New tarp, old habits

Maybe this is why the blanket wasn't an issue with the boys?

What are your wearing?

It's been a while - at least a year - since I did much with a tarp.  I used one a lot when Sunny was younger, mostly spread out on the ground for him to walk across, but he wore it a few times, as well.  In fact, it was something I worked on with all of the mares and Thunder, too. 

But I stopped when the game got to be so old hat they whickered at the sight of the tarp coming out.  My tarp was getting kind of brittle with age and I started to worry about one of them putting a hole in it, catching a hoof, and panicking.  Not exactly the lesson I was looking for! 

Yesterday I was wandering through Menards in search of something I'd forgotten to write on my list - and still can't remember - when I passed the wall of tarps.  For under $3.00, I could have a brand new 6'x8' tarp.  Cool.  (This is why Menards is such a dangerous place to send men, isn't it?)

Sunny models while Thunder waits his turn

I spread my new purchase out on the ground in the lot, weighted the corners with rocks, and called the boys.  Sunny remembered immediately - one sniff to verify, and he walked right across and stopped four square in front of me, ears pricked waiting expectantly to hear the click that meant he'd get paid.  Good boy!

Thunder took a minute or so to snuffle around the edges and test the solidity underneath by pawing, but it wasn't long before he was walking back and forth with no hesitation, either.

I really had planned on that taking more than 5 minutes - including set-up time. 

Time for stage 2 - I rolled the rocks off the edges, gathered up the tarp and folded it in half.  Sunny immediately sidled around so that his left side was facing me.  Too funny!  He knew exactly what was coming.  I let the tarp flop over his back - feet stayed still.  Click.  I flipped it on and dragged it off from both sides a couple of times, while Thunder looked on. 

Then it was his turn.  As with the ground stage, I could tell he was a bit more anxious.  He wasn't worried enough to back away, but he was concerned when I lifted it toward his back, so at first I just rested the semi-folded tarp against his shoulder.  Feet stayed still - click, corn.  Hmmm.... this wasn't so scary after all.

So stylish

As you can see, neither of them was wearing a halter, although I did have one handy just in case one or the other got too obnoxious and pushy.  My original intent had been to work with one at a time like I did with the blanket the other day, but since they were paying attention and being respectful without fussing at each other, I didn't bother. 

I like working with them loose, because if they want to shy or move away, they can without feeling trapped.  And both of them did scoot out from under a time or two. They just don't get clicked.  And they come right back.  I just switch to the other horse, and let the one that moved watch the other one get rewarded for doing it right.

I wasn't making any effort to keep the tarp quiet, or really to keep it from lifting and blowing in the breeze when I pulled it off.  I let it loft when I tossed it over them, and made sure that the loose ends flopped around their legs, as well.  Although as you can see from the pictures, I did stay close enough to hold it in case a big gust came through - my goal definitely wasn't to scare them silly.

When both horses would stand quietly with the tarp unfolded completely across them up to their ears and back to their tails, and I could shake it out without their eyes getting big, I called it a day.  Which took probably half an hour and a pocket full of corn dispensed 5-10 kernels at a time.  After that I just hung out for a while, scritching itchy spots and enjoying that lovely horse smell.

The weatherman says rain/snow mix today.... I guess fall is slowly creeping toward winter.  How I hate to see it go!

What one shot can tell you

Yearly vaccination time has rolled around again, and I won't say I haven't been dreading it. Over the last few years I've gotten pretty good at giving shots. I've dealt with fence climbers, sqaushers, lungers, and all types of evaders. Other than one particularly bad moment when I informed Sunny that if he was that intent on not getting a penicillin shot, he could just die - he got better - I haven't had too many failures. (in my defense, it wasn't actually a life-death situation: Sunny was newly gelded and had some swelling. He was at the time basically unhandled, and very, very uncooperative. I was armed with a too short needle, and not enough patience. He won-I lost.)

At present, in addition to the two who own me, there are seven more large, and potentially uncooperative equines to get through, I keep having visions of shot reactions.... Basically, giving shots is not one of my favorite things.

Since I can't do anything much to prevent a shot reaction, but I can (maybe) do something about the squashing, evading and lunging, I've been working on shot-etiquette for the last couple of years. We, thankfully, haven't had to give too many shots other than the yearly ones, but horses do get into things, and among other freak incidents, in one year we had two horses with abscessed hooves: Sunny, foodie that he is, decided penicillin shots weren't so bad... as long as he got some grain to go with them we could stick him with all the needles we wanted. What's more, he'd happily soak his foot in that warm bucket even in the -5'F winter weather. That's my boy!

Then there's Pinto Boy....

Pinto-Boy (AKA Thunder or P-B), is a 3 year old half-Arabian gelding and my current project. He was a weanling at the time. Poor boy -- he was so small even alternating sides of his neck with hindquarter shots, he was so sore. He didn't mind the bucket part, but just try to stand by his neck! For the last two years just scratching his neck has resulted in a sudden scoot away, (and he's only slowly getting over being totally convinced the vet will kill him). Well, thanks to some sound advice from the kind posters on another blog, I collected an ink pen and my trusty clicker and spent a couple of evenings just clicking and giving him "shots." Tonight, although he was my worst-behaved patient, his "evasion" consisted of one whole step to the side. Wow. What a complete and utter difference. It's funny how the little things can make you feel really good. We have West Nile yet to do (yes, I know - it's late) and if he's as good then, I think I can say he's turned a big corner.

Tomorrow we'll see how he does with strange men -- the farrier is coming to do feet, and last time P-B was not fully convinced the poor man didn't have a needle in his pocket. Thankfully he (farrier) was very patient and was willing to walk up to him bent over so as to appear less threatening. Maybe P-B'll do better this time (I hope!).

Mud

You could definitely tell who was itchy tonight, and also who had a nap. There were a few fastidious faces in the herd, but almost every one of them was sporting either a full or half coat of dried on, cement-like mud. We had an hour long downpour this afternoon, and although the sun came back up and baked almost everything (including the horses) fairly dry, the combination of shedding winter coats and dirt made riding completely out of the question.

That'll teach me to set a goal!

At any rate, once everyone was fed I de-mudded as best I could while new thunderheads stacked up to the south. I'm afraid that by morning they're going to be a sorry sight again, but they sure don't seem to mind.

In the interests of actually accomplishing something, I played touch-it with Star for a bit. Don't know exactly where she got her stand-offish streak from, but of all of them she's having the hardest time being handled. It's no problem to catch her, do feet, give shots, worm, load, etc., but simple things like brushing don't seem to have sunk in with her like they did with her year-mates. Since she's for sale, time spent getting her a bit more confident and comfortable about being handled is to everyone's benefit, and to give her credit, she wants to be fussed over, she's just not sure what's going to happen next.

Anyway, 10 minutes well spent with her -- just loose with me and the clicker to get the "good things happen when you stick around" planted firmly in her mind, and I walked away while she was still interested. Another five spent waving & flapping my sweatshirt (it was handy) at Sunny & Pinto-Boy & clicking for planted feet. (Note to self: find something scarier; they don't care about flapping coats any longer.)

After that, the sky was dark enough it was time to get everything put away before the heavens opened. I'd begrudge the rain, but the grass needs the moisture, and as long as we don't get such puddles that the mosquitoes arrive, I'm not going to complain too much!

Using a clicker, or battling dragons the easy way

Since I couldn't ride today, I started leafing through a new print acquisition: Clicker Training: Colt Starting the Natural Horse by Leslie Pavlich. No babies to fool with this year, but it wouldn't hurt to work with the mares on a few things, and the three-year-olds are still baby enough to work on lots of things.

A fellow LibraryThinger uses the handle "Puddleshark", which she defines as follows:

• Puddleshark (n) the largest British freshwater predator. Inhabits shallow bodies of water and preys on part-bred Arabian horses.

I've ridden numerous horses over the years, several of which have parked my behind on the ground at unexpected moments. (There's at least one bluff/ravine/gully sort of thing out by Kennebec, SD that's known to my friends as "my" hill since I beat the horse down it.) But other than one particularly dramatic drop-out-from-under-and-spin gelding that I rode everywhere as a kid, I've never been on anything that can notice all manner of normal and odd things quite like a Arabian. One too many sudden stops and spooks from mailboxes, large rocks, horse-eating plastic bags and scary bushes convinced me that I needed to do something or I was going to be walking home more often than I'd like.

Enter the clicker. Anyone else use one? I was initially skeptical -- horses that get treats bite, after all, right? And who wants to be mobbed in the pasture by mouthy, pushy horses? Well, I decided to try it anyway, and I've discovered it makes a great way to positively reinforce curiosity. Curiosity rather than fear of new things translates to "touch" the scary object rather than high-tail it in the opposite direction.

There's a great book Clicker Training for Your Horse byAlexandra Kurland, that I'd highly recommend. She also has a helpful website.

I've used a clicker to help teach haltering, feet handling, loading, whoa, over and all manner of other useful behaviors. What I really like about it, though, is that using a clicker really seems to stimulate inquisitive behavior -- if Sunny sees something new, he doesn't immediately assume it's going to eat him. And he's engaged and focused on me while we're working.

Admittedly, I've found it most useful on the ground -- it doesn't translate as well to riding, but it's not a bad tool for starting & backing.