Monday August 8, 2011

Just finished working with my two fillies. They are improving every day, there is a chance they just might make a decent using horse. LOL They are improving in their letting me catch and halter them. We didn't have to play silly games today to get them caught and neither filly threw her head to avoid the halter. They are starting to get the idea of what this is all about. 

Today we worked on my handling their feet. We worked on picking up their feet and holding the foot up for a while, then we picked their feet, used the nippers on their feet, and finally the rasp. They did very well for the first time and were very patient with me while I was handling their feet. Since that part went so well, I decided to add a new wrinkle to the program and brought out a rope and set a trap for a front foot.

Sweetie was the first up and she didn't really like the idea of the rope around her front foot. She fought it for a while everytime I put pressure on her foot then all of a sudden she accepted it. I could pull her foot forward and back and she just went along with the program. I then moved to her side, raised the foot to a position similar to what it would be in if she was being shod, and held it there. She was very calm through this whole process. Oh, she struggled briefly against the rope but she calmed down when I spoke to her. We repeated the whole process on the other front foot. A few more sessions like this one and she will be ready for hobble training.

Julie started off being very calm about having a rope on her front foot. I could pull her leg forward and I could even lift her leg. She was very calm on the near side but then we went to the off side and things changed. She wasn't near as calm, in fact she started to struggle a bit. Once again after a brief struggle and then my talking to her she settled back down and handled the whole deal like it was old hat.

I contiunue to be impressed with the minds of these two fillies. Both pick up things extremely quick and I will have to watch they don't pick up bad habits just as quickly. They are far sharper than the horses I grew up with but that makes them that much more fun to work with.