Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2009 18:21:04 GMT 1
This was my idea of the perfect session. Lovely pony, lovely owner, lovely progress.
Gatsby is a bit of a worrier. Brave when ridden, he's not the bravest soul when it comes to humans. We have our guesses as to why. Just tied up he was fine meeting me, but as soon as I started leading him, his anticipation started. If he couldn't cope with me leading him just a few steps, how would he cope with me teaching him to have his legs handled?
This was the reason owner Charlotte asked me to come over. We believe Gatsby has had some less than sympathetic treatment at the hands of a farrier and it has been enough to terrify him, to the point that he now has to be sedated to be shod. This probably wasn't helped by other poor treatment while with dealers. When Charlotte met him he was in a sorry state, with sores on his back from his saddle and a bridle held together with string. She has done a marvellous job building up his trust again and getting him happy with most things, except for those feet...
Gatsby was a typical example of the fear being in the anticipation. He just KNEW I was going to kill him - as if, Mr Gatsby, I would hurt a beautiful pony like you! So, step 1 was to gain some trust while explaining that pushing me out of the way was not an option. I did a little lead work - something he needs in general anyway - and then taught him that all he needed to do was stand still and all would be good.
Once he was happy just standing with me, out came the trusty walking stick of Horse magazine fame. The walking stick is great as, when padded, it can't hurt the horse, is easy to control and be quite precise with, and also has the perfect shape and size hook on the end. I introduced it to him first - yes, that was probably going to kill him, too! - and when he was to the point of interacting with it voluntarily, I proceeded to desensitise him to it in general. With a horse like this who has been through dealers, you have to bear in mind that sticks might not be nice. Gatsby was wary but soon understood that this was ok, and within a few minutes was allowing me to rub him with it from shoulder to foot. Very good indeed!
From there, I was able to hook behind his leg and ask gently for him to unlock the knee. If he didn't, then just a gentle rock back to adjust his weight was enough for him to do that, which could then be rewarded by verbal praise, strokes and that important release of pressure. If you can engineer the situation that the horse does what you want to him to do as a natural step, it's much more effective than creating a feeling of force. So, I prefer a gentle ask with the stick combined with pressure on the headcollar to ask him to redistribute his weight, so his picks his foot up himself.
What's important at this stage is to reward anything, but anything at all, that is in the right direction. Even just a loosening of the lock of the knee gets a reward, then the slight lifting of the heel from the floor. Even if he picks his foot up and puts it down straight a way, that's great, you can worry about holding it later, once it's off the ground. The 2 important things that are going on are that his anticipation of something dreadful proves to be unfounded, and in fact he can get praise for doing something so small... I wonder what happens if I do something bigger... Once he's thinking in the right direction, life becomes so much easier.
Once he was picking his foot up with the stick, I moved to asking him not to slam it back down by hooking behind the knee, holding as he pulled until he relaxed, then allowing him to have it back. He got that very quickly. We then gave him a break and a munch of grass before Charlotte took over and did the other leg, with equal success.
Then onto the hinds. The hinds were a complete no go area, especially the near hind. No way at all would he allow you to pick it up. So, starting with the stick at his shoulder - safe area - and moving backwards then downwards, I was fairly quickly able to stroke all over his leg with the stick. I thought he might have a kick at it at one point but he didn't. Instead, the work we had done on the fronts seemed to reassure, and he was soon able to relax his hind leg and even lift it off the floor.
There is always a judgement call at this point. Do you press on or leave it there? I decided today that Charlotte is very good at seeing the small movements (she's an equine artist so has and exceptionally good eye!), has good timing and understood well what we were doing and why. I decided to leave it there with his hinds, to build up his confidence and break down his anticipation, rather than risk him getting upset and going backwards.
Instead, we went back to his fronts and I replaced the stick with my hand. He gave a couple of little pulls but then relaxed and allowed me to pick up his foot and balance it in my hand. I did this 3 times, then Charlotte did the other foot. Perfect.
I feel very confident leaving Gatsby in Charlotte's capable hands now. He's hoping he'll never have to be sedated for the farrier again.
Gatsby is a bit of a worrier. Brave when ridden, he's not the bravest soul when it comes to humans. We have our guesses as to why. Just tied up he was fine meeting me, but as soon as I started leading him, his anticipation started. If he couldn't cope with me leading him just a few steps, how would he cope with me teaching him to have his legs handled?
This was the reason owner Charlotte asked me to come over. We believe Gatsby has had some less than sympathetic treatment at the hands of a farrier and it has been enough to terrify him, to the point that he now has to be sedated to be shod. This probably wasn't helped by other poor treatment while with dealers. When Charlotte met him he was in a sorry state, with sores on his back from his saddle and a bridle held together with string. She has done a marvellous job building up his trust again and getting him happy with most things, except for those feet...
Gatsby was a typical example of the fear being in the anticipation. He just KNEW I was going to kill him - as if, Mr Gatsby, I would hurt a beautiful pony like you! So, step 1 was to gain some trust while explaining that pushing me out of the way was not an option. I did a little lead work - something he needs in general anyway - and then taught him that all he needed to do was stand still and all would be good.
Once he was happy just standing with me, out came the trusty walking stick of Horse magazine fame. The walking stick is great as, when padded, it can't hurt the horse, is easy to control and be quite precise with, and also has the perfect shape and size hook on the end. I introduced it to him first - yes, that was probably going to kill him, too! - and when he was to the point of interacting with it voluntarily, I proceeded to desensitise him to it in general. With a horse like this who has been through dealers, you have to bear in mind that sticks might not be nice. Gatsby was wary but soon understood that this was ok, and within a few minutes was allowing me to rub him with it from shoulder to foot. Very good indeed!
From there, I was able to hook behind his leg and ask gently for him to unlock the knee. If he didn't, then just a gentle rock back to adjust his weight was enough for him to do that, which could then be rewarded by verbal praise, strokes and that important release of pressure. If you can engineer the situation that the horse does what you want to him to do as a natural step, it's much more effective than creating a feeling of force. So, I prefer a gentle ask with the stick combined with pressure on the headcollar to ask him to redistribute his weight, so his picks his foot up himself.
What's important at this stage is to reward anything, but anything at all, that is in the right direction. Even just a loosening of the lock of the knee gets a reward, then the slight lifting of the heel from the floor. Even if he picks his foot up and puts it down straight a way, that's great, you can worry about holding it later, once it's off the ground. The 2 important things that are going on are that his anticipation of something dreadful proves to be unfounded, and in fact he can get praise for doing something so small... I wonder what happens if I do something bigger... Once he's thinking in the right direction, life becomes so much easier.
Once he was picking his foot up with the stick, I moved to asking him not to slam it back down by hooking behind the knee, holding as he pulled until he relaxed, then allowing him to have it back. He got that very quickly. We then gave him a break and a munch of grass before Charlotte took over and did the other leg, with equal success.
Then onto the hinds. The hinds were a complete no go area, especially the near hind. No way at all would he allow you to pick it up. So, starting with the stick at his shoulder - safe area - and moving backwards then downwards, I was fairly quickly able to stroke all over his leg with the stick. I thought he might have a kick at it at one point but he didn't. Instead, the work we had done on the fronts seemed to reassure, and he was soon able to relax his hind leg and even lift it off the floor.
There is always a judgement call at this point. Do you press on or leave it there? I decided today that Charlotte is very good at seeing the small movements (she's an equine artist so has and exceptionally good eye!), has good timing and understood well what we were doing and why. I decided to leave it there with his hinds, to build up his confidence and break down his anticipation, rather than risk him getting upset and going backwards.
Instead, we went back to his fronts and I replaced the stick with my hand. He gave a couple of little pulls but then relaxed and allowed me to pick up his foot and balance it in my hand. I did this 3 times, then Charlotte did the other foot. Perfect.
I feel very confident leaving Gatsby in Charlotte's capable hands now. He's hoping he'll never have to be sedated for the farrier again.