Post by Zoe RA on Nov 7, 2009 14:59:26 GMT 1
Victor and Valmy are two 7 month old Comtois foals who, 6 weeks ago, were grazing on the Pyrenees with their mothers (many thanks to the rescue web sight for the photos 
). Not sure what is going on with the rock fetish here - either they are getting minerals from them, or, more likely, the rocks have been scattered with food so that the camera man could get some good photos!
Victor
Valmy
They were destined for the Italian meat market, so Lyn, who has already rescued four horses destined for the same fate, procured herself some more land so that she could give these two little chaps a life too
I have been out to see them twice before. The first time to get them head collared - which took under two hours to do both of them - which highlights the fact that TOTALLY unhandled horses are a whole heap easier to work with than BADLY handled horses - and the second time to give them their first leading lesson.
Here is Victor with Lyn just after having his first head collar fitted
and here is Valmy and Lyn
And here they both are during their first leading lessons with my Glamorous Assistant Bruce in the background. He wasn't leading both of them, but Valmy wanted to tell Victor how it is done ;D
This time we took them out for their first walk in the big wide world.
Valmy wanted to walk in Bruce's back pocket to start with, which is how he would follow his Mum, so in this picture Bruce is wqorking on gently pushing Valmy's cheek away when he got in too close.
but he got the message in the end, as you can see from this pic of Lyn leading him.
We had a few shenanigans when we turned for home, because Valmy wanted to get back to his chums FAST, so I took him and we did a bit of practicing standing still and backing up. He had a couple of attempts to bomb off back to the yard, but Bruce stopped him by standing out to the side so that Valmy was brought up on his own weight when he tried it on. He is going to be a very heavy horse when he matures (he is no light weight at 7 months old!!), and he absloutly must NOT learn how to use that weight against humans
Next was Victor. I just had a quiet moment with him before we started, because he is a much more flighty little soul than his chum.
Lyn's husband Ronald took him for his walk, and here they are walking through a puddle, and meeting a scary yellow skip ..........
We had a couple of little "moments" with Victor, but on the whole both foals were incredibly trusting considering they have only been here for such a short time
). Not sure what is going on with the rock fetish here - either they are getting minerals from them, or, more likely, the rocks have been scattered with food so that the camera man could get some good photos!Victor
Valmy
They were destined for the Italian meat market, so Lyn, who has already rescued four horses destined for the same fate, procured herself some more land so that she could give these two little chaps a life too
I have been out to see them twice before. The first time to get them head collared - which took under two hours to do both of them - which highlights the fact that TOTALLY unhandled horses are a whole heap easier to work with than BADLY handled horses - and the second time to give them their first leading lesson.
Here is Victor with Lyn just after having his first head collar fitted
and here is Valmy and Lyn
And here they both are during their first leading lessons with my Glamorous Assistant Bruce in the background. He wasn't leading both of them, but Valmy wanted to tell Victor how it is done ;D
This time we took them out for their first walk in the big wide world.
Valmy wanted to walk in Bruce's back pocket to start with, which is how he would follow his Mum, so in this picture Bruce is wqorking on gently pushing Valmy's cheek away when he got in too close.
but he got the message in the end, as you can see from this pic of Lyn leading him.
We had a few shenanigans when we turned for home, because Valmy wanted to get back to his chums FAST, so I took him and we did a bit of practicing standing still and backing up. He had a couple of attempts to bomb off back to the yard, but Bruce stopped him by standing out to the side so that Valmy was brought up on his own weight when he tried it on. He is going to be a very heavy horse when he matures (he is no light weight at 7 months old!!), and he absloutly must NOT learn how to use that weight against humans
Next was Victor. I just had a quiet moment with him before we started, because he is a much more flighty little soul than his chum.
Lyn's husband Ronald took him for his walk, and here they are walking through a puddle, and meeting a scary yellow skip ..........
We had a couple of little "moments" with Victor, but on the whole both foals were incredibly trusting considering they have only been here for such a short time
Ain't it a pain?
