She haltered fine, and tied up good. Now, Nellie has a problem with being tied. She thinks that it is her right to side pass over the top of you while tied. She has no respect, and slowly I've gotten her to give heed to me. She also is used to being able to rear back and escape whatever is holding her. I saw this behavior when I was first trying to get her in the trailer, and so I only use a rope halter on her, and my lead rope has one of those "clinton anderson" latches with the twisty part. Nellie was awesome for me while I groomed her up. Cockleburrs in her ears, no problem. brushing her anywhere, go right ahead. Then came time for the shot. She lost it. She tried to side pass over my wife, and was met with my first. This led to a discovery. Rubbing on this horse, she is just fine. But if you tap your finger on her neck, she goes nuts. I literally watched her temperament get hotter and hotter as I just sat and did this to her.
This is difficult for me, because as I've been taught, I need to just keep doing that till she relaxes and realizes that it's no problem. It's a part of basic desensitizing. Well ... Nellie got hotter, and hotter and hotter! I was barely tapping on her neck. She was trying to run me over, and then reached the point where she was full on rearing back and trying desperately to escape. I kept going and going, and she got worse and worse. At this point, I nearly got pawed when she reared back one time, so I turned the taps into half tap half rubs and got her to stand still. I started tapping again, and she got all worked up again. (Note: by tap, I mean, barley touching her neck with your finger over and over and over.)
So ... I left her tied, and decided that we were not going to be able to do anything with her today. She's way too worked up, and I don't want to make "getting shots" a tramatic experience. I decided I'd leave her tied and let her get used to being tied up.
We turned our attention to Pam, and I tell ya ... the occasional spookiness Pam shows, is made up by how sweet and mellow she is when are brushing her. She relaxed completely, and didn't even flinch for her shots. Our Vet recommended we vaccinate for strangles this spring, and so we even did that for the first time. This is applied through a long tube in the nose. I thought for sure we'd get some bad behavior, but nope. Pam stood there and was a dream. Love that horse.
All the time this was going on, Rachael was getting her new shoes on. Now, my farrier found out that in his haste this morning, he grabbed size 6 nails, instead of 8's from his dark shed. This meant he ran out of nails. Rather than have him drive 45 minutes home, I drove over to a friends a few miles away and borrowed some from him.
Well ... while I was gone, I got a call from the wife. Nellie just broke the rope on her lead, and is running wild. "Ok ... I'll be back quick. Shut the gate and I'll take care of it in a minute". 2 minutes later ... RING. "Nellie ran up and down the pen, and got Pam all worked up and excited, and Pam ran right through the fence. Now they are both running around like crazy." Anyone who has horses may understand why the next words out of my mouth were cuss words. In my mind, there is nothing worse than HAVING to fix a fence. Yes, it's easy, but I have other stuff to do instead of worrying about that.
I got home, and Amanda and my farrier had gotten things ok. Pam was back in her stall, and my farrier had caught Nellie. Come to find out, she didn't break the rope ... her "clinton anderson approved" latch had just popped open when she reared back on it. Just my luck. Maybe I should just stick with bull snaps. Anyway ... I walked over to Nellie, and she was already pissy at being tied up. And like a good parent, the punishment came swift. "That's it young lady ... you are in time out!"
The farrier finisehd up Rachael, and Rachael got her shots. The entire time we just hear the sounds of Nellie pawing the trailer, and moving side to side over and over. We payed no attention to her. After that, I fixed the fence, and cleaned everything up. I walked over to Nellie with a brush, and brushed on her some. Then she tried to side pass over me again. So ... She got hit, and I decided that this horse is in an indefinite time out. I took a water container over and put it near her head where she can reach it. Tonight I'll hang a hay bag for her. She can stay there till she drops this attitude and realizes that I am the boss!
Don't you hate when you have to be the mean parent?!? That's my day today. Nellie is going to make a very sweet and fun horse to work. I really like her. We just need to reinforce in her mind that when it comes to human interaction, she is NOT the lead mare. I AM!
Oh ... and one more thing ... Oliver Jetton is the best draft farrier in North Texas!! (as far as I'm concerned). He's 60 years old and watching him do the work is awesome! The horse stays calm and relaxed the entire time. I'm so glad he's my farrier!
Hang in there! With ground manners like that, Nellie is lucky to have found you, rather than someone with no patience or fear of that sort of behavior. Maybe try tapping her neck while she is eating her grain. If she acts up she doesn't get her grain until she calms down? We fed our retired amish draft on a horse trailer everyday for six months for him to finally load easily. Now we just point at the trailer and he steps on, but boy were those first few weeks frustrating! Good luck and thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHeather in PA