Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 20:55:04 GMT 1
Yes, it is she... of Horse Magazine fame... Jodie1084's Luna!
If there are any of you who missed her starring role in the School for Scoundrels article (now, is that possible???), or if you've not seen Jodie's posts about her on the main thread, let me fill you in.
Jodie bought Luna's mum, Twinkle, without knowing that she was getting more than she had bargained for. That little bit more appeared a few months later in the shape of Luna. Unprepared for the challenges of a foal, Jodie did not too bad a job and at the age of 5 months Luna was handled, had her headcollar on, led alongside Twinkle and had met the farrier. But... we were just missing a few boundaries and Luna was starting to push them.
Luna is not a wee slip of a lass and, although only 12hh and very young, she's extremely strong already. And she's a determined young lady! When things are going her way, she's lovely. When she wants to say no, though, she has some very impressive tools in her box, including full height vertical rearing and some fairly nifty biting.
During my first visit to Luna, she was pushed way out of her comfort zone because we were working for the article (possibly not a good combination with hindsight), but some very valuable lessons were learned by all. Jodie learned the importance of boundaries, of not letting Luna do the leading, and of stopping any hand feeding or playing with Luna's mouth that was encouraging the nipping. I hope Jodie will forgive me if I say she looked rather uncertain about life with a challenging foal, and I'll confess I felt a little uncertain too. I do love it when I'm proven wrong sometimes...
Visit 2 was today. My goodness, what a fantastic change in Jodie. As she explained, when faced with the prospect of maybe having to sell Luna because she was not mentally strong enough for her, instead of giving in she rose to the challenge. I take my hat of to her (only when safe, of course), not everyone could do that but she left me feeling very impressed by her resolve.
Luna is now about 7 months old and it's time to build in a little separation and then think about weaning. That was one issue for today. Jodie also wanted to go for a walk up the road.
We started in the small area outside their stable. To start from a place of familiarity, Jodie led Luna round with Twinkle in with her.
then Jodie's dad took Twinkle just outside, so they could still see each other. This was the first time this had ever happened and Luna was a little concerned.
Jodie kept calm leadership, though, and it didn't go beyond that, and then Luna settled and allowed herself to be led nicely.
It was then time to go for a walk. We'd planned to go up the lane for 5 minutes but on leaving the yard we came across... wait for it... OMG... a puddle!!! A killer puddle, indeed! What, put my foot in THAT???!!!
(as you can see, it's a humungous foal eating puddle...)
Maybe if we test it gently first...
and then we can walk through it...
Just one interesting thing to note, this was much easier for her to do pointing back towards home than it was towards the big outside world. Always try to set a horse up to do something in the way she finds easiest!
When the pressure gets a little much for Luna, she does still resort to some of her less endearing ways. No rearing, but some definite attempts at biting. In particular, she has found that she can always get out of being asked to back up by a nip. This was making backing her out of your space almost impossible and could easily escalate so I felt it was time to make our "no" a little bigger. This came in the form of the infamous rattly bottle. 2 shakes and she was backing up very softly. Magic! I know some don't like this method but to me it is quick and effective, and prevents worse in the future.
All in all, an extremely good afternoon. Well done, Jodie.
If there are any of you who missed her starring role in the School for Scoundrels article (now, is that possible???), or if you've not seen Jodie's posts about her on the main thread, let me fill you in.
Jodie bought Luna's mum, Twinkle, without knowing that she was getting more than she had bargained for. That little bit more appeared a few months later in the shape of Luna. Unprepared for the challenges of a foal, Jodie did not too bad a job and at the age of 5 months Luna was handled, had her headcollar on, led alongside Twinkle and had met the farrier. But... we were just missing a few boundaries and Luna was starting to push them.
Luna is not a wee slip of a lass and, although only 12hh and very young, she's extremely strong already. And she's a determined young lady! When things are going her way, she's lovely. When she wants to say no, though, she has some very impressive tools in her box, including full height vertical rearing and some fairly nifty biting.
During my first visit to Luna, she was pushed way out of her comfort zone because we were working for the article (possibly not a good combination with hindsight), but some very valuable lessons were learned by all. Jodie learned the importance of boundaries, of not letting Luna do the leading, and of stopping any hand feeding or playing with Luna's mouth that was encouraging the nipping. I hope Jodie will forgive me if I say she looked rather uncertain about life with a challenging foal, and I'll confess I felt a little uncertain too. I do love it when I'm proven wrong sometimes...
Visit 2 was today. My goodness, what a fantastic change in Jodie. As she explained, when faced with the prospect of maybe having to sell Luna because she was not mentally strong enough for her, instead of giving in she rose to the challenge. I take my hat of to her (only when safe, of course), not everyone could do that but she left me feeling very impressed by her resolve.
Luna is now about 7 months old and it's time to build in a little separation and then think about weaning. That was one issue for today. Jodie also wanted to go for a walk up the road.
We started in the small area outside their stable. To start from a place of familiarity, Jodie led Luna round with Twinkle in with her.
then Jodie's dad took Twinkle just outside, so they could still see each other. This was the first time this had ever happened and Luna was a little concerned.
Jodie kept calm leadership, though, and it didn't go beyond that, and then Luna settled and allowed herself to be led nicely.
It was then time to go for a walk. We'd planned to go up the lane for 5 minutes but on leaving the yard we came across... wait for it... OMG... a puddle!!! A killer puddle, indeed! What, put my foot in THAT???!!!
(as you can see, it's a humungous foal eating puddle...)
Maybe if we test it gently first...
and then we can walk through it...
Just one interesting thing to note, this was much easier for her to do pointing back towards home than it was towards the big outside world. Always try to set a horse up to do something in the way she finds easiest!
When the pressure gets a little much for Luna, she does still resort to some of her less endearing ways. No rearing, but some definite attempts at biting. In particular, she has found that she can always get out of being asked to back up by a nip. This was making backing her out of your space almost impossible and could easily escalate so I felt it was time to make our "no" a little bigger. This came in the form of the infamous rattly bottle. 2 shakes and she was backing up very softly. Magic! I know some don't like this method but to me it is quick and effective, and prevents worse in the future.
All in all, an extremely good afternoon. Well done, Jodie.