Never missing an oppurtunity to eat...

When something things go wrong on the farm. It seems to all go wrong all day long. I woke up this morning to find that two of the domestic horses had broken a fence and were happily munching grass along the stream bank, with a big long stand of wire that had been completely pulled off the fence posts, trainling the whole diameter of the paddock behind them. After that nothing went quite right all day. Except for my two wild angels. Who were both just exceptional all day. Another step forward by both of them. you can nnow pick up and handle their feet.

So when i finally had the domestic herd sorted out and on the right side of the fence again. It was time to handle the boy and get him out in the paddock for the day. Neither wild horse is left with a halter on in the stable or paddock. I find that they wait in same corner of their pen where they feel safe, for you to catch them each day. but today the boy came marching up to the door when i opened it and stood their quietly to be caught. Progress. Everyday i usally go over everything they've already learned. Can they move around you, away from you, back up, come towards you, can you rub them all over? before proceeding with anything new, you always go over exercises their comfortable with, just to reinforce their confidence and reactions . After runing through all this it was time to go about teaching the boy to pick his feet up.

No matter what your training a horse to do, the method is the same. You ask them to do something, as soon as they give you even the slightest response in the right direction, immediately you stop asking for a moment. So it is with picking up their feet. First i ran a rope down their leg. with the rope i asked him to lift his foot. As soon as he lifted it i released the pressure on rope instantly. Then just kept repeating until i could lift and hold his foot with my hand. No problemo! Just a little patience and rewarding step by small step.

Being concerned about the grey's sore foot, i decided i needed to first be able to see the foot through the mud. So i took her for a walk to the stream. Thinking standing in the stream and letting the flowing water clean it would be far easier than trying to wash it with a hose. It was, these little ponys truly dont getr upset over anything. Especially in the greys case they also never miss an oppurtunity to eat. She jus walked in and calmy stood in the water and started eating the grass along the banks. After 15 minutes i took her out and started the same procees of picking her feet up. She surprised me learning even faster than the boy what i wanted. She is defiantely the more suspicious one and in other things has taken a bit longer to become comfortable with handling etc. But just goes to show you can never predict just how they will react to things.

Her feet though are not in fantastic shape, better than when she arrived though, as some of cracked bits have flaked off on her toes. But still bad. The sore foot has very twisted growth. A big chunk has just come off the toe, i suspect this is why she is limping. because she is now putting pressure on the sensitive part of her foot. But will have to try and have better look tomorrow. She does seem better than yesterday though.

So after a day that started with the fence breaking, and continued with water pipes getting broken, domestic horses behaving like idiots and general farm chaos. The day ended just as chaotically as it began. Every night i open the gate to Milo and the Bays paddock. Every night Milo just trots freely down to the barn and into his stable, while i catch the bay. My old Arab just grazes freely and usually follows Milo to the stable. Not tonight. Milo left the paddock like a bat out of hell. Met up with the old Arab, they then both proceeded up and down the driveway and orchard, galloping, bucking and gen rally having a hell of a time. I was expecting the wild bay to join in, galloping and being silly, not letting me catch him. To my surprise, he watched the other 2 horses for a minute. Then walked up to me and just stood there waiting to be caught.Never a second did he even look like he wanted to join the other two idiots...Priceless. Moments like these make it all worth it. When it seems like everything is going wrong, a little bay stallion lets you know, you must be doing something right...

Home

Home sweet home from my two days in the city. Its always nice to get away for a little while, because you come back refreshed and itching to press on with training horses. Apparently both wild ones were well behaved while i was away. but eyed the stranger giving them hay a bit suspiciously as it was very out of their routine. But both wild ones were happy to see me it seemed. With bay boy at the gate waiting to be brought in to the stable. The grey who is a lot more suspicious in nature was also, happy it seemed to be caught. But oh no...grey has a limp. i don't know if it is the wet weather causing soreness, or if her feet that have always been in terrible shape are causing her grief finally? What ever it is, it doesn't look to severe, will have to wait till tomorrow when i can wash and take a close look at the problem.

i got home just in time to teach my afternoon riding lessons. So having caught grey girl,in record time, i decided to bring her to the barn for the afternoon. It was her turn to watch the comings and goings inside the stables. Like i said in my last blog. As long as you show them there nothing to be afraid of, they don't learn that they should be fearful. So it was with the girl, i left her loose in her stable and allowed her just to watch the kids running around the place and the lesson ponies coming and going. She stood right back in the corner of her stall, but ears pricked watching the whole thing. No big deal. I didn't act scared the other horses were happy and relaxed. Grey girl accepted that this situation wasn't dangerous. by the end of the day she had her head hanging over the stable door, children running almost right under, or into her nose at times.

I let the lesson kids be kids, they run, jump make loud noises, and the horses just learn that this is no big deal. Rather than try and teach the kids to be quiet and calm. the wild horses just learn that this activity is just as ordinary as anything else in life. Although the kids are forbade from actually approaching the horses or feeding them tit-bits at the end like they do with the lesson ponys. Grey, allowed her time to watch and assess the situation took her time but was definitely perfectly calm with it all in the end. You just got to let them take the time it takes.

Bay boy was desperate to get to his stable after riding lessons had finished. Waiting for me at gate as soon as he saw i was coming to get him. How quickly they come to enjoy there 'creature comforts'. Shelter, warmth and food they don't have to forage for. He seems to love it and grows physically as well getting more and more calm and confident every day. While i was in the city, i happened to read a article about article about teaching a horse tricks.....maybe this will be what i do with the boy until he old enough to actually be ridden? who knows..im home and i feel inspired to try new things and keep up training these little wild things.

So as i sit here writing this from my boyfriends house in the city. I wonder how my little wild things are doing? It is going to be like a little test to see how they do without human contact for a few days. Will they revert back now that they're feeling better? The worm flow as definitely stopped. The grey girl is an eating machine and seems to have almost doubled the size of her belly since worming (on nothing but hay i might add), it may be time to start watching her weight. They boy to is looking better, no more pot belly, and definitely looking much more full of life.



It a 3 hour drive to the city, so i had plenty of time to think on the drive down. A few people i have talked to over the past days, have asked me about the worming of the horses. Asking if i had to twitch them? did it take a man to hold them while i administered the medicine? were they scared of me after? No, no and no. Horses are pretty simple creatures, i think really they only become fearful of what humans (usually inadvertently) teach them to be afraid of. The wild ones had never been wormed before, they didn't know what a tube of worm medicine was, or to be afraid of it, having had no prior experience. They're not afraid of it now. It is how humans as their trainers react that teaches a horse what it should be afraid of.



So to worm them i just got the tube, and first just rubbed it over their body and face. When they were happy with the bright green tube touching them. i put the tube in there mouth and took it out a gain as soon as they accepted it. did this a couple of times and then as just squirted the medicine down there throats. No problem, no reaction at all accept to swallow the paste in their mouth. then went back to rubbing the green tube all over there face. So that there last experience with it wasn't associated with getting fowl tasting paste in their mouth. If i had just walked up shoved a tube full of foul tasting paste down there throats and left again then yes, next time they probably wouldn't have fond memories of the worming experience for next time.

I had a Friend who wanted to worm her weanling. So the first thing she did was put a twitch on it. A twitch if you don't know is usually a loop of string attached to a stick. The string is then twisted around the horses upper lip. Its painful with idea that the horse will stand still as to stop the twitch from inflicting more pain. she did this every time she wormed her horse until after about 6 months she couldn't get near it when she was holding the tube of worming paste. All the horse had remembered was that when that tube of worm er was around, his lip got twisted in a painful way. So in his mind he wouldn't let anyone with that tell tale little tube near him because he associated it with pain . So he reared,kicked, ran or did anything he could to get away from the person come to worm him. The sad thing was is that she would never had these trouble if she just taken the time to make it a good experience in the first place. Even sadder the girl couldn't work out why her horse had such an aversion to being wormed....

I have a about a million examples of people doing things like this....If you just take the time to teach them things are'nt scary then horse wont ever find them frightening.....its only ever what we teach them

getting down and dirty

How romantic it sounds taming wild horses. Even just working with horses. when i tell people what i do for job the response is usually 'Wow that sounds like so much fun' or 'id love to be able to do that' . Most of the time it is great, i love what i do, every day I'm excited about getting out of bed to go to work . But when people (myself included) think of working with horses. You picture hours on horseback riding just you and your horse.You don't usually picture the day to day dirty jobs that working with horses involves. But that is reality. Especially today it was getting down to all the dirty jobs. literally the shittiest jobs.

So the 2 wild ponies were both drenched in the last two days. Which they both handled with ease. In fact they seemed to like the worm medicine far more than any of the horse feed presented to them! Now came the fun job of checking to see just what worms came out.

I've herd that the wild horses carry a very high worm load. You know the ads for sponsoring a starving child in Africa? they show those skeletal looking children with the same bloated, pot bellied look as these two ponies have. But seeing the evidence in front of you is a very different thing than hearing about it. For the 24 hours since worming i have been doing the highly glamorous job of prodding each poo produced to see what worms were in it.

Answer...Hundreds and hundreds of dead worms....i was stunned... i knew there would be worms....but not in this quantity. All different types too. And there still coming poo after poo filled with dead, disgusting parasites. But both horses are already starting to lose that big pot bellied look so that's a bonus. i think my next month they will be much healthier and fatter looking animals.

And this afternoon after prodding what felt like the hundredth horse poo with a stick...i thought...maybe i have been on the farm to long, Ive been starring at piles of shit all day. so tonight i chucked a dress and my high heels on and went out to dinner. sometimes you gotta make sure you haven't lost the plot completely......i am normal... promise

how far we have come

It always happens like this, you work and work for something, at what seems like snails pace. you feel like progress is almost invisible and the destination or goal is so far away, you almost forget about it. It's only when you look back at where you started from, that you realise how far you've come and the progress you've made. Well that's what i have always found with riding, and well life in genral actually.

I know when i was working in a dressage barn learning myself , and trying to train my horse as well. It seemed like i was always at the same level all the time. You were always pushing for that next little step forward in your training, always trying to be better. I would always feel like i was never actually any closer to the end goal. Then one day my mother came to watch, for the first time in about 6 months. She couldn't believe how far id come. she Was stunned at the level my horse and i were now at. It was only then that i realized id come a hell of a long way in a short time. That id improved meteorically.The work i had struggled with 6 months ago, i now sailed through and now what i was working on was miles more advanced. I think that day to day improvements are sometimes so subtle, you take them for granted. You never notice really how far you've come until you look back.

So with the wild horses it is the same. Day to day there is improvement. You realise your making progress. But is only as i sit and write this that i realise how far my two wild ponies and i have come. three weeks ago they were wild, skinny and untouchable. 3 hours ago i was relaxing and leaning against the grey as she grazed down the driveway. I can now pat her all over, legs and head included. She can be lunged (go in a circle for the non-horsey people), she knows all the ground manners and each morning shes waiting at the gate to be caught. Shes even be drenched for worms. funnily enough she didn't mind that, horse feed though still doesn't even register interest.

The bay boy, is the absolute picture of sweetness these days. Like the girl he can be patted all over, he knows all his ground manners and like her has been drenched for worms and also still wont touch horse feed. The boy though seems to have fully embraced domestic bliss. If I'm ever there in the paddock, filling troughs etc, there he is a step behind me watcthing everything. when i let him loose in the morning he follows me down the fence until he hits the end of the paddock. The funniest as well as the sweetest of all, today was watching him investigating the electric fencing unit. Until the inevitable happened and he got a shock, at which stage he came back to me at full speed and stood at my side snorting at the thing that had shocked him. From then on he was stuck to me like glue until i left the paddock.

So really even though progress from day to day is very small steps, overall my two wild ponies have come a long way. I cant actually believe that it was less than a month ago that they arrived and you couldn't get near them. Sometimes you just have to look back to realise how far you've come...I cant wait to be looking back from even further down the track to see how much more we have progressed...

update

Ok short post, i keep writing essays... Both wild ones are going great. They get freindlier by the day.

The boy was in stables yesterday while all the lesson kids came for horse riding. He just stood calmly in the corner and watched everything that went on. Seemingly fascinated by everything he saw. They both continue to amaze me with their ability to quietly take in everything goin on around them.

The girl, gets more interactive everyday. You can now pat her all over. More and more she chooses to come to me instead of me to her. Every night i spend 10 minutes grazing her on the driveway so she gets a bit of extra grass. Photos on last post are from yesterdays grazing.

Soon hopefully i can pick up there feet and brush them....it all take time though...

wild vs domestic

The two little scraggly things that came off the cattle truck a few weeks ago are changing...But as they change i hope they keep a lot of what their wild days shaped them to be. Domestic vs wild....there is definately advantage to both. When i compare my two groups of horses at home, i think it is a shame you cant have it both ways.

The ones from the wild are probably the most efficient animals Ive ever seen at turning grass into fat.. Everyday they're bigger. On not much food either. It a rainy wet winter, and all the grass has long since turned to mud, or ceased growing due to cold. The paddocks are more so they can stretch their legs than for feed purposes. Yet when I'm pumping hard feed,baylage and anything else i can find into my competition horses and broodmares. The wild ones are gaining weight on scraggly grass and hay. Although they do eat baylage (slightly fermented hay) now, neither one touches horse feed. I'm not complaining though, bonus is that they re turning out to be even cheaper to feed than expected.

Where my big broodmares carrying babies with the best bloodlines i could find, fuss, paw and make putting weight on them difficult. the wild ones just eat and eat and eat. Everyday i watch the domestic herd galloping round the paddock ripping up any grass that might have grown. I've never ever seen the wild ones do any thing but walk around the paddock. While the domestic horses find every excuse in their path to spook and be silly. The wild ones never do, they'll stand and watch if something catches their eye. But they dont run in circles senselessly.

Being from the wild, where food was scarce. Theses to little horses have known hunger, real hunger. They have probably had to travel distances looking for food and water. where the worst my horses have known is missing a meal of hard feed. The wild ones because they have had to survive, don't waste energy moving around for no reason. Food and energy is conserved for times when things is scarce. Everything is eaten (except horse feed) Ive watched them eat twigs, dead leaves, bark as well as the grass. This survival attitude is to be admired.

The domestic horses, not all of them, but especially the ones that have come from the race track, do not have this survival attitude. Racehorses especially are known for being crazy. but they are amazing athletes they have been bred for speed and to be lightweight and lean in order to run, brains have been left out of the mix. They have had the best nutrition and feeding as they grow. So they grow into big strong and beautiful, athletic creatures. Usually though they've never been in a herd situation, never had to compete for food and never had to figure out anything for themselves. So food is not cherished, they run and spook before they try to figure things out. They re in a way helpless compared to the independent wild horses.

Interestingly i once took on 4 Thoroughbred's strait from the track, who were skinny, nervous and pretty stupid creatures at the time. Luckily for me i have land and huge paddocks with streams and other natural obstacles running through them, so my normal horses run as a big herd. Theses 4 horses were the fussiest eaters you couldn't get them to touch anything. When i eventually let them run with the herd, suddenly they had to compete for food (hay in winter) they had to figure out how to get around stream logs etc. They went from skinny and neurotic to calm and eating in a couple of weeks on less food than they'd ever been on before.

I love my domestic horses, the ones Ive bred myself i think have the best of both worlds. They get all the benefits of being raised in captivity, good food, so they grow to there full potential, there feet worked on. handling from people. but Still have the mental stimulation of being in a herd and paddocks where they have to figure out challenges for themselves. the difference between my horses and horses from the racetrack is easy to tell. the wild ones i love the sensibility, the sturdiness, foraging and their sure footedness that allows them to travel over all terrain. But they also will never grow to the size they could have been in captivity if they'dnever known the lean wild times. It will be interesting to see what the greys baby will turn out like...wild blood raised with the best of domestic life...