Thursday, March 24, 2016

Learning and some melodrama

Tomorrow Mag will have been here two months. Not long at all, but it feels normal now.

I'm starting to do TTEAM work with his legs each time after I pick his feet, to show him that it can be a relaxing thing to have his hooves worked with. So far he has not done a cat stretch when I've taken a leg forward, not yet. He's more thoughtful about his hooves but still offers to back up if he's not tied, or he'll put his chin between his knees as if I'm asking for a bow and I've never even thought about that trick with him. He's not reliable with his hooves yet, that's what I mean to say.

I trimmed all four hooves a tiny bit and I'll be doing more and more as he grasps how fascinating his feet are to his human.

I also did the donkey's hooves this week. It's 4 weeks since their profi trim and I need to keep at it to get both of their feet looking better.

***

I wanted to talk about our morning bucket feeding routine, where Mag gets a lot of beet pulp with vitamins and oil, and Bellis gets a sorry amount (a few tablespoons of beet pulp) because she's as big as a house lately.

I was getting lazy and accepting that Mag wait independently in his stall (open) and back into a corner as  I placed the bucket, but he still had a questionable look on his face every so often. Not a glare, not pinned ears, just a worried, "Is my food gonna be stolen?" look, that I wasn't comfortable with. I never let him have his food until I had both ears and eyes on me, but still, I wanted a better system.

So this week we've perfected the system that I mentioned before. As I prepare the buckets they can hang out in the paddock area. But when I'm done preparing, I get a lunge whip and gently urge them away from the area, but not all the way to the pasture (which happened the first few times, Mag thought that's what I wanted). Funnily, Mag will opt to go into his stall and stand in the corner, thinking that is the right answer, because before, it was, but I go into the other stall and wave the whip around gently (if I am too assertive, he'll flee and slip on the geotiles).

Today they got it, and yesterday too. They both politely left the area, got to the wood chip area and turned to face me. Instead of Bellis brazenly coming back immediately (and getting dissuaded with the whip), they both stand there now, waiting for me to place both buckets in both stalls. Then I leave and shut the gate and call to them. It works - Bellis comes right into her stall and Mag his, and as soon as they're happily eating, I put up the wire gates to separate them because Bellis will eventually get Mag's food, even though he's dominant, she's persistent and clever. This way, there is no interaction over food, among any of the three of us.

Generally I keep them separated for the next 5 hours so that I can work with one or both of them, and give them hay to eat. At 3 PM I open it up and let them go to pasture where they happily spend the entire night eating grass. No poop for me to clean up each morning at the barn anymore, woo! Except probably on days like today, when I was gone all day so after bucket time I let them out to choose pasture or paddock and they went to the pasture, so who knows where they'll spend the night.

***

I finally got to see Mag's face when the ponies pulling the carriage trotted by our house. His face was like, "That is fantastic!" Apparently he's getting used to it. Let's just see what happens when he's off property and they whiz by.

***

Lately I bought a couple of new types of horse treat and then J and I had a little too much fun feeding them to Mag. He started to get a little nudgy with his nose, which isn't allowed. I quit giving him treats for a while and he's better, but the other day J said that Mag nipped him - with his teeth - on his hand, because well, Mag expects a treat when  he sees J. So we're both holding off until he forgets, and eventually we'll see if he can learn to be respectful about food, which I'm sure he will learn. Bellis and Baasha and Mara all learned it - if they ask for a treat, there is no treat. Pretty simple. Bellis can be super annoying when you have treats in your pocket, but she isn't rude about it. She knows it will only cause me to walk away.

***

Mag is enjoying lots of rubs under the neckline of his blanket, and he wraps his head around me in appreciation, but is very careful not to nibble me back, though I can see he wants to.

Mag does not like me on his near side. In fact, he will purposefully always keep me on his off side unless I walk around to the other side. This guarding behavior will diminish I'm sure, I'm not doing anything unpleasant to him. I just find it interesting that each day, I have to say, "OK let me over there." And he gets a reward as I rub under his mane, which is also on the wrong side.

This morning I went out there and sang my usual HI MAAAAYG! greeting to him and he put his nose on my chest, not pushing, not thinking about treats, and I got a waft of his scent, and it was that amazing horse scent. (Arabians smell different.)  I reached my face down and kissed his nose....and realized it was the first time. I know, too much melodrama, sorry.

***

Looking so much forward to whatever comes next. I haven't ridden a horse since December. When Baasha died, I didn't ride a horse for 5 months. What a strange feeling it is to not ride. But I shouldn't whine about it, this is a happy time.

I have proof, although it's surreal at this point in time:



8 comments:

Achieve1dream said...

That's the main reason I don't like pink noses either! My friend has Paints and they get sunburned noses. It looks so painful and ugly. Since the sun never shines there (hehe), hopefully it won't be a problem for Mag.

Isn't it interesting watching how horses and donkeys relate to each other?? The herd dynamics between my three is really fascinating. Rocky is dominate and almost a bully to Chrome (I can't ride around Rocky if he's loose because Chrome stares at him the whole time and flinches away if he pins his ears), but he lets Zep get away with everything!! Zep even eats out of the same bucket as Rocky!! It is so weird! Chrome used to let Zep eat with him too, but now he chases him away. So the boss horse ignores the donkey and the low man on the totem pole chases the donkey. So odd. Chrome actually uses Zep as a buffer when they eat at the hay. If Zep is between them Rocky will ignore Chrome. I love my strange herd. :D

lytha said...

Achieve, Your submissive donkey eats your dominant horse's food too? Heh heh, that must just be a donkey thing huh? And Chrome used to share food before Rocky arrived?

And now your donkey is being used by his buddy, how cool. If I had a choice, I would never not have a donkey with my horse.

Oak Creek Ranch said...

Mag seems to be settling very well and you sound so happy. This is just wonderful.

Piccolopony said...

I can tell by the way that you talk about him that you love him. He is such a gorgeous horse it would be tough not to :-)

AareneX said...

It does feel so weird not to ride for months, doesn't it? I was off for a few weeks post-surgery, and now it's been 2 months since I've ridden Fiddle (although I've ridden other horses it is TOTALLY NOT THE SAME).

You'll ride when it feels right to ride. And as soon as you get off, you'll blog.

RIGHT?!?!?!?!!!!

Achieve1dream said...

Me too!! I was told that once I got a donkey I'd never be able to not have one. They were right!!

Kitty Bo said...

Please do not ever apologize for "melodrama," because it is not. We are all kissing that nose with you and inhaling the sweet essence of horse.

I love that you ask for harmony before the horses eat. I do this with my dogs (sit and give me eye contact.) Also, because one taught the others to bolt at the door, everyone has to stay until I give the release to go outside. (If your ever curious about them, I'm on Instagram @maguiretrots ) Harmony instead of chaos....

Do you work on things like flexing and yielding when you bring his head to the side? Before I rode Maguire, I worked on this, and then when I was in the saddle, I reinforced it. Then the first thing I taught him was the one rein stop.

lytha said...

KB, I'm not on Instagram but doesn't it feel good to have harmony instead of possible aggression! I have done some of that flexing work but not the one-rein stop position yet. I've done the one where they bring their hips toward you when you take up the outside rein (but only with a halter).