Black Jack, and those crisp, Autumn days ........

[Zoe RA]

There is nothing like those beautiful, crisp, Autumn days where the leaves are multi coloured, and the smell of damp earth and fallen chestnuts rises up to meet you. And to day was NOTHING like those beautiful Autumn days etc etc etc

But in between the torrential rain I worked with "Black Jack", the 5 year old Irish Draft X, and his novice owner. She has had him now for 6 weeks, and before that he was in his previous home for 3 months, before which he came over from Ireland. Oh the number of times I hear "he came over from Ireland and ..................."!

"Novice owner " I hear you cry. "With a FIVE year old ". Yep, I'm afraid so. Bought from a lady who we now suspect as a dealer who assured my owner that Jack was the perfect confidence giving horse, and ideal for a nervous novice. Yep, right ............................

Jack, it has to be said, really is a very sweet chap, and very honest. He tries his heart out, and is a sensitive little soul, but his owner, who really is lovely, is the same, and so their relationship, which had been quite good when he first arrived, has begun to spiral down fast - to the point that she has been really scared to pick his feet out recently, and is very worried about brushing him.

I suspect he has ulcers as he is VERY unhappy about having his flanks touched, and is worse on his right side. "You can do anything with me, but just DON'T touch my flanks, ok I said DON'T TOUCH them!! OK ". And this includes brushing him, putting his saddle on, or even just standing next to him and running your hand down them. His reaction is quite violent, and has included waving a back leg at worst, or just the ear pinning and skittering away that he did with me. Even if it isn't ulcers the cause obviously needs addressing, so to this end the vet will be coming out asap to scope him and generally check him over.

Understandably, this has seriously knocked his owners confidence, which in turn has knocked Jack's confidence. We talked about ways of helping her not project her anxiety on to Jack, and how she must give herself lots of little brakes when she is working with him so that she doesn't ever feel that she is out of her comfort zone. We also talked about how alike she and Jack are at the moment, and how she is going to have to be the grown-up in their relationship. She needs to school herself to not react if he moves suddenly, but to just stay with him (tucked in as close as she can so as to avoid a foot should it be waved if she has inadvertently provoked that reaction) until he calms down, then to tell him he is a good boy and walk away so she can regain her own composure.

But the good news is that today we worked gently for a couple of hours on his owner picking up his feet safely, general leading, and backing through the L shape. He is a lovely responsive little chap, and even though I had initially said to his owner that it was not a good combination and that she should be prepared to sell him to a more experienced home if things don't work out, I think they will be fine together. I am going back on Thursday to take them for a walk on the common so that they can continue to learn together whilst we await the vet.

They have a good instructor teaching them under saddle (no more riding until he has been checked out though), and I will be helping them on the ground, so once the physical has been checked out, watch this space ;D

[Zoe RA]

And today WAS a crisp, Autumn day ;D

So, after Lisa had picked out all Jack's feet (Lisa is getting good at this now - she is not letting Jack see that she is at all nervous about doing this) and a little bit of ground work walking round in the field to get him focused on Lisa, we took him for a lovely long walk on the common.

He walked through big puddles



through the ford, over fallen logs and trees, met nice men sweeping leaves who let him investigate their wheel barrow, put his head practically inside the salt bin, didn't turn a hair when a big blue tractor passed us towing a rattly trailer, didn't try and follow the other horses we met, stopped when Lisa stopped



started walking again when Lisa started walking again, didn't push, barge or in any way behave like anything other than the perfect horse ;D

When we got back to the field I laid out the tarpaulin for Lisa to walk him over, which he did with just a little look and a sniff




and then I stood a little way away from him and shook my tin of pebbles, then rattled my football rattle. Once again, he was interested, but not too bothered.

I am doing a lot of this for Lisa's benifit as much as for Jack's. Lisa needs to see that Jack is a sweet, honest little chap who really isn't going to do anything horrendous all the time he isn't in pain or discomfort. The more I can show her that he is just about as bomb-proof as a five year old can be, the more easy it will be for Lisa to trust him. I need to help this relationship spiral up again!

I then ran my electric tooth brush over him (avoiding his flanks until he has been scoped), and although he was a little tense at that, he was very brave and stood still. He should be fine to be clipped once he is being ridden again

The vet has been out and taken a blood sample which has shown up that Jack has an infection of some sort, and he has been put on a course of antibiotics. He is fine to potter out on a walk, but obviously can't be ridden at the moment.

The vet was a bit sceptical about Jack having gastric ulcers, but I have suggested to Lisa that she still has him scoped. I am sure vets will eventually realise how very many horses and ponies suffer from ulcers, but it does seem to be taking them a rather long time!

All in all, a very good session, with Lisa's confidence building up and up ;D

I will be going back in a couple of weeks to work with Jack, Lisa, and Lisa's teenage daughter who would also like to be involved with Jack.

[Zoe RA]

This morning I went back to see how Jack has been getting on, and to work with Lisa's daughter Amber.

Whilst he has had a rest because of the antibiotics he was absolutely fine about having his back and flanks rubbed, but once he started being ridden again he has started jigging about again when his saddle is put on. I ran my hands firmly over his back and he is definitely sore in his trapezium and latissimus dorsi muscles on his near side, indicating a badly fitting saddle or a previously muscle damage caused by a badly fitting saddle - or it could be a problem with his off hind leg or quarters. As i have said to Lisa, unfortunately, when a horse is exhibiting pain, you need to keep checking and rechecking things until the horse stops being uncomfortable. This can be costly and time consuming, but for the good of the horse, this has to be done.

I have suggested that her vet recommend her a back person to come and give Jack the once over, and to still not rule out gastric ulcers.

Lisa's daughter Amber has the same confidence issues that Lisa first had with Jack, compounder by Jack coming at her in the field the other day when she was poo picking. I think he was wanting to play with her as the horses in the next field were hoolying about playing, but whatever the reason,if your confidence is low, half a tonne of horse running at you is alarming!

We started out with Amber going in to Jack's field with the intention of catching him .........................

Hmmm, Jack had different ideas and did a runner to the other side of the field So, I stepped in, did a minute or so of advance and retreat, and Jack came up to me for a scratch and his head collar.

Once he was wearing his head collar, I unclipped his rope and came out of the field. Amber went in again, and after a couple of minutes, again using advance and retreat, Jack wandered up to Amber to be caught.

Amber has never picked up Jack's feet as Lisa has not wanted to put her in harms way (she herself has been worried about this in the past but is fine about picking them up now), so today was Amber's turn.

At first Amber was jumping a mile in the air every time Jack shifted his weight, but I put on my trusty school mistress hat and gently encouraged/cajoled/bullied Amber until she was picking Jack's feet up like a pro

Jack has pulled back on a couple of occasions when something has startled him, so we had the line looped through the ring so that he has a bit of free play but should he pull away he will still be restrained. We don't want pulling back to become a habit! Please note that if he was tied up he would have the rope clipped on to the ring underneath, not to the training ring on the side.








Then we went for a walk on the common to practice the leading and stopping



And than back to the yard for more feet picking up practice before rugging up and going back to the field




I have suggested that Amber (and Lisa!) reads Kelly Marks's book "Perfect Manners" from cover to cover so that she can understand a lot more about how her actions will impact on Jack.

Amber was very brave this morning, and has now said that she will be confident enough to pick Jack's feet out ;D