Spats and Spice - educating youngsters.

[Zoe RA]

This morning I was visiting a pair of yearlings who, although they are home bred, have missed out a little bit on the basics.

Their owner first called me in to help when her farrier recommended me because they were both having trouble holding their feet up for him, and they were both very sticky to lead. Spats, the Shire X Tb gelding,had also developed a nice line in rearing when he didn't want to do something, and Spice, the Warm Blood filly, just "DIDN'T" if she didn't understand or didn't want too. Both were very reluctant to lead anywhere, and Spats was very spooky if taken out of sight of the others - which also incorporated his rearing routine!

They are both now very happily leading out on their own round the woods and tracks were they live, and on our walks we walk them over the lowest of the X Country jumps that their owner has on her land. This is very useful for teaching youngsters how to coordinate their legs, and helps them learn to trust their owner.

Today we worked on teaching them to be tied up happily and to be thoroughly groomed and feet picked up.

To teach them to tie, I had the long line looped through the ring and stood a little way off so that I wasn't obviously holding them, but could be there for them if they started to get worried. Both of them were as good as gold

Next time I go and see them we are going to so some spook busting with both them and their field companion, who, although he is a much older chap who is regularly hunted etc, is apparently far spookyer than they are!!

This is Spice doing her impersonation of a Bracken Thicket

[Zoe RA]

It's official, Spats has turned into a pushy teenager

He has been challenging his field companions, and has now started to challenge his owners So, instead of spook busting, we spent our time just reestablishing the ground rules.

He has learned a nifty little moving his owners trick involving not allowing them to move him round. Instead of asking him to move away from them to change direction when walking, the only way they have been able to change direction has been to pull him round. This has risked life and limb as he has been immediately trying to run them over. Not funny as he is getting quite big now!


He is going to be work in progress, but I have given his owners plenty to be working with until I go again, all related to not allowing him to move them around.

We also did some work with umbrellas with the Hunter, Murphy, who has had some really scary moments when he has been ridden along the track by the golf course near his home on a wet day

To start with, he was even worried by the tiny kiddies umbrella that I used, but by the end he was happy to have even the big one all over him ;D










He is still not entirely chilled about it all, but OH so much better than he was when I first popped even the mini one up


We also did tarpaulins (which he walked over very quickly), and electric tooth brushes as a start to helping him over his clipping phobia. He was very brave with the toothbrush, and eventually allowed me to brush his shoulder with it

More homework for his owners!

[Zoe RA]

Today I was working with Spats again

Because Angela's confidence has been a bit knocked by his behaviour, her vet had suggested that she lead him in a bridle to help her control him. In fact it is Angela's lack of consistent handling that is one of the main issues here - which is something she is well awear of and is doing well modifying her behaviour to become more aware of where Spats is in relation to her own personal space.

To give her more confidence, today we compromised by putting a lozenge snaffle on a simple head piece on top of the Dually, and attached a three way coupling. We started off clipped on to the Dually and set off for a walk on the woods





Spats happily walked with Angela over some quite sizable logs, and also happily picked his way through and over a fallen tree with all the branches broken down. It was really nice to see that all the work over the little jumps has given him a good grounding for when he really needs to work out his footing ;D

We then walked into the flooded fields which were also frozen over, and Spats walked calmly with Angela through the water





He was a really good boy on the whole, but did get a little jiggly on the way back, so to give herself more confidence Angela clipped on to the coupling. She really would have been fine without, but it is important that she feels comfortable with what she is doing.

Angela's home work is to be more consistent with him, to push his cheek gently away as they walk to keep him out of her space, and to practice directing the line backward when asking him to slow down (by reaching her arm under his neck) rather than by pulling her arm back to his shoulder which has the effect of actually pulling him in toward her.

Spats goes to highlight what hard work youngsters can be! They will get there ;D

[Zoe RA]

Last week was Spice's turn for a bit of attention, so we did some meeting the traffic.

Spice lives a very sheltered life in her field on the common, so never sees any cars other than Angela and her husband, the farrier, and a couple of other horse owning peeps near by.

She was a very brave little soul, and, although she had a couple of worried moments when more than one car came past, she thought grazing was a better idea



Ooo, that was a bit noisy!



A walk round the car park after a few minutes to get rid of a little adrenalin - whilst eyeing up the grass .............




And then back to the field for some tyeing up practice and a brush.





Spats had obviously felt left out, so took it out on Spice once she went back in the field!

[Zoe RA]

Yesterday it was Spats turn again

Angela hasn't been able to do a lot with him for one reason or another (principally the weather!), and the tracks were all frozen solid yesterday, so we went and played in the woods. Well, I played, and Spats had to follow me round negotiating the booby traps I had layed for him Spook busting on the move it was ;D

I hooked hi viz gear on to trees, put tarpaulins over the track, had random umbrellas about for him to walk past, strung flags from between trees, and layed them over cross country jumps for him to walk over.

Not many pics I'm afraid as I was concentrating on Angela not getting jumped on by him! She had forgotten to put her hard hat on and he still has his moments The best thing was that at no time did I worry for Angela because her body language has got so much more assertive that Spats's behaviour was infinitely better ;D

Coming up to the umbrella



Obviously not the least bit scary



Wossat then?



They are flags Spats



Oh, ok. Well I'm going to eat the tree whilst you think I'm just being curious about them ......



This is just boring now



When we got back to the field we did some more tyeing up practice, and started to get him used to wearing a rug. I did this by starting off getting him used to having a small blanket rubbed on him (using advance and retreat) and worked up to a bigger blanket that I could throw right over him.

We didn't go further as he had been a very good little chap and still has quite a short attention span.

[Zoe RA]

Today Spice was a very brave girl ;D

We started off with her chasing me and the balloons down the lane, then when she had seen them a bit, I stopped and didn't move on until she had touched them. I then walked on again, then stopped untill she had touched them again then walked on.

Within about five minutes she was doing this ..........................

[Zoe RA]

This week it was Spatz's turn again.

He has been doing really well and has been behaving in a much more civilized manner lately He is, however, very reluctant to walk over even the smallest log in the woods without putting in an enormous leap with his back legs once he has stepped over, so this week it was working on teaching him to pick his legs up!

We started off practically on the ground, and that was fine for him



Then we raised them up a bit - oops ;D



But he got there in the end in very fine style




This is a fabulous exercises to help horses to coordinate their back legs with their front legs

[Zoe RA]

Spice's turn again

We did tarps (no problem)



Flag sniffing





And walking under (at speed to start with!)





Then a bit slower when I lowered them





We also did puddles which is work in progress still for her, and we met a scary tyre




Now, this is a filly who eats her grub out of a bucket put into a tyre, but at some point we think somebody has got a bit enthusiastic with playing with one in the field and sent it rolling down the hill because Spice is now scared of them! She'll get there ;D

[Zoe RA]

Spice is being a bit of a challenge to her owner at the moment, so we worked with her again