!

In fact, his skills as a halter horse and pretty impressive if I do say so myself. We walked around in circles, backed up, did some figure eights all will ease! I even tried some trickier things. Usually when you back a horse you face them and apply a little pressure to their chest and ask them to back up. But Gobie is smart and you don't even have to touch him, just start walking toward him. Even better than that, though? You can be leading him around and then start walking backwards and he responds in kind! That's actually pretty fancy.

The other advanced thing we did? While walking around the paddock I started jogging and he picked up the pace right behind me. Sometimes a horse will stop or keep the same snaily pace as before or barge ahead of you or worse run you over, but Gobie matched the pace perfectly. Even better? When I stopped quickly he also put on the breaks. He got a treat for that!

Leading a horse was one of the "tests" we'd do at Summit Stables. You could pretty quickly gauge what a horse thought of you just by leading him around and stopping. If the horse stopped way behind you, it was a pretty good guess that he was little apprehensive. A little petting and he'd come up closer. If the horse stopped ahead of you, he though he was the leader of the team. Giving him a poke in the chest would scoot him back. And if he stopped with his nose right at your shoulder it was safe to say that he respected you as the leader. Gobie had been the first, but now his nose is always at my shoulder.

After our leading exercises I tied him to one of the posts and got ready for some grooming. He loved it! He let me very gently clean the scuzz around his eyes, brush his face with a soft bristle brush, comb his tangley mane, and brush down the rest of him. He was so relaxed he lifted his back hoof a little in repose.

By this time the sky was getting cloudy and darker, but we still had one more thing to do in our grooming routine and that was the feet. He picked up his front two feet up like a champ and they looked great. I treated him after each successful time I could pick up, pick-out, and put down his hoof. The left back hoof was pretty good, too. He kind of wiggled it around a little but I think that's more an issue with the way I'm holding it or supporting it than him giving me trouble. The right hind hoof was not as good. I was able to pick it up and pick it out, but he took it away from me and then didn't want me to pick it back up. Three out of four hooves isn't too bad, and by that time it was starting to drizzle.

I wasn't sure if it would start pouring or just be a little mist, so I headed back in the tack room and got Gobie his special concoction of black oil sunflower seeds and supplements. As he ate it the rain got more steady and there was a rumble of thunder in the distance.  He finished his food and I let him back out with his pals to huddle under the shelter of the pine trees.

As soon as I got back to my car it started POURING. Just in time!

Big bad fly spray

Sam and I paid a quick visit to the pony today. I had two goals in mind for the visit: 1) get some sunscreen on his nose and 2) get some flyspray on him. I also wanted to play with his feet a little to reinforce the positive experience he had with the farrier the week before.

It was a lovely day out and Sam parked himself in a folding chair under the pine trees next to the driveway. Everyone was hanging out in that side paddock enjoying the grass and the buttercups. I had my bag full of grooming stuff and Gobie was pretty nosey about it. I really enjoy it when horses are nosey about stuff--going through bags, sniffing around your pockets and so on. I think it's the mark of a curious and thinking horse.

Gobie sniffed out the sunscreen right away. I remember from first meeting him at HorseNet in September that the white part on his muzzle gets pretty sunburned. It was already getting pink but I thought I'd at least make an attempt to keep it from getting too burned. He didn't mind getting the sunscreen on his nose at all! And comedically he flipped his upper lip in the air at the smell.

I brushed him off a bit and combed his hair. Pretty much all of his winter coat is gone now, leaving him pretty shiney and trim looking.

He was a little paranoid about Sam in his folding chair. Everytime he would shuffle around a bit Gobie would get more alert. I think because Sam was in the shade of the pine tree and he couldn't see him that well.

I picked up and scraped out his feet no problem. They are looking pretty good although the outerwalls are a little dry and cracked looking. I've got some hoof oil that I'll try to use, but I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't want to attempt it the same day as flyspray!


Speaking of that--you'd think I was trying to spray battery acid on the poor guy! He was very nervous about the whole thing but really was trying to be a trooper about it. I started by spraying a little into the air and then getting closer to him with the spray. He would try to back up and run away but I would stay along with him. When he stopped, or looked my way, or made some other attempt to face his fears I stopped spraying and gave him a good pat. He was curious about the bottle and sniffed it a bunch. I was able to get a good coating on him, but he really wasn't a fan of the whole thing.

By then it was feeding time for the rest of the gang so I let him go. Sam and I picked up some Black Oil Sunflower Seeds that I'm planning on feeding to the pony. Hopefully that will help with some of his hoof and coat conditioning and serve as a vehicle for the vitamin/general supplement I got him!