Post by Zoe RA on Feb 2, 2010 18:01:19 GMT 1
No, he didn't have dread locks, and no he didn't have a red, yellow and green head collar 
He is in fact a magnificent 16.2hh 4 and three quarter years old Percheron Gelding who was imported from France and has been in his current home for 12 weeks. He is a real fluffy sweetheart, but unfortunately is a bit bargy, nibbly, in your face, and reluctant to pick up his hind feet.
He has apparently been making steady progress with everything except his feet picking up.
We started off the session with his lovely owner walking him up and down the covered barn area so that I could assess their relationship, see how much he was listening too her, see how effective a leader she was being for him, and to see if there was anything obviously physically amiss that could be effecting him.
We talked about intent and how she needed to take charge of the situation rather than baby him, and I was able to tweak her body language and demeanor very quickly and change her from a handler who was coaxing him along and matching her pace to his so that she really did become a leader, and teach her how to unstick him when he plants his feet and says "no, I don't want to walk down there".
More importantly though, I noticed that his tail was skewed off to the left, which very commonly indicates a back problem of some description, which could very well account for his reluctance to pick up his hind feet.
With this in mind, I didn't want to ask too much of him, but I did want to see just what happens when his back feet are picked up, so after we had worked on backing him up in hand for a while - there is a lot of horse in a Percheron who doesn't know what is being asked of him, so my trusty male student took over at this point - and very soon he was getting the idea. Once again, we were not going to push him too hard given that I suspect his back is sore somewhere.
I then picked up his near hind with the aid of my padded broom head on a pole (saves having to bend down, keeps you out of the kick zone, and enables a lot more leverage to be used in the ask), and he did pick his foot up and appeared balanced, but didn't want to hold it up for long.
His off hind was a different matter. He really planted this one, and although I was able to pull it forward, he really didn't want to hold it up at all. Bruce stepped in with his muscles, and he was able to get it off the ground and hold it up for a while, but Rasta was obviously not happy about it. Had we been sure about his back, we would have persevered because he was better by the end of the session, but obviously we have to give him the benefit of the doubt until his back has been checked out.
Rasta had a puncture wound to the inside aspect of his hock a few weeks ago (cause unknown), and I am wondering if, although he has been given the all clear by the vet, he did other damage further up at the same time, or his muscles have been working wrongly to compensate when his leg was sore. He didn't pick them up before the injury, but we could now have a horse who not only doesn't really know what is expected of him, but who is sore as well.
What we really could work on to good effect was his relationship with his owner. As is quite common, she has been inadvertently rewarding him for unwanted or "bad" behaviour by telling him what a good boy he is all the time, and giving him soothing strokes and cuddles - even when he has just snatched a foot away or just tried to nip her.
She didn't even know she was doing it bless her, so we talked about how many things we do with horses that are for us and not the horse. She said that she now realised she was stroking him to calm and reassure herself so in future she is going to give herself a lovely hug now and again when she is working with him if she feels she needs to sooth and reassure
So, although we were not able to do a lot about the foot handling on this occasion, we were able to help Rasta's owner to have a more balanced (in human favour) relationship with him. He is still a youngster with a lot of mental and physical maturing to do (probably another 4 years or so given his breed), and I don't think it will take them long to become a very happy partnership
I will be going back once he has been checked out physically, and will be providing my student with lots of spinach and Iron Brew to build up his muscles so he can help again with those bloomin' great Percheron feet!
No pics today I'm afraid - I will take some next time if his owner is happy for me to
He is in fact a magnificent 16.2hh 4 and three quarter years old Percheron Gelding who was imported from France and has been in his current home for 12 weeks. He is a real fluffy sweetheart, but unfortunately is a bit bargy, nibbly, in your face, and reluctant to pick up his hind feet.
He has apparently been making steady progress with everything except his feet picking up.
We started off the session with his lovely owner walking him up and down the covered barn area so that I could assess their relationship, see how much he was listening too her, see how effective a leader she was being for him, and to see if there was anything obviously physically amiss that could be effecting him.
We talked about intent and how she needed to take charge of the situation rather than baby him, and I was able to tweak her body language and demeanor very quickly and change her from a handler who was coaxing him along and matching her pace to his so that she really did become a leader, and teach her how to unstick him when he plants his feet and says "no, I don't want to walk down there".
More importantly though, I noticed that his tail was skewed off to the left, which very commonly indicates a back problem of some description, which could very well account for his reluctance to pick up his hind feet.
With this in mind, I didn't want to ask too much of him, but I did want to see just what happens when his back feet are picked up, so after we had worked on backing him up in hand for a while - there is a lot of horse in a Percheron who doesn't know what is being asked of him, so my trusty male student took over at this point - and very soon he was getting the idea. Once again, we were not going to push him too hard given that I suspect his back is sore somewhere.
I then picked up his near hind with the aid of my padded broom head on a pole (saves having to bend down, keeps you out of the kick zone, and enables a lot more leverage to be used in the ask), and he did pick his foot up and appeared balanced, but didn't want to hold it up for long.
His off hind was a different matter. He really planted this one, and although I was able to pull it forward, he really didn't want to hold it up at all. Bruce stepped in with his muscles, and he was able to get it off the ground and hold it up for a while, but Rasta was obviously not happy about it. Had we been sure about his back, we would have persevered because he was better by the end of the session, but obviously we have to give him the benefit of the doubt until his back has been checked out.
Rasta had a puncture wound to the inside aspect of his hock a few weeks ago (cause unknown), and I am wondering if, although he has been given the all clear by the vet, he did other damage further up at the same time, or his muscles have been working wrongly to compensate when his leg was sore. He didn't pick them up before the injury, but we could now have a horse who not only doesn't really know what is expected of him, but who is sore as well.
What we really could work on to good effect was his relationship with his owner. As is quite common, she has been inadvertently rewarding him for unwanted or "bad" behaviour by telling him what a good boy he is all the time, and giving him soothing strokes and cuddles - even when he has just snatched a foot away or just tried to nip her.
She didn't even know she was doing it bless her, so we talked about how many things we do with horses that are for us and not the horse. She said that she now realised she was stroking him to calm and reassure herself so in future she is going to give herself a lovely hug now and again when she is working with him if she feels she needs to sooth and reassure
So, although we were not able to do a lot about the foot handling on this occasion, we were able to help Rasta's owner to have a more balanced (in human favour) relationship with him. He is still a youngster with a lot of mental and physical maturing to do (probably another 4 years or so given his breed), and I don't think it will take them long to become a very happy partnership
I will be going back once he has been checked out physically, and will be providing my student with lots of spinach and Iron Brew to build up his muscles so he can help again with those bloomin' great Percheron feet!
No pics today I'm afraid - I will take some next time if his owner is happy for me to