Tomorrow at sun up, Buck and I are going to get to know each other
much better.
My neighbor had a ton of extra preifert panels laying around for her
arena that she is going to put up someday, so she let me borrow 8 of
them. I put together the pen, and have been feeding Lily and buck in
it for 2 days now.
I got to go camping with the boyscouts last night, so I really didn't
get a chance to work with the horses.
The reason I got these panels, is because Buck just will not let me
near him. He just wants to stay arms length away and kick at me. So
... now that they are in an enclosed area, I will be getting to know
little Buck pretty good.
Tomorrow morning I'm going out and somehow or another, I'm going to
hold that little turd! With the panels I will be able to corner him,
and get my hands on him and wrap him up. He really needs to know that
it's okay for me to touch him.
I'm borrowing a colt halter from a friend tomorrow sometime, and will
begin working on putting that on and off as well.
Wish me luck everyone!!!
BTW ... a little funny thought for you. When I got these panels, they
were in my neighbors pasture with her prized Palamino Stallion. He's
big and pretty and 16 years old or so. I used to think he was a big
beautiful horse (and he still is very pretty). As I was dragging the
panels out of his pen, I was looking down and noticed his feet. I
couldn't help but think "Man those things are small!" Now that I have
Lilly, he doesn't seem so awesome anymore. I'll take Lily over him
any day!!! Drafts sure do spoil ya! :)
UPDATE:
Things went pretty good yesterday.
Once I got my hands on Buck, I had to wrap him up and hold him for
about 1 hour with him fighting me the whole time. He was not happy
with me. I kept rubbing him all over (feet, nose, ears, and all).
After the initial hour, I grabbed the curry comb and started trying to
brush on him. When I started that, he calmed right down. I think
maybe it's because I have been brushing him with it under his momma
for the past week. Once I started that, he got easier to work with.
Last night, he was a little stand-offish, but once I would grab him,
he would stand fine with me and I hardly had to fight him.
Good progress!!
UPDATE:
It was very rewarding last night. Once I got one hand
around the front of his neck, he basically gave up, and just stood
still right next to me. I could keep him clam with barely any
pressure as long as that hand was around the front of his neck. While
I rubbed him down with both hands, he actually seemed to enjoy it.
I'm going to try and get a colt halter from a friend and start putting
it on him. That should be fun!
The gal I got Lilly from told me that she uses this "Hug" technique.
She said that when they get out of control, she hugs them while they
are young (One arm around the front of the neck, the other as close to
being around their rear as possible. Hold them like this till they
give up and stop struggling. She said she loves this technique,
because as the horse grows, anytime you need to calm them down, you
can put your arm around the front of them, and they calm down. I like
it so far.
Lily's reaction:
For the morning session, I haltered here and tied her up. She made
some initial noise at me, but once I started talking to Buck and she
heard the word "Easy", she didn't seem to mind at all.
Last night, I didn't halter her, same results. I even grabbed him
right under her neck and she didn't mind. All that bonding time with
her is paying off big time.
On a completely unrelated note: I gave Lily her wormer, and boy did
she make some funny faces. She curled her upper lip as high as it
would go and opened her mouth wide and just stayed like that, looking
at me. I got a chuckle out of it. She did that face over and over
for the next few minutes. This was my first time worming her, and I
don't think she liked it too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment