Petra
12-29-2010, 07:29 PM
I haven't posted any updates for a while, so I figured it's about time.
The person that owns Ash brought two new mares last week and picked up the two that have been here. One of them needed 45 days, the other was a lot like Ash and was ready in 30. BTW he said Ash is doing great.
Blaze is still here. His owner decided to leave him 15 more days to get some miles on him. Blaze is doing very well. I take him on trail rides alone and he doesn't seem to mind. Just tries to hurry home. Especially when we get close enough for him to hear all his friends call him. He became Raven's best friend. He is a real sweetheart.
I didn't get to start the two new mares until 3 days ago since I was sick and than it wasn't possible during Christmas.
Anyways. One of them is gorgeous black QH with a just a small white star. She is doing well.
The other one is quite plain looking sorrel and a complete butthead.
She was a bottle baby and was extremely spoiled and disrespectful. As soon as she didn't like something she'd pins her ears.
Her owner had hard time leading her to my stall. He did warn me about her.
I don't like to smack them, but this one is really asking for it.
Her first day was terrible. I had to work her with two whips just to keep her away from me. Any time I asked her to move out she'd spin around kicking at me.
Every time she did that I smacked her butt and of course she'd kick out at the whip too.
Three days later she realized that if I see her butt it gets smacked, so she tried a different approach
Today she decided that it’s better to keep the butt away and maybe she can just run over me. Well I fixed that too and we spent quite a while learning that not respecting my space gets her in trouble too.
I also put a saddle on her for a first time. Lol, she was quite funny, besides of the crazy bucking, she sounded more like a pig than a horse. I never heard a horse make those sounds. I was glad I had both whips, because she was so mad, she decided to come at me.
When it looked like she may get the whip in her face she decided to change directions.
After few laps she got tired and decided that the saddle is not killing her after all.
So I tried some desensitizing. She was still mad about the saddle, so she decided that since kicking doesn’t work, running me over doesn’t work, she should try her teeth. Few times she came at me with her bare teeth; every time I was faster than her and she got elbowed in the face. Normally it works and the horse quits, to her it was just a dare to try harder, so I had to yank on her halter every time she did that. She didn’t enjoy it. After a while, she actually decided that it is much more pleasant to stand still. She let me desensitize her to stirrups being flapped up and down and really enjoyed the praise and hugs afterwards. Amazingly enough suddenly she become quite a sweet mare. We ended up on a good note. Hopefully she’ll think it over and will behave tomorrow.
It’s about time, because I’m getting quite a work out with this one.
She was also very pushy when it was feeding time. Tonight she waited until I walked over to her and led her to her feed. I didn’t even have to ask her to wait. I think she finally realized it pays off to play nice.
Sorry I have no pictures. I'll try to take some tomorrow if it doesn't rain. I really have to, because my friends on FB are getting unhappy with me already. Good thing FB doesn't have any fish slapping smilies. hehe
The person that owns Ash brought two new mares last week and picked up the two that have been here. One of them needed 45 days, the other was a lot like Ash and was ready in 30. BTW he said Ash is doing great.
Blaze is still here. His owner decided to leave him 15 more days to get some miles on him. Blaze is doing very well. I take him on trail rides alone and he doesn't seem to mind. Just tries to hurry home. Especially when we get close enough for him to hear all his friends call him. He became Raven's best friend. He is a real sweetheart.
I didn't get to start the two new mares until 3 days ago since I was sick and than it wasn't possible during Christmas.
Anyways. One of them is gorgeous black QH with a just a small white star. She is doing well.
The other one is quite plain looking sorrel and a complete butthead.
She was a bottle baby and was extremely spoiled and disrespectful. As soon as she didn't like something she'd pins her ears.
Her owner had hard time leading her to my stall. He did warn me about her.
I don't like to smack them, but this one is really asking for it.
Her first day was terrible. I had to work her with two whips just to keep her away from me. Any time I asked her to move out she'd spin around kicking at me.
Every time she did that I smacked her butt and of course she'd kick out at the whip too.
Three days later she realized that if I see her butt it gets smacked, so she tried a different approach
Today she decided that it’s better to keep the butt away and maybe she can just run over me. Well I fixed that too and we spent quite a while learning that not respecting my space gets her in trouble too.
I also put a saddle on her for a first time. Lol, she was quite funny, besides of the crazy bucking, she sounded more like a pig than a horse. I never heard a horse make those sounds. I was glad I had both whips, because she was so mad, she decided to come at me.
When it looked like she may get the whip in her face she decided to change directions.
After few laps she got tired and decided that the saddle is not killing her after all.
So I tried some desensitizing. She was still mad about the saddle, so she decided that since kicking doesn’t work, running me over doesn’t work, she should try her teeth. Few times she came at me with her bare teeth; every time I was faster than her and she got elbowed in the face. Normally it works and the horse quits, to her it was just a dare to try harder, so I had to yank on her halter every time she did that. She didn’t enjoy it. After a while, she actually decided that it is much more pleasant to stand still. She let me desensitize her to stirrups being flapped up and down and really enjoyed the praise and hugs afterwards. Amazingly enough suddenly she become quite a sweet mare. We ended up on a good note. Hopefully she’ll think it over and will behave tomorrow.
It’s about time, because I’m getting quite a work out with this one.
She was also very pushy when it was feeding time. Tonight she waited until I walked over to her and led her to her feed. I didn’t even have to ask her to wait. I think she finally realized it pays off to play nice.
Sorry I have no pictures. I'll try to take some tomorrow if it doesn't rain. I really have to, because my friends on FB are getting unhappy with me already. Good thing FB doesn't have any fish slapping smilies. hehe