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
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