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.
