Finally done house-sitting and so back to the routine of going out in the evening by the light of the yard light to work with Cody and then feed him dinner. Still working on being able to approach him outside of his stall. Once he's in his stall I can walk up and put a hand on him no problem. He was good about letting me put his halter on tonight, I just put my arm over his neck, had the halter in each hand under his neck and just slipped it up over his nose and ta-da, we were done. I just pet him for a bit and then we started working on being able to take his blanket off. He is still not liking me to do and undo the front buckles, so I just put my hand on his chest and left it there until he stopped moving around. Then this time he was pretty good about letting me finish unbuckling the blanket. Once the straps are all undone, I can just pull it off like it's no big deal.
Then the gloves came off (literally) and I just rubbed him all over with my hands, just spending time with him since it had been a few days. The cough is still there, but I think it's getting better. We practiced giving softly to pressure from the lead to turn his head and he does that pretty well. Then we worked on him putting his head down. I would put some pressure on the lead, and I had my hand up on his poll and he'd drop his head a little and I'd rub his poll. He nearly had his nose on the ground.
Then we worked on moving his shoulders away from a touch. I had one hand on his shoulder and one hand near the middle of his neck and it didn't take much pressure for him to move and cross one leg over the other. We also worked on backing up and then walking toward me and he didn't do too bad.
All in all a pretty good evening, it is so good to be home!
A question though, what do you find to be more effective, steady pressure that increases in intensity, or tapping that increases in intensity?
3 comments:
Tapping or rhythmic pressure would probably work better, since horses naturally lean into steady pressure.
Glad you're having fun with your boy again. I bet he enjoyed a good petting.
I've always used tapping. It doesn't have to be hard tapping, but it does seem to get a more immediate response than steady pressure. But ones they understand the concept of what you are asking, I usually move down in intensity to light steady pressure when I ask them, increasing to tapping only if they don't respond.
Nice to see you back on the wires again, hope Jonny was a little help, just got off the phone and what he described I do remember but it is fixable AFTER the water is gone, that may take a while, I do remember a little thing about what Andrea said and I do remember that the harder you pushed the more they lean toward you, at least I do remember a little, but you must remember Grandpa Bud's horses that I grew up with were Percherons (Perchins)and getting them in the traces was always a lot of fun, keep going Kristi!
Love,
Dad
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