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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Gaited Horse Training Discussions > Clicker Training by 4-Square > Chance's Edited Training Journal |
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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Gaited Horse Training Discussions > Clicker Training by 4-Square > Chance's Edited Training Journal |
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| Chance's Edited Training Journal | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:03 am |
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1st Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member 
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[March 22, 2006]Chance is an 8 month old Tennessee Walking Horse. His history is that he wasn't handled much and what handling he did receive scared him. He's been at a friend's ranch for two months. Issues I've been told about are that he's very wary of people, hard to catch, hard to halter and afraid of ropes. I did visit this colt last weekend on a stormy evening. He was wary, but responded well to a quiet approach from behind his shoulder. He kept looking back at me, undecided whether to bolt or stay. I let him go through this thought process with no more pressure for a few minutes and then made it up to his withers where I proceeded to scratch. He liked that. I scratched on him and casually talked to my friends outside of the corral. When I left the colt's side, he followed and allowed me to scratch him pretty thoroughly over the neck, shoulders, withers and face. I decided he was a nice colt with some initial bad people experiences. When I left the corral, he came all the way up to the gate and stuck his head through the bars to try to reach me, so I think he's a pretty sharp cookie who knows a good thing when he experiences it! Unfortunately, this colt also has not received any veterinary care, vaccinations or deworming. He will receive his first WNV vaccination the day he arrives. WNV has hit our area hard and is the biggest threat to any equine[my vet likes to argue that tetanus is the biggest threat, but that's not been what's killing horses in this county! Anyway, he'll get his tetanus/flu/rhino/EWV not long after he arrives-he'll be a regular pin cushion pony.]. I don't normally like to vaccinate right after the stress of trailering, but we're about to hit spring with a zillion mosquitoes. After he settles in a few days I will use a pyrantel wormer, followed in two weeks with ivermectin followed in four weeks with praziquantel/ivermectin. I will not use moxidectin due to the fact that its lethality dose can be as small as 2.5x normal dose and one needs to be very careful with it. Rationale behind the step worming is to kill off small batches of worms and not try to overload the colt's system with huge parasite die-offs. I have had good results using this strategy with former rescues. It may appear that veterinary care has nothing to do with target training, but it really does. A horse is unable to learn and concentrate well if it is unhealthy or gets sick. Just like kids going off to kindergarten, it is important that they are healthy and well-fed. This colt is in good shape for the most part, just been neglected on the maintenance stuff. He's going to have to have a lot of "rude" stuff done to him before I get a chance to establish a relationship. It's unfortunate, but necessary. My next post will be a temperament assessment after he arrives. Attachment: Clean Black TWH colt jpgs.JPG (Downloaded 187 times) Last edited on Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:12 am by 4Square ____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:11 am |
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2nd Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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The colt arrived safe & sound today. I took advantage of the "stocks" situation with him inside the trailer and gave him his first WNV booster. The friend who brought him up was a little apprehensive about turning him loose in the big paddock without a halter. I assured her that I've had wild mustangs delivered without halters and can join them up pretty quickly. I don't like them with head traps left on. So she took off the halter and the colt ambled off happily to explore his new surroundings. We pulled up a couple of lawn chairs and chatted for a couple hours while we watched the colt play and Dixie menace him from her paddock. Dixie's leaping threats, strikes and gaping jaws always make me think she was born into the wrong era-what a charger she would have made! The colt clacked his jaws submissively in her direction. She's scary even at a distance! I think the colt is settling in fine. He allows me to approach and rub on him. We'll keep up the friendly game for a little bit. I got a little bit more of his story today and found out that he was a real booger for my friend to catch and that she had been keeping him in small pens due to this fact (she was not the owner of the colt, just the agent, who had the wild little guy sent to her for halter training). She told me that he had been hit with ropes by his former owner, so was scared of them and anything rope-like. [I just recently heard that this information about the colt being hit by his former owner was untrue and that his former owner read this post and was really hurt by it. I have apologized to her and wish her well. Even in anonymity such accusations are harmful and I am glad she contacted me so I could correct. I had no reason to doubt the source of the information at the time.] So, stage one with this colt will be the friendly game with the halter present-translation, petting on the colt within his comfort zone with the halter attached on my person and gradually bringing it into use as a grooming tool...stay tuned! Attachment: Chance looking west small 3 25 06.JPG (Downloaded 182 times) Last edited on Tue Feb 15th, 2011 06:31 pm by 4Square ____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:15 am |
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3rd Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[March 24, 2006] I'm a big fan of letting critters settle in. So yesterday, other than scratching on the guy loose in his paddock a couple of times, I left him alone. Today he let out a big nicker when he saw me, so we can safely ascertain that he knows who is in charge of bringing him food. Ah, brilliant little fella, huh? I thought to see if he understood anything about treats. He hasn't a clue. He did not understand the extruded carrot treats or the famous Mrs. Pasture's horse cookie were edible. He does know what sweet feed is. So, I spent a while convincing him that it was okay to accept offered sweet feed from my hand. He was very jumpy at first, sure there was some sort of catch to the situation. But he pretty soon got the hang of it and daintily lipped up handful after handful of the tasty stuff. All the while I petted him and told him he was a good boy. He is very nervous about any sudden moves and will startle, but other than what I refer to as "shudder jumps", he did not flee. When a horse is jumpy, like this colt, I just stay real calm and quiet. It is very important not to be startled by the horse's startle! Because if they jump and then you jump, then they are even more convinced of danger because the predator, and that would be you, is acting afraid. And if the predator is afraid, well that's not a very good sign to the ultimate prey animal whom you eventually want to view you as the ultimate fearless leader who makes good decisions that the ultimate prey animal can trust! Again, all this contact with the colt was done with the colt loose in his 48 x 100' paddock. I don't believe in forcefully training anything into a horse. There is nothing on my ranch built to restrain a horse. I want the horse to choose to be with me. My approach is always indirect from the shoulder, reading the horse for where his comfort zone is. I stop approaching when I 'read' that the horse is thinking of fleeing and putting more space between us. I just calmly wait, avoiding too much eye contact. When the horse relaxes, I approach some more, always being careful not to put to much pressure on the horse's safety bubble. This colt is very easy for me to read and I have no problem getting right up next to him. I want him to get comfortable being around me and begin to think that I'm pretty good company. Most of all I want to get his curiosity up. This colt is not very curious at all about making an approach to me. He does not want to look at me or check me out. Yet I can tell already that he likes the contact, so he should come around fairly quick. An interesting observation is that this colt is most fearful of handling from his near side, which hints about a traumatic introduction to being haltered and handled from that side. He offers less resistance to approach and is more relaxed on his off side. So again, more signs of just a nice colt who has had people problems. The colt is a bit underweight and I was able to confirm that he had never been dewormed. So, I went ahead and gave him some Anthelcide feed top dressing mixed with sweet COB. Given his nervousness about being handled, I decided I wanted him to be trusting and liking me more before I administered nasty tasting stuff into his mouth. Anthelcide was the only feed top wormer available at the local feedstore and is a very safe wormer and should not kill off too many parasites at once. I did inquire about how he was loaded into the trailer. My friend was honest with me and told me she had pretty much winched him in using ropes, stating she was all by herself and didn't have three hours to "Parelli him" into the trailer. There are many roads to Rome, and one can target train a horse to load, so since this little guy is our little "clicker" case study, I'll stick to the method will target train the trailer loading. But that will down the line a little ways...
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:17 am |
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4th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[March 25, 2006] New Colt Day 2 & 3 Yesterday evening the colt was showing curiosity. Yay! He sniffed me from stem to stern. He also showed wilfullness. He wanted nothing to do with eating grain from my hand, instead trying to get to the can of grain. "Why settle for a cookie when there's a cookie jar for the taking?" Yep, he's a greedy little bugger, but after ten minutes, he still refused to eat the grain from my hand, so I left him without any grain with his evening meal. This morning, again offered the grain, for a moment he refused to take it from my hand. I said, "fine then", and began to walk away and he was like, "Hey, wait a minute!" and followed me. I turned around and again offered the handful of grain. He resigned himself to eating from my hand. After around five minutes of hand feeding and petting, I dumped the rest of his grain in his feed bucket and brought him his hay. He was very content to eat and be scratched on, sometimes initiating the contact himself.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:21 am |
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5th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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A message board member asks, "And your reason for doing this is?" Reply 3/25/06: I'm unclear on what "this" signifies, but I'll take a couple of guesses. The topic on target/clicker training a colt in journal format is for the MB members who wanted to know more about the strategy of day by day obstacles and progress in target training a horse. Why would anyone want to do target train? The answer is if done properly it establishes a language between horse and handler where the handler can quickly communicate a "yes, you've got it right" response to a horse when it responds to a cue correctly. An advanced level of this method can be used to teach high school maneuvers like the levade, bow & spanish walk. You can also teach retrieve, which is handy for having your horse pick up something you've dropped and give it back to you without you having to dismount or simply for entertaining guests. On its basic level, it is handy to for overcoming spookiness, teaching trailer loading, trail obstacles etc, etc. A big necessity for having a good "targeting" horse is for the horse to possess what I call "cookie drive". I want a horse to not be afraid to accept food from my hands. Taught properly, the horses won't maul you for treats. In fact the food reinforcer will eventually change from 1:1 to intermittant reinforcement and eventually graduated to non-food. Right now, all the colt is learning is to accept food. As soon as he gets that down pat, I will introduce the target, which will start the work/intellectual part of the training for the colt.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:22 am |
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6th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[March 25, 2006, evening] Day 3 Evening The colt is now very curious about me. He is choosing to make the initial approach. There was no problem with him accepting the grain from my hand. Even after I dumped his evening ration of grain into his feed bin, he chose to leave his feed to come hang out with me and be scratched. I am working on handling his face. He is very headshy. However, he is making excellent progress accepting hand contact on his face, settling into dropping his head and allowing full contact with his eyelids, ears, jaws, etc after his initial startle and head fling. Again, this is still all work done with the colt at liberty. He can leave if he so chooses. I want him to choose to be with me. I am also gradually working my hands down toward his legs. I was warned he was not safe to handle about his legs. In playing with the colt tossing a pebble at him from a distance after the "friendly" game, the colt's response to the pebble touching him was to strike. I tested this a few more times, and everytime he'd strike. It is not meanness, just defensiveness. This little guy is way on his guard, but I think he's progressing very fast and dropping his "nervousness" pretty quickly. It is very important to earn the confidence and trust of a colt by not forcing anything on him. The goal in target training is a willing thinking partner who wants to participate in the learning.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:25 am |
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7th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[3/25/06] Another MB member posts: "I was wondering about the motive behind hand feeding as well..." Reply: I never believed that it was acceptable to hand feed a horse until I learned about using this training concept. Food in target training is like what a paycheck is to us doing our day to day job. I cannot reinforce/reward a behavior if my subject doesn't understand about how to accept the food treat. As soon as the colt is comfortable accepting food out of my hand, then the rules are going to change. There will be no more free handouts. At this point in the game, I'm laying the foundation before I can even begin to target train.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:27 am |
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8th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[March 26, 2006] Day 4 I think the colt has forgotten that he is supposed to be afraid of people LOL! He nickers and meets me at the gate. Today the friend who went down with me to look at him a week ago visited with him after we went to a trail trials schooling event. Three of us entered his large paddock, and he showed zero hesitation to come up and get loved on by three people. My friend commented his demeanor was different, pointing out that that the whites of his eyes were no longer showing! This kid is coming along very fast. He likes the friendly game, that's for sure. He easily accepted food from my hand. I only gave him three handfuls before dumping the complete ration into his feed bin. Again, he chose to follow me away from the grain. He really likes to be petted on. Only when I left the paddock, did he go back to the feed bin to eat his grain. I go back to work this week full time after having been off for over two weeks due to surgery. I won't likely get to work with the colt every day. If the weather is good, by this weekend the colt will be introduced to a target. Stay tuned.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:29 am |
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9th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[March 30, 2006] Sorry I've been "out to lunch" the last few days. Got bedridden with a migraine that stuck around for a day and a half. As for Chance, he has progressed enough in his comfort level with me that we are now entering the dominance games. These are always interesting with horses who have been mishandled and are just now getting comfortable enough with people to try to be bold and explore the pecking order. There is a fine line in exerting my dominance without ruining his newly found confidence. Recognizing a dominance game is very important. Chance's manifestation of dominance is to approach me with his ears pointing slightly backward at feeding time. This is easy to nip in the bud. He simply is not allowed to approach or enter my space with that snotty attitude! I tell him "ears!" and make a motion to draw his attention. The second those ears prick forward, I offer him a treat. I do not allow him into my space unless those ears are forward and happy. I believe ears forward on horses is kinda like smiling in people. In my psych 1 class back in college, we were told it was impossible for people to fake a smile and remain unhappy(or something to that effect). I believe ears forward in horses does the same thing to improve their attitude-never met a horse yet capable of taking a chunk out of anyone simultaneous with a set of happy ears pointing forward! Chance reacts to my waving him off like he's about to get beat; he tucks his butt and scoots with a fearful headfling look over his shoulder as he exits. I only wave him off with enough pressure that doesn't make him defensive (e.g. kicking or striking back at me). I nonchalantly ignore him and walk away after I drive him off. Within moments, he is approaching me from behind with the happiest forward ears you could imagine and a soft expression on his face. Should the expression change, then he gets waved off again until he can approach nice and friendly. I never make it personal or get mean. I just don't allow him to enter my space with the attitude that he can possibly be my alpha. What Chance is doing is normal. I taught him that I was friendly and brought him goodies. Once he was comfortable enough around me, normal horse heirarchal behavior came into play. He needed to find out who was the leader in our relationship. He already knows I'm friendly, that is why he is willing to come back after I drive him off, but he comes back on my terms and my social rules as number 2, not my boss. Attachment: Chance Racking 4 30 06.JPG (Downloaded 155 times) Last edited on Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:34 am by 4Square ____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:31 am |
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10th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[April 5, 2006] Just reporting in here from the Northern Swamplands of California's Central Valley. We still have ten more days of rain forecast so I'm truly not accomplishing much of anything with any of the horses. I make sure to scratch on Chance morning and evening. He's still a jumpy guy, you can sure tell he thinks sudden human movement means he's in for it. It really is sad when people hit on babies. Chance will have a bit of PTSD to work through and it will take just a lot of good experiences to outweigh his early on bad ones. He likes attention, but he is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only dry area for him is the 12 x12 run in shed. I'm going to need to move the mustang filly in with him because there is no dry area for her in her paddock. She'll be a good influence for him. She was wild earlier this winter, but she's a pocket pony now. Loves attention. I'll probably be target training her as well. So, hang in there and pray for some of that California sunshine to make a reappearance. It will probably take two weeks worth of it to even begin to dry things out!
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:33 am |
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11th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[May 11, 2006] Oh gee, has a month gone by???? What a change a month brings LOL! No longer is it green and muddy. Now it is hot and brown! Poor Chance is the only horse on the place that looks like heck. He's a poster child for what happens to babies when someone falls behind on their proper care. His winter coat is still present in matted dreadlocks. He's translated all the good groceries into height. At 9 months old he's approximately 14 hands. He will get wormed for the third time this weekend with the big guns wormer. He only needs one more vaccination booster and he will be fully immunized. For the last month I've been working on handling his face and ears. He's become much more confident that I'm not going to hurt him, but he still jumps at sudden moves, but he doesn't normally flee-shudder jumps I call them. This colt has needed a lot more prep work prior to beginning the target training. I will be working on the friendly game with him next, working down into all his "no" zones, which is around 50% of his body! This is all done at liberty. He is free to leave, but if he stays I give him a little goodie every now and then. He pretty much comes back to me like a boomerang at this point-leaves when anxiety gets too high, but immediately comes right back to try to earn his reward. So, I see his confidence growing. The thing that tickles me about this colt is that he is VERY nicely gaited and has several gears: flatfoot walk, runwalk, rack, canter. He's going to be a great ride. Anyway, please bear with me. It has been a busy month and June will be even busier, but I anticipate I'll still be working on the prep work to build his confidence since I won't have much time to do much else with him. I anticipate it will be late June or July, where the "true" target lessons will begin. But, I think it is important for folks to understand what needs to be in place. A horse must trust its trainer. So, I'm re-instilling the trust. Happy trails!
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:38 am |
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12th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[May 11, 2006, evening post] This evening I brought out the grooma curry and a metal curry comb. Chance was feeling good and ran some laps. Oh boy, is he sure fast and cat like. He knows exactly where all his feet are and can change direction quickly and at nearly full speed without missing a step! Pretty darn impressive. I'm used to gaited youngsters getting all confused with their legs. This guy has all gears available and uses them with finesse. Precocious little monster! He eventually settled and I curried off some of the crud, but most of his winter coat does not want to let go yet. I also measured him. He's 13.3 hands at the wither and 14 hands at the croup. Please don't tell me he's going to be a zillion hands tall when he grows up! Rawhide, my MFT, is 16 hands and that's about the limit I can mount easily with a saddle. Chance is only 9 months old. Attachment: Chance racing 4 30 06.JPG (Downloaded 21 times)
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:40 am |
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13th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[May 12, 2006] Rawhide destroyed his water trough, so I put him in with Chance this evening. Chance is an impertinent brat. Rawhide has a lot of patience, but finally began to up the ante to put the colt in his proper place. Chance was rearing, chewing and biting on Rawhide, who first thought to ignore, then squeal, then walk away. Chance only took that as encouragement that he was "winning". Chance really thought he could dominate the big man. Finally Rawhide body slammed him sideways by spinning into Chance's rush. That began to earn a little respect. Hopefully Rawhide won't have to thump the kid too hard before he gets some manners. I had been keeping Chance separate since he needed TLC and groceries. But I can see now that he really needs some socialization.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:42 am |
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14th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[May 13, 2006] Well, I arrived at the ranch this morning to find Chance in the adjacent pen with Dixie, my TWH/Arab mare. Evidently he finally tripped Rawhide's trigger and Rawhide evicted him from the pen. Dixie's pen is 3 sides electric tape, and since Chance pulled down the hotwire on the non-climb in his great escape, the other three sides were not zapping and Chance trashed that too, although had not escaped the pen, yet!s5 I moved Rawhide in with the donkeys and set about to catch Chance, who really was still a bit tightly wound. Fine then. I caught Dixie and put her in Chance's old corral. Chance then vaulted the fence to be with Dixie (Hello Mrs. Robinson????). Okay, double grrr. I had a serious problem, a 9 month old stud colt who has learned he can navigate a 4 1/2 foot fence.  So, I set about disassembling Rawhide's pipe corral and re-installed it inside Dixie's very damaged corral. I then caught the little pegasus and went to lead him to his new digs. Once he realized we were leaving Dixie, he thought to try to vault the fence yet again, halter and lead notwithstanding! Smart little devil! He KNOWS he can clear that fence. I eventually get him inside the pipe corral and he immediately starts sizing it up, body slams it a few times, but ultimately decides he cannot jump 5 1/2 feet. Whew! I think I'm going to own a very talented GELDING! 
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:45 am |
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15th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 8, 2006] Hi friends-I've been away from the MB for awhile. I went on "vacation" and came back to a mess at the ranch. It really is hard to find decent help to take care of animals when one is away. The short of it was that upon my return my 18 year old cat needed emergency surgery, another cat disappeared all together and my german shepherd died. Melody, my TWH, also had to be retrieved from the breeders because she was frantic for the entire 10 days I was away and the breeder was afraid she'd get into trouble soon from all the weight she lost. So, Dixie the TWH/Arab got a reprieve from the sale arena and took Mel's place to be bred. I swear I'm never leaving for more than a weekend again! At least not until I can find someone responsible! Needless to say, I managed to find a replacement to go to a 6 day conference in Florida that was work related (that conference is next week!). Now Chance fared okay while I was gone except for losing weight (no grain and sour water-grrrr!). He has become so much more people oriented that it is now time to start target training proper. I would say that now he is more like a normal colt, not quite so scared anymore. He has a PTSD flashback every now and then, but for the most part, he likes to be with me and will sometimes leave his food for attention. He will be one year old on July 20th. I had housed him with the donkeys for awhile and they all got along well, however I ended up moving the donkeys out because the diet Chance requires would founder a donkey. So, Chance is housed by himself behind the 5 1/2 foot panels in a 48 x 48' pen. The donkeys and Rawhide are in the large corral adjacent-the same corral that Chance showed he could coon jump with ease!
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:48 am |
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16th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 8, 2006, evening post] The flies are thick this year and I'm pretty sure Equitrol II/Simplifly's active ingredient isn't nearly as effective as the rabon was in the original Equitrol. I've also already gone through more fly trap bags than I normally use in a full season. Needless to say, the horses have been needing to be fly sprayed since the premise controls aren't working so hot. Chance has a flare for the dramatic. I've worked him with the spray bottle before and he knows he won't die, but he certainly does not like the sound or the sensation of the fly spray, so he initially reacts quite sensationally: rearing, striking, leaping away...etc, etc. It was really hot today, so I did not care to do the liberty fly spray routine, so kept him on the twelve foot line. He's so funny, you'd had thought he was an untrained wild colt off the range. When he's done playing, he just stops and stands and I can spray him all over. As he was charging around me in an energized circling game, I was just about drooling over his smooth as glass single foot gait. I cannot wait for this guy to grow up. He also has a runwalk on him with great head nod. What a cool little beastie. Well, not so little anymore since he is 14 hands and turns 1 year old on July 20th! As for gelding him, he's still a good boy, so can keep his huevos for now. He's not at all mouthy. He does talk to the girls. Melody is coming into season and he was nickering to her today. Those two might make a good cross since they both have outstanding smooth trail gaits. So if he is still a stud next breeding season, I might breed Melody to him since she seems to be too nervous yet to handle being away to be bred. We'll see, I'm really not all that big on keeping a stallion around, however I really like this colt and not just because he's mine and convenient. There are just so many pacey studs out here. This colt's a natural square mover without shoes-the real deal-Mel is the same, but she did not move as nice as this colt when she was younger. This colt is a little looser.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:52 am |
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17th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 12, 2006] Photo session with Chance. Attachment: Chance 7 12 06 R.JPG (Downloaded 138 times)
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:53 am |
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18th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 12, 2006] Another Chance photo. Attachment: Chance 7 12 06 L.JPG (Downloaded 136 times)
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:56 am |
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19th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 16, 2006] Well, it looks like I won't be able to do any type of training for a while-I wasn't paying enough attention to where my legs were and tripped up over a fence wire on the bad one-done this many times before, except this time, as my neighbor's husband described it, I fell "like a girl". I was so startled by my imminent contact with the ground I put my left hand out to break my fall and ended up landing on the arm badly (and my shouder and my face...) Sooo, short of it is torn ligaments/tendons/muscle in the arm and elbow. Fortunately no breaks, but the soft tissue damage did show in the x-rays. Pain in the statosphere. Silly me did not initially realize how bad the fall was-I was restringing fence. I heard and felt the "pop" when whatever cut loose, but it didn't really hurt that bad at first. So I downed a beer and two aspirin and went back to work after mopping the blood off my face with rubbing alcohol. Eventually the pain and inflammation began to increase exponentially so I went to the ER. My "remedy" was a poor choice given what the injury turned out to be. Talk about encouraging internal bleeding LOL! Seems theses days I'm my own worst health hazard. I cannot move the arm at all right now, elbow is swollen and locked and any attempt at motion is excruciating-however when I can, we'll get back to the subject at hand, namely clicker training. Thanks for bearing with me.
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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| Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2006 03:58 am |
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20th Post |
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4Square G.O.G Community Member
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[July 18, 2006] I went in and saw my orthopedic surgeon today. He listened to my story, examined my arm and told me he thought he knew what the problem was and took another set of x-rays. The darn thing is broken lengthwise down the center of the radius beginning at the top of the joint where it ties into the elbow. Good thing I didn't wait two weeks to see if it improved before seeking a specialist like the ER doc recommended. [they were a bit chagrined when they called today to survey my ER experience-not only a misdiagnosis, but instructions to move and use the arm as much as possible to keep it from freezing up!]So, my ride season is over. Looks like I will help out judging the remainder of our region's trail trials. I cannot drive far given the problems I have with the other elbow[got a cortisone shot in that one today as well so I can sort of function LOL]. trail_rider is driving me up to help judge a trials this weekend. Thank heavens for friends! Meanwhile it is back to physical therapy on the tendonitis arm...sigh...b1
____________________ GOG Certified Trainer http://www.foursquarehorse.com Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Co 13: 6 -7 |
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