Month: July 2019

On week/work days I have a short amount of time to train and care for the horses so I keep exercises as short as possible and pick ones where success is almost certain.

On a previous training day, I asked Odin the Mustang to walk past the yellow tarp shelter that is near the paddock. He struggled so we spent some time on that until he seemed certain that it really wasn't a danger to him. Sometimes it's hard to tell at the time if he's relaxed or just giving up because he's tired of the repetition. The way to tell is whether there's any improvement the next time. And there was last night walking past the yellow tarp shelter so we approached the barn.

You might remember that Odin, having grown up on the range in eastern Oregon, is not a fan of the indoors so I'd like him to get comfortable in buildings especially when the rains come eventually. Odin wants to please but has a limit if he's worried. I used the approach-and-retreat method to getting close to the barn. We approached until his body language told me he was uncomfortable then just hang out or back up (retreat) a bit until he thought about it and relaxed. Beege kept walking in and out of the stall near the entrance of the barn and I could tell that Odin was sorting out how he saw Beege in the paddock, then disappear, then appear in the stall near the entrance of the barn. Ultimately, Odin wasn't willing to go into the barn but he did check out the mat in front of the barn and put his front feet on it. That's where the exercise ended for the day.

Beege the OTTB has been surprisingly willing to do everything I've asked recently. I was surprised over the weekend when he was willing to walk all the way to the front yard, out of Odin's sight. So when I put Odin back in the paddock, Beege came over and nearly shoved his nose in the halter indicating to me that he was ready to go and show me his courage. This time Odin didn't care and wandered off to the upper pasture, unlike the weekend when he ran around upset that Beege was not within touching distance but still within sight.

Beege walked all the into the barn, peered into the open door of the tackroom then marched to the end of the aisle and targeted the mower with following along, seeing where this might go. I expected him to worry about the mower rather than enthusiastically target it. In fact, I had to kind of strongly ask him to leave the mower alone as the battery was plugged into a charger and I imagined disastrous electric shock. Beege resisted leaving the mower alone, showing me that yes he was brave and would touch the mower all over the place. I asked him to back all the way back down the aisle, stand where the cross-ties are, and please check out the floor there. I groomed him superficially just to give him an idea that's where grooming will happen and asked him to back out of the barn. As a reward I let him graze the clover that is growing in my round pen area.

I very much appreciate Beege's enthusiasm and willingness to show off a little. He's developing a lot of confidence, which was severely lacking when I first got him. He's turning into quite a Teacher's Pet.

An actual plan in mind for each horse.  I might jot down a goal but don't really write down a plan in detail because every day is different.  This morning when I fed, both horses were in head-up, eyes-wide mode.  Not sure what happened but I suspect that the noise from the neighbor's sprinkler bothered them both.  It's one of those that makes the ch-ch-ch, then chchchchchchch sound.

The other day I actually had time to take Beege out and let him explore the barnyard and round pen area, plus the grooming tree (a piece of webbing around the trunk of a large fir).  Jodee (elderly dog) demanded my attention before I could get Odin out and let him explore.    Then yesterday was their first farrier appointment since the move.  They were rockstars.

Here's an important piece of information to take into consideration when planning for training sessions:

I don't know to whom to give credit originally but my trainer posted it.  Odin the Mustang is bottom left, a Left-Brain Introvert.  Beege is top right,  a Right-Brain extrovert.  So even if I plan the same exercises for both horses my approach needs to be different.

My plan for Beege was to groom him, play in the round pen area around some cones with figure 8 and lateral exercises.  I didn't expect Odin to run around like a maniac in the pasture when I took Beege out.  Beege watched him and I let him face Odin so that there wasn't a galloping horse behind him and Beege was fine with that.  Every time Beege lifted his head to look, I let him look for a second then we did an exercise.  Beege has arthritis so I can't work him very long or very hard.  Our exercises are slow and I need to find places to stop so that he doesn't hurt himself.

After Odin stopped running around, I took Beege up the drive past the barn toward the front.  The distance is 100 yards or more, down into a dip and up so neither can see each other.  I didn't hear Odin running around when we left;  Beege was curious and alert, head a bit high so we stopped and backed up if he snorted.  I let him take it all in before moving forward again.  If he wanted to graze we went forward.  If his head was high and eyes wild, we stopped and backed up, took a breath and waited.  We made it all the way to the front yard after 3 or 4 stops, I let him graze a bit then we went back.  We never went over his comfort threshold. And that is the primary goal for Beege.

Beege exploring:

My goals for Odin were to explore the barnyard, try out the round pen, apply fly spray, and fly mask.  Maybe explore up the drive if we get that far and it's going well.

Immediately I recognized that I needed flexibility in my plan for Odin.  He wasn't comfortable going by the yellow tarp shelter even though he sees it every day from the paddock.  So we worked on that.  Make the spot near the shelter a resting place, away from the shelter the working place.  Trot then walk when approach the shelter, walk past without leaning in toward me, then trot in the shady grassy area.  Repeat on both sides until he seems a little comfortable then rest facing the shelter and move on.

The snowmobile trailer is parked on the other side of the round pen.  Odin snorted at that so we spent some time targeting it until he was voluntarily targeting it.  By then I wanted to practice a couple lateral (mostly shoulder — see above chart) movements before we moved on to fly-spray training.  Fly-spray training includes touching the bottle with his nose, allowing me to touch his shoulder with the bottle, then spray over his back.  He does not like the spray over his back.  Repeat until he stops moving at each step, then whew, graze a bit.  And finally the fly mask.  He's getting better at it because we've been working on it nearly every day.  At least that exercise is getting easier.

Training is done, time for a little grazing reward.

By the way, here's the result from my scrubbing the chicken-poo stall wall yesterday:

As much as possible I like Beege and Odin to explore (safely) on their own terms.  I think encouraging their natural curiosity also boosts their confidence.

This morning we started the usual morning routine: hay, water, open the gate to the upper pasture, pick poop.  Even though they eat pretty much the same thing, except for the pound of grain they each get in the evening, their poop is different from each other.  I could write a whole blog post on poop but will spare the few readers I have.

After my breakfast, I adjusted the fence so that I could start introduce them to the paddocks, barn, and stalls.  They were in the upper pasture so didn't appear to know I was in the vicinity.  I should know better: they know everything.  They were content in the upper pasture so I started the very nasty chore of scrubbing chicken poo off the stall wall that will be used for hay storage.

I was spraying a nifty disinfectant/cleaner/neutralizer product and scraping and scrubbing while listening to a podcast.  Later I will post an "after" photo because it cleaned up very nicely.  While scrubbing away I hear a snort on the other side of the barn wall.

Beege had apparently come up all the way to the barn and was likely startled by my scrubbing and other weird noises I might've been making.  I love it that they'll come all the way in to see what I'm doing and explore new territory on their own.  This is what I mean by encouraging their natural curiosity to boost confidence.  You can see that Odin is more wary and will let Beege do the exploring.  Odin did eventually come all the way into the paddocks, which will be their winter home, but he didn't want to stay.  And that's part of the idea: they can get used to it on their own terms and when I need them to stay, they will.

Beege explored all the way into the first stall:

Thanks Beege. He's like an indoor/outdoor cat and must come indoors to poo.

Yesterday I took Beege out of the pasture for a little exploratory wander near the barn. Both horses seem settled after moving last Saturday but Beege has always been a major worrier and gets upset if I introduce things too quickly to him. He looked around a bit when we left his buddy Odin the Mustang in the pasture but he responded to all the basic groundwork cues that keep both of us safe if he gets upset.

In the past, a tarp shelter, snowmobiles, camper, and other unfamiliar objects would’ve been cause for snorting and spooking. Or just spooking without warning. None of these things bothered him at all. Beege didn’t necessarily want to target the tarp shelter but he was fine walking by it. There’s a round pen area up by the camper camp and snowmobile trailer. I expected him to lean in toward me at the center when I asked him to walk and trot by. Not at all. He kept his circles surprisingly round.

Since all of that went much faster than expected, I secured him to a tree for a short grooming session. I’m keeping him in sight of Odin for two reasons: I want him to feel comfortable being away from Odin but I’m not going to take him completely out of sight. The second reason is that the barn aisle where the cross ties are located is currently blocked with bales of hay. And it’s nice weather. I prefer to be outside rather than in the barn.

Then Jodee started barking up at the house so I had to attend to her needs and the farm planner from the local conservation district arrived so I was not able to try the same exercises with Odin.

Odin did, however, touch the electric fence and lost some confidence. I stepped on a stick, which Odin thought sounded like the zap of the fence and took off. I thought that putting his fly mask with the velcro sound would be difficult, especially since he’s been resistant to having it put on. However, I’ve been clicker training him and he’s much more willing to have it put on. And once again Odin has proved how thoughtful and sensible he is. The fly mask was no issue at all, even when I tested the velcro by ripping it apart several times near his face before trying to put it on.

What did change was that he wasn’t sure he could walk through the open gate from the upper pasture to the lower one even though I walked through it twice, Beege walked through it. I had to lead him through it and that was upsetting to him. He went through it tentatively on his own this morning. Again, thoughtful and sensible.

Saturday was moving day but I had to wait until 4:00 p.m. to do anything.  I got everything ready for the 100th time (nothing is ever completely ready). Ran an errand, mowed the lawn, fiddled and finally started fretting about 3:00 p.m.  Then Meghan arrived and we left.

My plan was to load Odin first because he is the most difficult but will stand quietly even if he's nervous.  If Beege went in first, he'd get worked up while Odin took his time loading and if he started pawing, it might make Odin even more reluctant to get in.  We wanted to avoid that vicious cycle.  Meghan allowed Odin to take his time getting in the trailer, getting out, getting in and staying in.  I had the hay bags with the flags and he did target just like our practice sessions.

I loaded Beege and he went right in.  I let him get out once then asked him to come back in.  He did and we shut the door.  Beege whinnied several times after that so we said goodbye to Cheryl and Jay who boarded Beege since November 2017 and Odin since about January of this year.

The drive home took about 20 minutes and neither horse moved around very much during the short journey.  I unloaded Beege first.  His head was high and veins popped out but he wasn't sweaty. Odin on the other hand was a sweaty, foamy mess.  Poor guy.  He doesn't react but internalizes his stress.  As much as Beege paid attention to me during our training sessions, he ignored me for the most part.  I did ask him to move his hindquarters and a few simple things.  Mostly he giraffe-necked over toward the neighbors.  Both he and Odin started grazing immediately, which was very encouraging.  We took off their halters and went to the house to eat dinner.

I checked on them both several times.  Besides being bothered by flies that magically appeared they seemed content to graze.  I gave them a little hay, which to my surprise they ate even though there's plenty of grass and clover in the pasture.  I put on their fly masks so they'd have a little peace to get used to their surroundings.

Neighbors to the east lit a few fireworks, including some big ones but they seemed far enough away to not bother the horses.  They were mostly concerned with the neighbor's big dog that has run of its own yard but is in view.  Just after sunset I took off the fly masks so they'd have better night vision.  This morning I was pleased to see them still where I had put them yesterday.

With Odin I worked asking him to accept fly spray and his fly mask a little better.  He's still very suspicious of fly spray but putting on the fly mask is getting better.  Both horses got a remedial grooming, which is much more than they've received in the last few months.  Beege got to practice targeting again and I was pleased that the target is still positive for him even though it was in horse trailer with him yesterday.  It's so good to have this time with them.