Post by Zoe RA on Apr 11, 2010 19:20:24 GMT 1
Last week I went out to visit Suz, ride Ori, and help Suz get Holly loading again.
I had the most delightful added bonus when I spotted a ewe in trouble with a massive lamb properly presented, but wayyyy too big for her to get out on her own! Suz and I gently herded the ewe up the field until we had her in a suitable place, caught her, up ended her, and I then helped her lamb down ;D Fabulous!
After that little bit of excitement we went for a lovely ride, and then back to the work in hand.
Holly has been getting progressively harder to load since Suz has had her, and she wont go into the field shelter either. To start I worked with her near and at the front of the field shelter, and from what I can gather from her behaviour, she has banged her head on a stable door or something similar at some point in her life.
We then left the field shelter after getting her to the stage where she was standing with her head in it (but wouldn't come right in) and off over to the trailer, minus partitions etc.
It wasn't long before she was going in and out really happily
So I handed over to Suz,
but we hit a wall again. I pinpointed that Suz is such a lovely sweet person that she mistakenly almost pleads with Holly to go in. Holly sees this hesitating as a sign that Suz is not a strong, worthy leader and doesn't think it is safe to follow in.
Once Suz got more assertive and confident that she really COULD load Holly, they got sorted pretty quickly - both without and with the partition ;D
Holly has been loading like a dream first time every time since, and even traveled on the near side at the weekend when she had a chum traveling with her
I had the most delightful added bonus when I spotted a ewe in trouble with a massive lamb properly presented, but wayyyy too big for her to get out on her own! Suz and I gently herded the ewe up the field until we had her in a suitable place, caught her, up ended her, and I then helped her lamb down ;D Fabulous!
After that little bit of excitement we went for a lovely ride, and then back to the work in hand.
Holly has been getting progressively harder to load since Suz has had her, and she wont go into the field shelter either. To start I worked with her near and at the front of the field shelter, and from what I can gather from her behaviour, she has banged her head on a stable door or something similar at some point in her life.
We then left the field shelter after getting her to the stage where she was standing with her head in it (but wouldn't come right in) and off over to the trailer, minus partitions etc.
It wasn't long before she was going in and out really happily
So I handed over to Suz,
but we hit a wall again. I pinpointed that Suz is such a lovely sweet person that she mistakenly almost pleads with Holly to go in. Holly sees this hesitating as a sign that Suz is not a strong, worthy leader and doesn't think it is safe to follow in.
Once Suz got more assertive and confident that she really COULD load Holly, they got sorted pretty quickly - both without and with the partition ;D
Holly has been loading like a dream first time every time since, and even traveled on the near side at the weekend when she had a chum traveling with her
