Rainrot & Whuffles

I'd been at the barn 5 minutes yesterday before I had beads of sweat dripping down my chest. Don't get me wrong - I love summer but it was mildly unnerving. I imagine I'll be much more miserable in the winter.

D still lifts his head when he hears me at the gate. I feel like I'm so close to getting that first step towards me, but no cigar yet. I've been bribing, I hate to say it - I take a small treat out with me for haltering. I find it greatly helps with the getting his head up for the halter though. Still having issues in the pasture - he wanted to "shove" me off the path with his shoulder, which I strongly resented. I'm thinking I should start swinging the leadrope again, not in an aggressive way but just a "this is my space stay out" way. Then again I have noticed in the past he will respect the leadrope, but still not me. *sigh* Smart horse. I feel like alot of our space issues are because I was trained to leade the horse RIGHT NEXT TO me. No wonder we get bumped and stepped on so much... I'm really trying to adopt more of a Klaus Hempfling type leading, keeping much more awareness and space between us.

We spent time in the roundpen since it was the only shaded spot at 6:30 in the evening. Sugar the mustang got to watch the show next door. ;)
D really didn't want to walk or do ANYthing, but I brought along some of the senior grain I'm not feeding anymore, as a treat. Pretty soon he was offering to touch his barrel with his nose for treats, but I didn't want him over doing the stretches so I directed his attention elsewhere. I finally figured: well targeting is one thing he needs to learn to be able to do alot of things I want to teach him. We haven't had much success in the past even though he's a smart horse. I decided to start with something very straightforward that he would easily understand (and like): holding something in his mouth. I unscrewed the lunge whip in half and gave him the bottom portion to hold in his mouth, he enjoyed it and moved it around alittle, trying to balance both ends and keep it parallel to the ground. It was really funny to watch. Once he dropped it I clicked with my tongue and gave him a treat. He perked up immediately and started grabbing the whip quicker when I would hand it to him, even shaking it or trying to drag it along the ground with his head tilted. My goalt was to eventually get him to target the whip when it was laying on the ground. We only got down to his knees though, if I laid it down he ignored it and just tried to mug me. He was heavy on the mugging once I stood up to decide on another task to work on, so I immediately took a more assertive approach about my space, giving him very direct intense looks and holding my hands and arms up to keep him out of my space. I got alot of nasty looks in return, pinned ears etc, but he complied mostly with no offer of nipping. at this point he is not allowed to go "groping" his nose all around me or his own body to find a treat when I am working by his shoulder, I've decided I need to make it clear that when he is fed a treat I come to his head and administer it now. Same place, same neck position - everytime. That way hopefully he learns that bending around like a rubber band will not earn him treats unless that's what I'm asking for.

The next task was leg lifting. My 3 goals right now to work on are Shoulder in (groundwork), Leg lifts & Come to me. Leg lifts are HARD as he usually could care less if I tap his leg with a whip. I come to my method by two bits of info: I read someone on the MBs say they touched the elbow to get a leg lift and it seemed an automatic button & I also know the only way D lifts a hoof right now is when I physically ask with my hand, not a whip. Maybe he considers the whip too impersonal. So I hunched over and squeezed his elbow. He froze, then shifted his weight all over for a second like he was trying tofigure out what the heck I was doing, then his simply lifted his hoof! Immediate release of my hand and walking forward to treat him - along with a "Good!" We tried this on both sides multiple times. He gets in a habit of lifting the foot and backing up - his idea is that he lifts it and backs at the same time so his nose can automatically reach me for treats since I'm not allowing him to bend around and mug me. *sigh* Again, too smart. Novel logic though. At the very end I got to where I only rewarded a stand-still lift, back up steps I just followed at his shoulder and ignored his please for treats until he stood still. At his very best he held his left hoof up to his knee for 4 seconds! I was impressed. His right hoof is harder though, currently he just kind of picks it up 3" and stomps it back down. Atleast he's got the idea. After that we did some more with the whip. I really need to get him a chew toy...

Work in the ring was hot but the sun had gone behind the clouds. The Mastiffs were skeptical of me and the horse in the ring so they stood on the hill, making D alittle nervous - so I decided to keep the halter on. I unclipped him and walked along the rain and he easily followed. I played with my stride, lengthening and soon found he was outwalking me with his over-tracking. He still over tracks a good 6-8" when he's really moving. Then I did short tiny collected steps and I noted he slowed down considerably, though it looked like he was just taking short lazy steps and he looked rather peeved that we'd slowed down without actually stopping. I did a circle, being very careful to keep my hips pointing where I wanted to go and he followed suit. He still won't trot. The most I got of him was some lengthened strides and head bobbing while I trotted off ahead of him. After we'd walked several times around the ring in various directions with circles, I headed to the center to start our shoulder in. He immediately reached for the whip and took it out of my hand to proudly bob it up and down. I regretted not having any treats but I still told him 'good' and stroked his neck in a rewarding way, then took ym slobbery whip back. Going counterclockwise, to my left he understands circles very easily, going forward Vs simply turning to face me. We dropped into our old circle routine very easily that I used to do in December. Only this time I faced his barrel and encouraged his hind end on while using my hands to give small pushes in time with his balance and inner hind leg coming up. I found he stepped under well, although after a minute he turned away from me pointedly and faced himself towards the fence. I stood there "You didn't like that?" he flicked an ear back and eyed me. I asked him to come with me to a new location and walked off. After a few paces of walking I heard him behind me and he walked up to my shoulder and stopped, like "Okay... what now?" I wih I'd had a picture XD. We tried a slightly bigger circle this time with me allowing him to go where he wanted - straight or circle - as long as he stayed bent and attentive to my asking of the hind leg. Going to the right (clockwise) was harder, that's the direction he has a harder time understand "forward around me" instead of simply turning and facing me. We got a few good steps in though. After all that bending we went for a stroll along the rail again. It was plesant but then he found a tuft of extremely lushy grass, followed by another even better tuft and so on. had I had several hours to spend I'd have let him graze until he became interested again - but as it was I had very little time left to get him washed up and I knew it. I waited a few minutes, strolling along in circles near him pretending to ignore him. Then I tried to drive him forward - he ignored me. Finally I took to swinging my arms above his head to get it to raise - but I think it was partly because I stepped into his space as well. I hate that I had to 'force' him away from the grass but what else could I do? =( I'm still figuring these things out.


Anyways. He was happy in the barn, although looking for his food. I tied and rinsed him, then worked on his face, which he did NOT like. He finally settled for me wetting my palm and rubbing a miniscule amount of water into his forehead at a time. It took forever but he wasn't flinging his head up. His heels & pasterns are looking okish, a few new scabs formed on his hind heels where it was worse. I scrubbed everything I could and also took the scrub brush to his head, he grudgingly obliged and then acted like his head itched, poor thing. He's loosing some chunks of forelock due to that scabby yellow crust that's formed just underneath. Rinsing took forever as well, but once the cream and towel came out he knew it was almost over and stood still for me, though he mouthed my shirt like "Hurry up will you..I'm bored." After pulling the new tube of zinc oxide cream out of it's box I walked over to where he was tied and saw his nostrils flare... and he whuffled O_O This horses NEVER whuffles to a person, EVER. In fact he's rarely vocalized to humans (other than grunts) ever. I've only ever heard him whuffle at a mare he was interested in once (Rose). It was very very low and airy. I stood shocked thinking I was hearing things and he rocked forward against his leadrope and bobbed his head at me, maintaining the pretty neck arch. I left him sniff the cream, in case he thought it was food but I think it wasn't wholly about the cream, it was about knowing that I would feed him very soon. I applied the cream and then untied him and fed him, still in shock. Apparently he was a happy horse yesterday...