Post by Zoe RA on Nov 24, 2009 15:48:53 GMT 1
Today I met Finn.
He is a two year old Something X New Forest who was bought feral and entire by his current owner six weeks ago. He came with a head collar on, but his owner said that, given his demeanor, it was probably wrestled on to him somehow. He was kept in for the first two weeks at his new home, in which time he was becoming better to have the head collar on, but because he had started to develop coltish behaviour including striking out, the decision was made to have him gelded asap.
Once he had been gelded he became a lot quieter very quickly, and was at the stage where a head collar could be put on in the stable and he could be led about fairly well. He was eventually lead out to the field were he promptly managed to get his head collar off and pop himself from field to field - paying absolutely no attention to the electric fencing. This did not cause his owner undue worry as she was making progress with him little by little.
Eventually, he popped himself into another field with a small established herd in it, and there he decided to stay. The herd do not belong to Finn's owner, and although they aren't tooooo bothered to have him there, he needed to be brought back in to his own land again.
We had a couple of options here. We could run the whole herd in to the yard and run him back into the stable (only two of us, so not an option), make a small corral with leccy tape round all the horses in the herd whilst we worked quietly with advance and retreat (not an option - only a solid fence will keep this chap in), or, baring in mind that he has been head collared quietly and lead well by his owner in the past, she could try and get a rope round his neck so that we could then just get him settled and gently touched all over so we could pop a head collar on. I antisipated that once he had the rope round his neck and knew he was caught, he would, as is usualy the case, settle.
Once he has the rope around his neck he is apparently fine, so my plan was for me to supervise while his owner, who he is trusting more and more, popped the rope round his neck (the rope secured round his neck by the clip being snapped into a light, aluminum, snap link so that the rope remains free running at all times and cannot remain tightened).
All went according to plan. We did use a feed bucket so that he had his nose in a suitable position, and after a couple of goes, the rope was round his neck and Finn was standing there still happily munching from his bucket.
We then took the food out of the equation, and I was gently rocking him from side to side to get him used to the idea that I was able to move him about. So far so good, but he still wasn't happy to have his shoulder touched.
So, I employed my trusty bamboo cane so that I could touch him gently all over with it so that he could learn that a touch does not have to hurt or be stressful.
This was a miscalculation.
He was happy to sniff it, but as soon as it was moved he had the worst reaction that I have ever seen in a horse in all the years I have been using this method! I have to say that normally I would be doing this on a box not a field, but then I am normally working with horses who are a lot less handled than I understood his little chap to be. Unfortunately, he just charged away, and no amount of getting at the right angle was going to be able to stop him.
He then came up another couple of times for his bucket, but would not let even his owner anywhere near to at least get the rope off.
I will never again be assuming that because a horse has been handled and lead before that it is just the initial touch that it is worried about. Big lesson learned.
We subsequently found out that the herd is due to be brought in anyway, so they are going to get up a group to bring them in and run Finn back into his box. Had we known that at the beginning I would have suggested that Finn's owner called me in when he was back in.
Now the reason I have posted this - as it is hardly RA Showcase material - is to hold my hands up and say that we all miscalculate and make mistakes sometimes. ALL humans do, as none of us are perfect. We can all only ever work on what we have experienced in the past, what we have learned from others, and on the information that we have been given. As long as we can learn by our mistakes then something good will always come out of it.
And to pre-empt, I will just say "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"!
He is a two year old Something X New Forest who was bought feral and entire by his current owner six weeks ago. He came with a head collar on, but his owner said that, given his demeanor, it was probably wrestled on to him somehow. He was kept in for the first two weeks at his new home, in which time he was becoming better to have the head collar on, but because he had started to develop coltish behaviour including striking out, the decision was made to have him gelded asap.
Once he had been gelded he became a lot quieter very quickly, and was at the stage where a head collar could be put on in the stable and he could be led about fairly well. He was eventually lead out to the field were he promptly managed to get his head collar off and pop himself from field to field - paying absolutely no attention to the electric fencing. This did not cause his owner undue worry as she was making progress with him little by little.
Eventually, he popped himself into another field with a small established herd in it, and there he decided to stay. The herd do not belong to Finn's owner, and although they aren't tooooo bothered to have him there, he needed to be brought back in to his own land again.
We had a couple of options here. We could run the whole herd in to the yard and run him back into the stable (only two of us, so not an option), make a small corral with leccy tape round all the horses in the herd whilst we worked quietly with advance and retreat (not an option - only a solid fence will keep this chap in), or, baring in mind that he has been head collared quietly and lead well by his owner in the past, she could try and get a rope round his neck so that we could then just get him settled and gently touched all over so we could pop a head collar on. I antisipated that once he had the rope round his neck and knew he was caught, he would, as is usualy the case, settle.
Once he has the rope around his neck he is apparently fine, so my plan was for me to supervise while his owner, who he is trusting more and more, popped the rope round his neck (the rope secured round his neck by the clip being snapped into a light, aluminum, snap link so that the rope remains free running at all times and cannot remain tightened).
All went according to plan. We did use a feed bucket so that he had his nose in a suitable position, and after a couple of goes, the rope was round his neck and Finn was standing there still happily munching from his bucket.
We then took the food out of the equation, and I was gently rocking him from side to side to get him used to the idea that I was able to move him about. So far so good, but he still wasn't happy to have his shoulder touched.
So, I employed my trusty bamboo cane so that I could touch him gently all over with it so that he could learn that a touch does not have to hurt or be stressful.
This was a miscalculation.
He was happy to sniff it, but as soon as it was moved he had the worst reaction that I have ever seen in a horse in all the years I have been using this method! I have to say that normally I would be doing this on a box not a field, but then I am normally working with horses who are a lot less handled than I understood his little chap to be. Unfortunately, he just charged away, and no amount of getting at the right angle was going to be able to stop him.
He then came up another couple of times for his bucket, but would not let even his owner anywhere near to at least get the rope off.
I will never again be assuming that because a horse has been handled and lead before that it is just the initial touch that it is worried about. Big lesson learned.
We subsequently found out that the herd is due to be brought in anyway, so they are going to get up a group to bring them in and run Finn back into his box. Had we known that at the beginning I would have suggested that Finn's owner called me in when he was back in.
Now the reason I have posted this - as it is hardly RA Showcase material - is to hold my hands up and say that we all miscalculate and make mistakes sometimes. ALL humans do, as none of us are perfect. We can all only ever work on what we have experienced in the past, what we have learned from others, and on the information that we have been given. As long as we can learn by our mistakes then something good will always come out of it.
And to pre-empt, I will just say "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"!