First adventure away from home

Tama had his first adventure away from home today. I've leased a float for the summer so today we drove into the Hunua ranges. He loaded perfectly both directions, travelled well, and was really calm and responsive on the ground.
He's ready to go to a show, I think!

I've finally sent away his registration papers so if the number arrives in time I'll enter him in the North Island All Breeds Show, on the 6th January. Then there's Franklin A&P on the 16th, and the Kaimanawa Heritage Horse show at the end of February.  By then he'll be well and truly accustomed to crowds and fuss!

Who's that pony?!

Where did my scruffy awkward-looking Kaimanawa weanling go?  Tama's looking SO good now that his coat has come out.  While he still has a lot of filling out to do, he's grown up so much in the last month or so. These are going to be his registration photos.  Only a couple of months until the Kaimanawa Heritage Horses show!

I spent the morning with him, teaching him to take a paste wormer in his mouth.  I clicked and treated for targeting the wormer, and then for holding his head still while I put my fingers into the corner of his lips, and then for accepting the wormer tube right inside his mouth.  It was only maybe three 10 minute sessions but he's got it nailed. A few more practice tries with the empty tube and then I'll give him his first 'proper' drench tomorrow (he's always just had it in his feed before).  

Tama's whanau

On Sunday 25 November we went on a trip out onto the Kaimanawa Ranges to see the horses in the wild.  What an amazing day!

We saw LOTS of horses, and they all looked really healthy.  The musters are obviously doing the trick with keeping the numbers down, and it's clearly benefiting the herd.

I had no idea how big the Waiouru Training Area was - it's 63,000 HECTARES.  Unreal.  It's also  far more beautiful than I was expecting - when you drive down the Desert Rd it seems like just endless scrub and desert, but the scenery was actually quite spectacular.

Click on the photos to see them larger.

Crystal clear views out to the mountain

Awash in the grasses

We counted over 40 horses on this hillside

These two were my favourites.  Just gorgeous.

No skinny horses or dull coats to be seen - aren't they looking great!

Dreadlocks look good on pirates

(Not ponies).

Well, that'll teach me for complaining about how hairy he was and saying that I wished he would hurry up and moult.

He moulted, all right.  He dropped his coat pretty much overnight, and during a period of heavy rain.  The end result: dreadlocks all over.  Not such a good look.

Here's some rather embarrassing pictures of Tama before and after an initial grooming session:

After several more grooming sessions he now has only a few of the tighter mats left on his more sensitive areas (tummy and flanks).  I don't want to pull those out because they'll hurt him.  I'll wait until he finishes his moult and then they should just fall out.

He currently looks a little like a very well-loved teddy bear, with some patches of long hair and some that are very short.  (I think the teddy bear simile is kinder than "moth eaten" which is also a good description and no less accurate!).

Even though I've been focusing a lot of attention on the new foal, we've had some good training sessions lately and Tama now backs up on a hand signal.

New baby brother

Tama's adopted mum, Honey, has just arrived home with her new foal.  His name is Minstrel (his daddy is a Gypsy Cob).

Tama and Hokey Pokey are fascinated, and quite annoyed that they're stuck on the other side of the fence so they can't check him out properly.  But they're going to stay separate for a few weeks at least, mostly to make life easier while Honey is being fed twice a day ('cos needless to say, the boys are not being fed at all!).

In other news, I have done  another couple of lengthy sessions desensitising Tama to the hose, and we're starting to get somewhere.  Last weekend we got to the point where I was able to wet his chest and legs with the hose, but he still wasn't happy about it at all.  He really has a bee in his bonnet about this; seems ironic to me that he has been so laid back about everything else (having his feet held, being restrained, getting on a float, etc) yet the hose is just such an obstacle.
As the weather improves I'll do a bit more with him.  I suspect we're almost there.

This weekend was the Kaimanawa ribbon day... I was intending to take him along for some socialising but it's a terribly windy day and I'm trying to get an assignment finished so decided not to go.  Plus he's had virtually no handling in the last couple of weeks because I've started a new job in town which means I don't get home until quite late every evening.  As a result (and I'm sure the sugary grass isn't helping either) he's going through a bit of a "phase". AKA, being an annoying teenager.  So all in all, better to wait until the next opportunity for an outing.

Photo update!

It's been 3 1/2 months since the muster.  I think Tama is looking a lot more grown-up. 

28 May 2012

16 September 2012

The most noticeable difference is how much more even he is from front to back - his wither has caught up to his hindquarters. He also looks much less tucked up in his hindquarters in the second photo, although the top one was taken the day he arrived so it's understandable that he was pretty stressed.
His mane has grown and is really glossy, I'm hoping that's a sign of what his coat will eventually be like once he loses all this infernal fluff! 

I'd love to hear what you horsey people think.  

Snoozing in the sun

Here is Tama and his adopted mum cuddled up together having a snooze in the sun. 

Honey is heavily pregnant and due in a couple of weeks.  She has taken Tama on as her own responsibility and is very unhappy if I take him out of her sight.


In a separate note... is Tama EVER going to lose that incredibly fluffy coat of his?! The other horses have lost enormous amounts of winter hair over the last few weeks and are starting to look quite respectable, but Tama is stubbornly holding onto his long curly coat.  I suppose he is still a baby, and once it starts getting a lot warmer surely he'll start moulting.  In the meantime, he looks just as much of a scruff as he did when he first arrived.

Floating? Been there done that...

Started float training today, and he was on the float with the bum bar across and the door shut within about 15 minutes.  And that was with me taking it really slowly and just waiting with a loose lead for him to choose to step on.  Clever wee lad. 

I started out clicking and giving him carrots for each foot on the ramp and each movement forward, but once he saw his food bowl on the floor he decided it was worth stepping right up inside.  I'm glad he's decided carrots are edible, but he definitely still prefers hardfeed.

We do need to do a bit more work on backing though, he forgot how to walk backwards when it was time to come off and we had to turn around and walk down head first instead.  Luckily he's still small enough to do that! 

I leased the float for two weeks so will have plenty of time to keep getting him on and off, and taking him for wee drives.  We may even go on a proper outing next weekend.

Tama gets a pedicure

Just a quick update to say that Tama was perfectly well behaved for his trim last night (of course).  We decided to have him and Honey trimmed at home in the end, rather than take them to visit Hokey, since it would probably just upset everyone when we left again.  Katie is so patient and gentle with him, it only took him a couple of tries to get used to stretching his leg forward and resting his foot on the stand and then he was perfectly matter-of-fact about the whole thing.   

So with that done my original list of goals for him is getting rapidly shorter.  I need to convince him that the hose isn't going to eat or strangle him, and he'll be float trained in September.  Soon after that there'll be a new foal to play with and he'll no longer be the baby in the herd! 

Rain rain go away

Well, we're now seeing the effects of all this mud.  It's not Tama though, it's his beloved big bro Hokey Pokey.  Hokey's had an abscess which has burst out at his coronet band, so the whole wall is separated.  VERY sore, and very concerning, and we're just crossing fingers there's no long term damage.

Hokey is stabled next door and Tama spent a while neighing to him (his voice obviously hasn't broken yet, he has a very shrill little neigh).  Tama settled pretty quickly though and now he and Honey are having some bonding time just the two of them.

I've had my hands pretty full with caring for Hokey so haven't done a lot, but Tama and I did do another session today with the hose.  He got to the stage where he was ok with standing in the water while the hose was lying on the ground, but he's still very suspicious of it.  It'll take another couple of sessions I imagine (unless of course he does what he has done in the past, which is to have a think about things and then wake up in the morning knowing exactly what to do).  I'm not holding out hope though, because I've never seen him quite so worried about anything as he is about the hose.  That said, "worried" for Tama is a relative term - he certainly doesn't freak out, he just snorts a bit and then plants his feet like a wee donkey and refuses to go near it. Luckily he loves his food, so it's not too difficult to convince him to try.

Tama's going to have a big adventure in a couple of days, when I walk him up the driveway to visit Hokey and have his feet trimmed.  Hopefully he won't be too stunned at the change of scenery and will allow Katie to trim his feet.

HP in his new temporary accommodation

 

Mud, mud, mud

It's this time of year that makes me look with envy at my city-dwelling friends.  All the paddocks are deep mud and when I put the horses onto new grazing it seems they've turned it into mush again before I can blink.  Such are the joys of a NZ winter.  

However, the grass seems to be growing regardless, the calendar tells me that somehow it's August already, and the daffodils and crocus have come up, so there must surely be light at the end of the tunnel!

 This is the first post to which I'm not attaching any photos. That's partly because I haven't taken any, and partly because all three horses are covered head to toe in mud.  They're all uncovered year-round, so 'clean' is a relative term at my place, but it doesn't inspire me to take photos that's for sure!  

In terms of training, I've been doing a lot of careful reinforcements to help Tama get out of the habit of putting his ears back and pulling faces at humans, and he now has a really pleasant soft look in his eyes most of the time.  We've also spent a good long session this weekend on lifting feet - Katie the barefoot trimmer is coming out in a couple of weeks and I haven't been able to put the time in that I'd planned to so I want to really focus on that for a while in the hopes that she'll be able to do his feet when she's here.

[Update from the next day 5/8/12: Did a short session on lifting feet and, like so many other things with this lad, he'd thought about it overnight and already figured it out for himself.  He's waiting for my cue (pressure behind the cannon bone) and then lifting his foot and holding it up for a good 6-10 seconds.  Will add a bit more duration over the next two weeks.]

I have taken him for a few walks down our long shared driveway and he's such a sensible wee lad.  I've been clicking him for walking nicely up so that we're shoulder to shoulder rather than him trailing behind, and I'll keep working on that so that he learns to accurately match paces with whoever is leading him.

And lastly we did our first session with the hose this week.  I think we can safely state he wasn't a fan!  I clicked him for sniffing and approaching, and we got to the stage of the hose playing on his hooves when I decided that was enough for one day.  It's too cold still to get his body wet (I suppose it wouldn't kill him, but he wouldn't enjoy it) and so I'll just keep playing with hosing his legs and give him a proper shampoo, along with his mudball of a brother, once spring arrives.

OK I can't resist, here's a photo of the mudball brother - Hokey Pokey - this is actually from last winter but you get the idea.  If anything, they're even muddier than this at the moment!

I've got loads of short-term goals but just waiting for the weather to cooperate really - this is what I want to achieve with him next:

•  all four feet pick up on cue, and extend duration
• back up on a hand signal
• head lower on cue
• continue working on leading skills
• start float training in September

That'll do for now!

A big day for a small lad

Today was a BIG day for Tama.  Poor boy, it's the first time he's ever met a vet before and she takes his testicles away with her.

 There was also plenty of derogatory comments flying around about the small size and funny shape of his testicles, but luckily he was too doped up to hear them.  (I believe her actual words were "Well ya wouldn't be getting the ladies too excited with those things my boy"). 

A rather undignified pose, but it gets the job done

In all seriousness it was actually lucky that he was able to be gelded at all, as one of the testes hadn't properly descended yet.  Took quite a bit of time and extra shots of sedative to entice it out but we got there in the end.

We also checked his teeth while he was under, and while I'd originally guessed his age at about nine months, the vet thinks he's a bit younger than that.  I see the DOC website states that Kaimanawas usually foal between September and March, with most born in November, so I'm now thinking he's probably closer to seven months than nine.

The bonus is that he has to have antibiotic powder twice a day, which means he gets hard feed twice a day!  So perhaps soon he'll forgive me for my part in all this.

Just like a big kid

Today was the most beautiful sunny and settled day we've had in months.  We took all three-and-a-bit horses (Honey is round as a barrel and definitely feeling pregnant!) on a walk down the driveway to stand in the shed for a groom.

Tama is leading so nicely now and learning how to overcome his own 'roadblocks' like narrow gateways and changes in footing.   I had to keep reminding myself to watch his body language and give him breaks - it's easy to forget he's not just like the other horses.

He stood quietly eating his hay while I groomed him (almost) all over, and picked up all his feet.

He'll probably be a far better kids pony than Hokey Pokey will, he's just so stoic and unconcerned about everything.  Several times today Hokey Pokey got bored and kicked up a fuss about nothing in particular, acting all startled, and Tama didn't even bother to raise his head from the hay pile. 

Icy mornings

We've had some wicked frosts here over the last few weeks, with temperatures well below zero overnight. This photo was taken early on one of those frosty mornings.  It looks a bit like mud in the photo but that's actually ice all over Tama's back and mane.  He's so well insulated that he was toasty warm underneath but the ice was quite thick in places on top of all that curly Kaimanawa hair.

Progress with the halter and leading
 He comes up to see me when I enter the paddock, and stands quietly while I put his halter on and off, so I haven't needed to leave it on him in the paddock after all.  I'm really stoked about that, because I don't like leaving halters or other gear on horses if I can help it - there's just too much risk of them getting snagged on something and causing injury.

He's also beginning to learn to lead nicely.  In fact, he tends to follow me around the paddock everywhere I go, which is making it difficult to get clear identification photographs for his Kaimanawa registration!

Here's a couple of photos of me (looking really stylish in my oldest muddiest paddock clothes) and Tama (looking cleaner than usual because I've almost finished brushing him).

In which Tama wears his halter like a pro and he makes Daisy-May's acquaintance

Well I have spent a total of about 2 hours with Tama over the last week or so - about the most he's had each day is hay thrown over the fence.  Not ideal, but what with work, study and my dad being really unwell, his training has taken a backseat.   (Which is a double shame because working with the horses really helps me to keep my stress levels down, as well as benefiting them).

However, I got an hour with him yesterday morning, and another hour or so this morning and we've made SUCH progress just in that much time!  I just wish I was able to work with him every day.

Most exciting is that I finally put a halter on him this morning.  It was easy as pie, and he wasn't in the least bit concerned.  He'll wear it in the paddock for a while, until I've done a bit more work with taking it off and putting it on again over the next few weeks.

One of the other things we've been practicing is 'happy faces'.  He has a tendency to put his ears back when I walk up to him, or reach out to brush him, which is just him being cautious and wanting to keep an eye on things I think, but it doesn't feel nice for either of us so I've been reinforcing him for putting his ears forward.

Putting this sort of behaviour on cue has a double-sided benefit, as what you reinforce (the ears forward) is so intrinsically linked to the emotional state that you ultimately reinforce the positive emotions as well.  It works in the same way as it does with people, in that it's very difficult to maintain negative emotions when we smile (even if at first it's a 'fake' smile).  Another behaviour which causes this effect in horses is the head-lower, which is calming and helps with emotional control.  If a horse has been taught to lower its  head on cue you can use that behaviour when it is stressed or over-excited to calm the animal down, and many horses then begin to spontaneously use it themselves when something has scared them. 

Anyway, he's definitely getting the idea of happy faces, and is progressing well with that.  Mike (my hubby) said Tama looked pretty funny, concentrating really hard and flicking his ears forward and back as he figured out what I was reinforcing him for.

He's also letting me touch all over his face, ears and poll now which is nice.  Here is Tama making the acquaintance of Daisy-May, our beautiful but thoroughly impractical-for-the-farm ragdoll cat.  He thought she was kinda interesting.

For anyone interested, here is a fantastic paper written by Dr Sue McDonnell about how (and why) to exclusively use positive reinforcement to solve problems with horses who are injection shy or otherwise "non-compliant" with veterinary procedures.  I like that she recommends training in an open paddock, rather than the tight confines of yards or pens.

What's more, the reasons described for using these methods are the same for any animal learning any new behaviour that might be considered stressful (such as putting a halter on a feral pony for the first time, for example!).

Dr McDonnell is the keynote speaker at the Bayer Lecture Series this year, and I'll be going to hear her speak.

Brushes and hands and ropes, oh my

It's so frustrating with these short days, by the time I get home it's usually dark.  It's been three days since I've been able to get out in the paddock and play with the horses.  Only another couple of weeks until solstice and then we can start looking forward to more daylight hours.

I spent half an hour or so this afternoon brushing Tama.  He's stopped flinching or looking nervous when I go to touch him, and today he just kept on eating hay with his ears forward as I brushed him all over, including his tummy.  I haven't done his legs yet, but I probably could have done if I'd chosen to persist.

 I have to concentrate very hard to make sure I never go into autopilot while brushing him - I need to constantly watch his body language in my peripherals to make sure he's comfortable otherwise I'm leaving myself open to being kicked.  He lets me know quite clearly when he feels uncomfortable or pressured, but has never been particularly serious about it and I've never seen him actually lift a foot.

 I also did some rope work with him today for the first time - rubbing him all over with it, throwing it over his back and neck, and looping it around his neck.  He just flicked his ears back now and then to keep an eye on me and kept on eating.

I left it at that for today, we're in no rush.

This is all being done out in the paddock with him free to walk away at any time.  He seemed to be enjoying the attention though and only walked away a few times momentarily before coming back to me.

 He's still not a fan of his face being touched, but I imagine it won't take long for him to get over that.  He quite likes being scratched up behind his ears, it's only when my hand goes into his blind spot up on his forehead that he gets worried.

2012 Kaimanawa muster - bring the tissues!

Not really a blog post today, just a link to an amazing teaser for a full length documentary on this year's muster, produced by Amanda Wilson.  This is a serious tear jerker, I'm warning you!  (I was in floods, just quietly).

To see so vividly where my little boy has come from, only a week and a half ago - the family he has lost, along with everything he has ever known, and the stark comparison with his life now - I'm awestruck all over again at how he is coping with his grief and the trust he is giving me already. 

Click here to view the video

(To see beautiful photos from the muster and keep updated on the documentary progress, like "Keeping up with the Kaimanawas" on Facebook).

They got some strange-looking ponies around here...

Tama met Podge the kunekune pig for the first time today.

If he thought Honey and Hokey Pokey were a bit weird-looking compared to his Kaimanawa herd-mates, he must have really been confused when Podge came up to say hello.  As with everything else though, he took it completely in his stride and didn't even blink an eye.

I am so very, very impressed at how level-headed he is.  When I opened the gate to a new paddock today the other two went for a hoon around, as they usually do, but he just stood and watched them and then carefully picked his way downhill to the gate and trotted sedately over to join them once they'd settled down.  I never thought the 9-month old wild colt would be more sensible than my pregnant brood-mare!

"Oh, it's that camera again."

I gave him a good brush yesterday (not that you can tell in these photos!), almost everywhere except his legs.  He still only tolerates it for a few minutes at a time, but he's getting a lot better.  He's also letting me touch him all over when he's loose out in the paddock, which is pretty great, as before that had only occurred in the yards where he's a bit more confined.

He's also had his Equest-plus wormer yesterday, so hopefully that will get rid of the last of them.  Maybe that funny pot-belly will start to recede and he can put some healthy weight on!

He has started learning some food manners, and I was astonished at how quickly he picked up on what I was wanting.  I was asking him to stand politely and look away from the food with ears pricked, and after only a handful of 3-minute sessions he was clearly understanding what I was asking of him, and was giving me near-perfect responses much of the time.  

Humans may not be so bad after all... they're pretty good at scritching the itches

*Name update: We're thinking his name will be Tama.  We'll trial it for a while, and see how it feels*

There's been a few breakthroughs in the last few days!

The first needs some context - which is that neither of the ponies have ever considered hard feed to be edible.  In fact, they never considered anything but grass and hay edible until they decided earlier this year that carrots were pretty great.  (Unless the carrots had feed crumbs on them, in which case they'd be spat out in disgust).  Last night I took some chaff/maintenance mix out to them and they munched away like they'd been eating it forever.  Woohoo I can finally give them magnesium supplements!  And now we just have to get Tama eating it so I can get a paste wormer into him.  He'll copy the other two in no time I'm sure.

 The second even more exciting breakthrough happened this morning.  Honey was out grazing in the paddock, and the boys (Tama and Hokey Pokey) were down in the yards together.  It really is adorable how they're already such good mates, and especially as a lot of it isn't just the new boy needing to be friends but it's Hokey choosing to be friends.  Honey wandered down with me and we all stood around eating carrots and having a scratch, and Tama came right up and stood beside Hokey and ate hay from my hand.  He's been watching very carefully over the last few days whenever the ponies come up to me for cuddles or treats.

I gave Hokey scratches all over and then reached out and scratched Tama's rump (I think at first he thought it was Hokey doing it, but wasn't concerned when he turned his head and realised it was me).  He lifted his tail so I could get better access to his bum cheeks, and then I scratched him all the way up to his mane.  So, that was our first voluntary touching by a human.  He was mustered from the wild less than a week ago.
  

Note: Because I'm determined for every interaction with this Kaimanawa to be entirely free of fear or coercion, I'm taking things slower than many people might.  I'll put a halter on him and teach him to yield to rope pressure when he decides he's ready, and in order to help him become ready I'll be working with him until he doesn't show any discomfort or confusion about the idea.

The only timeframe we have which will not be dictated by Tama is that he needs to be gelded by September, and therefore needs to be halter-trained and happy to be handled for the sedation by then.  This is because Honey is due in late September, and so will be in season a couple of weeks later.   I don't think we'll have any issues having him ready for that.

Out in the paddock at last

This afternoon I got home around 4pm.  I went out to the yards, gritted my teeth, and led the ponies out to the paddock and let them go.  I was really nervous they would play silly buggers and the colt would follow, but maybe not know about the fences.  Actually it was much less drama than I was fearing.

Here's a video of the first few minutes - Honey is being a bit of a bully and they were kinda pushing him into the fences a little.

Hokey Pokey then started following him around and nibbling his flanks and then biting his neck quite hard (I think he wants to play?), and the colt just keeps doing the "I'm a harmless foal" chewing action and walking away.  I feel really sorry for him but I think he's coping okay.  I'm sure they'll settle down soon.  I suspect the two boys may end up being mates.

Finding his courage

Little colt made some real progress today.

If I went into the same pen as him yesterday he would balk and run into the other pen to be as far away from me as possible.

I spent about an hour this afternoon sitting in there, just reading my book and ignoring him.  He eventually approached and peeked at me around the upright, then gradually worked up the courage to come into the same pen as me and have a proper look.

But, he was still frightened of me once I got up and walked around.  He approached me happily when I held out hay from between the rails, so I stood behind the upright in the gateway and did the same thing.  Pretty shortly we got to the point where I was able to stand in the middle of his pen and he approached and ate hay out of my hand.  Considering that there was a huge pile of hay in the far corner that he could have had for free, I thought that was pretty cool!  He's showing a real curiosity and interest in me, not just wanting the food.
Before I left I was standing there with him and he was sniffing my hand. I bent down and blew gently out my mouth and he immediately put his nose to my face and we exchanged breaths for a while.  He had a good sniff of my face and hair and then I left. 

Really happy with our progress today!  Still don't think he's a fan of the chaff mix I gave him, but I sprinkled it all over his hay before I left so hopefully he'll get some in his mouth and decide it's not so bad.  I am hopeful that we may be able to go out into the paddock tomorrow.

Lost little soul

Our baby has arrived!! He's tiny, brown and VERY fluffy.  His feet look really good, and he has already snuffled my hand through the yard fence.  He's looking a bit lost and lonely at the moment, but I'm sure he'll soon bond with my other two ponies, Honey and Hokey Pokey.

Speaking of which, those two are already sick of being shut in a tiny yard so I will probably give them the yard plus a small piece of the paddock tonight and tomorrow.  That way they'll still be within sight but not so cramped.

Little brown colt is very calm at the moment, but I'm not expecting this honeymoon period to last too long.  Plus he's been in yards since Friday afternoon so must be longing to stretch his legs.  I'd like to get him out into the paddock as soon as safely possible.

Thinking caps on - we need to come up with a name!

It's almost time!

Well the muster has been completed, and 100-odd horses are now waiting at yards in Huntly before heading north to complete the journey to their new homes.  

It's a bit like Christmas - I have no idea what to expect.  We requested a yearling but other than that, it's up to the musterers!

Sometime over the next couple of days the truck will arrive.

Tick tock... tick tock...

 

2012 muster scheduled for 26 May

The muster date has been set, and we're ready to go! Exciting!

Press release from Kaimanawa Heritage Horses