Sick,wet,cold and very proud

I was quite sick all last week with a nasty virus and was not at work all last week and could not even drag myself out of bed. It was horrible!

Anyway on Saturday I managed to drag myself up to the paddocks and groom all three ponies. I also decided to see how Melody would go with being 'tied up'. So I tied the boys up and gave them some hay and did the same with her. Accept I didn't actually tie her, I just looped the rope through the twine in a way so that if she pulled back she would still feel pressure on the rope but could still get away safely.

Well, she was brilliant! Just happily stood there munching her hay and when she decided she had enough standing around and tried to move away I just gently asked her forward and she was fine. I finished brushing her and put her cover on. Then I started brushing Kirbys mane and I see out of the corner of my eye,a little chestnut filly in green grazing not 2 metres away from her tie up. She had obviously gotten herself off without any panic as there was only Echo between her and Kirby so I would have heard something. Im really happy with how she is coming along. I have even led her back to the paddock twice and once being in the dark! This weekend ill bring her up for some one on one time and see how that goes. It will be interesting :)

She needs alot more work on picking her feet up. So I will do alot of that this weekend.

Just a few pictures of Mel being tied up for the first time :)

Pony Club

Well last weekend I took Echo to pony club...and he wa awesome! I took him down to get him out and also help some friends with getting their horse used to other horses coming up behind him and passing him ect in the arena (green broke).

Then we did some small jumps. I started off with a 70cm then went smaller and Echo was amazing. He was so calm and quiet and he didnt rush at all! Then we had a play in the water jump and he went straight in! He was just amazing and I could not be more proud of him. He then spent a few hours chomping on the long grass at PC while I rode another horse.

He was so good that iv decided to take him to Woodhill SJ next weekend haha then we Renee, Chloe, David and I are going for a ride in the forest and then having lunch. It should be fun!

Im also taking Echo to PC on Saturday again and then on Monday Renee is taking me to the forest and then out to lunch for my Birthday :)

Ill also do some more leading with Melody as we are a bit stuck on that!

Here is a pic of Ec in his new rug and a few of Mel after being brushed (a failed attempt!)

Melody Update

Well I have been really bad at updating my blog! So many things have happened and I have not put it on here!

Well I started doing serious work with Melody back in Feb-March. She had already learnt to eat hard feed and now I was trying to get her to let me touch her. I wasn’t succeeding to well until Anna (wow) gave me the suggestion of not letting her have any hard feed until she let me touch her. Vala! It worked! So from there I progressed to getting her used to a brush. Which she took very well. So now I can touch her and brush her all over. She has never attempted to kick and is very good with her back end so I have never been worried about her kicking.

Next came the dreaded halter! I brought a flimsy little pony one from SW (thanks Sophie) and started touching her with it using the approach and retreat technique. As she got more comfortable I started creeping it down her neck, this was done over a few days. Then within half and hour one night, it was on. I put the head band around her neck then did the noseband up while her head was in the feed bucket. Piece of cake! I left it on for the night and then I took it off the next day and took it around to my friends so he could clip on the the rings out so I could replace it with twine. This was so she could wear the halter in the paddock without getting caught on something and not being able to pull free…..this didn’t work to well because everytime I put it on her, it would be gone the next day! So off it stayed and one day while Kirby and Echo were getting their feet done I just went up to her quietly and put the head band around her neck, then the noseband. That was the last time I did it that way as I discovered she doesn’t like the noseband straps flapping around. So the next time I just slipped the noseband over her nose, did up the head band and bingo, I can halter my horse.

It was now time to teach her to lead and pick up her feet. The feet was easy and she got the hang of it really fast. Im yet to be able to hold her feet long enough to pick them out but she is getting the idea. Leading, was a different story. This is where my thanks goes to Simone from Horsey Home School. Who told me how she teaches the wild Kaimanawa ponies to lead. Put them in a yard and put pressure on them from behind to ask them forward. So that what I did and we are still working on going forward! We can go backwards and sideways but not forward so well. To ask her forward, I stand to her side on with my arm in the direction I want her to go and then tap her with the lunge rope on the bum to get the pressure from the back end going…. I tried the whole grass stick (like a carrot stick only green) thing….my result was a half asleep,hind leg resting, ginga mammoth!

On the weekend I had some friends daughters come up and give her a brush. This was a good indication for me as to where her head is at in regards to strangers, this is also where she discovered nipping. Which also resulted in an elbow in the face the second time it happened! She was trying to tell me that it was to much to soon. The problem, is that she went the wrong way about it. I corrected the nipping behavior but also took her out of the situation she felt pressured in. Showing her that im not going to make her do something she is not comfortable with, but it doesn’t mean she has to get angry about it! After they gave her a brush, Sophie had a play with her. Picking up her feet and leading her and touching her. The leading and the touching was fine but she didn’t like her picking up her feet. I think Sophie had a lot of fun with her.

Last night I acquired a cover for Melody so that I could de-sensitize her to it and get her used to having on on. Well this is what happened. I approached her with it while she was eating. She moved away with her ears back. So I stepped back and then tried again. No ears back this time but just moving away. So I picked up her feed bucket in one hand and rubbed the cover on her with the other. As soon as she realized it wasn’t going to bite her she fully relaxed. So I decided to try and lay it on top of her….nothing. So I didn’t up a back strap….nothing, I did up the other back strap….nothing. So I did the front strap up and what do you know…NOTHING! I was so excited that she took it so well I was shaking. It only took literally 10mins!

I am very pleased with the way she is going and I love her more and more everyday. I am starting to get to know her disklikes and likes and she is putting more and more trust in me everyday. She is funny (like to eat the yellow cable off the hot unit and have bucket wrestles with you!), she is smart and beautiful. But she is also so quiet and calm, like everything is done in a whisper. She like feed, me, her dad, Sophie,Graeme,hay,apples,carrots,covers (she likes being dry) and the occasional hoon. She doesn’t like, me telling her off, other people trying to pick up her feet, when there is no more feed left.

I promise to keep updating this regularly from now on.

First Week Home

Last Wednesday Melody finally came home. She arrived at around lunchtime and would not stop calling out from the truck. I brang Echo in and right away she jumped off the truck sniffed him and started walking around and sniffing. Echo was hauling on the lead rope to get near her so putting all my trust in him I let him go. He was absolutely beside himself with love in less then 10 seconds. He loves babies and I suppose now he has his wish. Kirby on the other hand isn't so nice and is constantly chasing her. She is very equine educated and seeing her interact with the boys is very interesting. She kept sniffing for another few seconds and then she started eating and that was the big drama of her arrival (NOT!). A few hours later she happily followed Echo into the paddock and that was the end to her big day.

After that I was on holiday for a few days so she was just settling into the paddock. When I got home on Monday I went straight up to the horses and starting pulling some branches off the trees to give to the boys. She thought that this exercise was rather odd and was not really interested at first. I took a small branch off the big one and handed Echo a branch and held out the other one for her. We both stretched as far as we could and she started happily munching on the branch and that was our first contact. That same afternoon we also touched noses for the first time.

Last night was Melody's first BBQ and hoof trimming exposure. As she seems to do with all things in life she took everything in her stride with curiosity and thought. She was very interested in watching the boys get their feet trimmed and took pride in trying to get a close enough to touch noses with the Chihuahua's (her first time around dogs). She barely flinched when the girls went screaming past her out of the shed. She thought it was rather odd when Echo came up to sniff her when he had people on his back. They sniffed and after he walked off she thought about it for a second thinking 'that was odd' and even did a little sideways movement with her head (have it on video) then continued eating.

Last night I worked with her off Echo and we followed each other around grazing here and there and just generally 'hanging out'. She sniffed my hand and I touched her lightly on the nose. Progress is moving very quickly and she is proving to be a very wonderful girl with a big future :)