Post by Zoe RA on Mar 12, 2010 22:58:56 GMT 1
Meet Chippy and Lucky7 ;D
Chippy is an 11yr old Cob who bites his owner, and has a regular habit of belting off when he is being lead
Not good!
So, we started off with the usual leading exercises, and although Chippy was very nippy, he didn't appear interested in belting off.
I showed Lucky7 how to stop Chippy being near enough to her to get a nip in, and worked on getting Chippy to listen to her instead. He caught on to this quite quickly with me, but this was quite hard work for Lucky7 because she and Chippy are so used to being in the nip nip nip cycle.
I decided to give Chippy something to take his mind off his mouth, so we laid out the "L" shape. This was also going to come in handy for getting Chippy really focused on Lucky7 so that he may be less likely to run off.
He wasn't toooo bad for me, but did try and bull doze me a couple of times .............................. and he is a big boy lol!
Then it was Lucky7's turn.
I'm going to bite you ............
I AM going to bite you ........
Ha, got you
It's your fault I put my feet their Mum - your in charge of steering!
Ooo, you got me back on track ....
Phew, we got there - well done Mum ...
I am totally exhausted now!
Doing this exercise is always a very good one for teaching the owner how to direct each of their horses feet individually. It also picks up if a horse is more stiff one side than the other, and in Chippy's case it enabled me to spot that Chippy only ever bites when he feels insecure. He was bite bite bite until he was round the corner to start with, but did relax a bit after going through a few times.
I was not going to set up a situation in which Chippy felt the need to belt off, so I demonstrated "human to human" with Luck7, showing her how to lead Chippy with a longer line than she had been before so that if he starts to belt off she can brace herself and he will bring himself up on his own weight.
Off we went to the field to turn him back out. As we were shutting the first gate, he did a little leap and attempted to go, but Luck7 stopped him and regained his attention by backing him up. He then walked calmly across two fields and through three gates to get back to his field. Once again, he was only biting when angtious, which proved to be whilst going through the gateways - which is where he also belts off. No coincidence I feel - I think he has had a nasty shock from an electric gateway sometime in his past.
By the time we had been through the second gateway, he had relaxed really well
A smile in both the line and on Lucky7's face ;D
And safely back into the field ....
Chippy is an 11yr old Cob who bites his owner, and has a regular habit of belting off when he is being lead
Not good!So, we started off with the usual leading exercises, and although Chippy was very nippy, he didn't appear interested in belting off.
I showed Lucky7 how to stop Chippy being near enough to her to get a nip in, and worked on getting Chippy to listen to her instead. He caught on to this quite quickly with me, but this was quite hard work for Lucky7 because she and Chippy are so used to being in the nip nip nip cycle.
I decided to give Chippy something to take his mind off his mouth, so we laid out the "L" shape. This was also going to come in handy for getting Chippy really focused on Lucky7 so that he may be less likely to run off.
He wasn't toooo bad for me, but did try and bull doze me a couple of times .............................. and he is a big boy lol!
Then it was Lucky7's turn.
I'm going to bite you ............
I AM going to bite you ........
Ha, got you
It's your fault I put my feet their Mum - your in charge of steering!
Ooo, you got me back on track ....
Phew, we got there - well done Mum ...
I am totally exhausted now!
Doing this exercise is always a very good one for teaching the owner how to direct each of their horses feet individually. It also picks up if a horse is more stiff one side than the other, and in Chippy's case it enabled me to spot that Chippy only ever bites when he feels insecure. He was bite bite bite until he was round the corner to start with, but did relax a bit after going through a few times.
I was not going to set up a situation in which Chippy felt the need to belt off, so I demonstrated "human to human" with Luck7, showing her how to lead Chippy with a longer line than she had been before so that if he starts to belt off she can brace herself and he will bring himself up on his own weight.
Off we went to the field to turn him back out. As we were shutting the first gate, he did a little leap and attempted to go, but Luck7 stopped him and regained his attention by backing him up. He then walked calmly across two fields and through three gates to get back to his field. Once again, he was only biting when angtious, which proved to be whilst going through the gateways - which is where he also belts off. No coincidence I feel - I think he has had a nasty shock from an electric gateway sometime in his past.
By the time we had been through the second gateway, he had relaxed really well
A smile in both the line and on Lucky7's face ;D
And safely back into the field ....
As soon as he saw it he totally freaked, snorted, ran back wards, and looked at it as if it was the scariest thing he had ever seen!
