Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2009 16:34:18 GMT 1
Sorry up front, folks... no photos... 
Twit here left the camera at home. 
Joey's owner called me for one problem in particular but is aware that there are just a few other issues with this lovely young man. The main issue is that he doesn't seem to get on with other horses in the field. He has now got such a reputation that he has been banned from sharing a field with others and is on his own. To be fair on Joey, we don't know how much of this is him and how much is that events in the field are attributed to him because of his reputation.
Other issues with Joey are that spooky, will shoot off with little warning, doesn't stand still when tied up, isn't good for the farrier, doesn't load and... erm... that's it, for now.
What struck me about Joey is his lack of relaxation. This is particularly true when anything is asked of him, so in places where something might be asked of him - outside his stable, in the school, he's on guard, fidgety and mouthy. When we were leading him back from the school, he did relax, his head lowered and he showed that he can relax. We just have to teach him how.
The work we did today was twofold. Firstly, we worked on upping owner Rachel's leadership. Give him something to follow and become tuned into his early questions (and answer them, of course!) and he's much better. We looked at keeping his head in the right place and moving him around and after 20 minutes he gave you every appearance of being an issue free horse.
Leading him back to the yard, he was fine until we came to a well known spooky place. Immediately, there was a change in demeanour, he became less attentive and more bargy. It was a great place to work on understanding his early signals and reacting to them, and also to picking up his patterns and anticipating. If he leans into you with his head, just briefly, that's him just checking if he can do it. If you correct that, you're a mindreader. If you don't he'll then push and try to get in front of you. A very good example of how those early questions are the important ones.
Interestingly, Rachel and I was talking about how to give him a chance to relax while remaining attentive and responsive to him, when we switched off from him for just seconds and immediately he spooked. Neither of us could see anything at all and he came back down straight away. Leave the door open, take your eye off him, and he's through!
Back at the stable block, we talked about correcting his fidgets and rewarding him for simply standing still, and we also looked at doing "nice" soft head work. Joey is very pushy with his head and he sees it as something to use against you. I hope that by teaching him that head-human interaction is nice, he'll reassess its use. As it is also a symptom of his stress, though, just helping him to relax and feel how nice that is should tackle it too.
So now, we haven't yet got him out grazing with his friends in peace and harmony but we are on the way to creating a horse who knows how to relax and just be quiet, and therefore one who should be able to be turned out with others.
Twit here left the camera at home. 
Joey's owner called me for one problem in particular but is aware that there are just a few other issues with this lovely young man. The main issue is that he doesn't seem to get on with other horses in the field. He has now got such a reputation that he has been banned from sharing a field with others and is on his own. To be fair on Joey, we don't know how much of this is him and how much is that events in the field are attributed to him because of his reputation.
Other issues with Joey are that spooky, will shoot off with little warning, doesn't stand still when tied up, isn't good for the farrier, doesn't load and... erm... that's it, for now.
What struck me about Joey is his lack of relaxation. This is particularly true when anything is asked of him, so in places where something might be asked of him - outside his stable, in the school, he's on guard, fidgety and mouthy. When we were leading him back from the school, he did relax, his head lowered and he showed that he can relax. We just have to teach him how.
The work we did today was twofold. Firstly, we worked on upping owner Rachel's leadership. Give him something to follow and become tuned into his early questions (and answer them, of course!) and he's much better. We looked at keeping his head in the right place and moving him around and after 20 minutes he gave you every appearance of being an issue free horse.
Leading him back to the yard, he was fine until we came to a well known spooky place. Immediately, there was a change in demeanour, he became less attentive and more bargy. It was a great place to work on understanding his early signals and reacting to them, and also to picking up his patterns and anticipating. If he leans into you with his head, just briefly, that's him just checking if he can do it. If you correct that, you're a mindreader. If you don't he'll then push and try to get in front of you. A very good example of how those early questions are the important ones.
Interestingly, Rachel and I was talking about how to give him a chance to relax while remaining attentive and responsive to him, when we switched off from him for just seconds and immediately he spooked. Neither of us could see anything at all and he came back down straight away. Leave the door open, take your eye off him, and he's through!
Back at the stable block, we talked about correcting his fidgets and rewarding him for simply standing still, and we also looked at doing "nice" soft head work. Joey is very pushy with his head and he sees it as something to use against you. I hope that by teaching him that head-human interaction is nice, he'll reassess its use. As it is also a symptom of his stress, though, just helping him to relax and feel how nice that is should tackle it too.
So now, we haven't yet got him out grazing with his friends in peace and harmony but we are on the way to creating a horse who knows how to relax and just be quiet, and therefore one who should be able to be turned out with others.