cokelly
Well-Known Member
Soo Buster was NONE too pleased coming in this morning to a handle of feed instead of his usual scoop or two of breakfast! He battered the door down for a while... oops!
But it was necessary--- girl studying animal behaviour was doing a thesis on horses and their behaviour- so she needed guineapigs to get her research all done!
Anyway he had to do a series of tasks with her handling him (I was watching but out of sight). The tasks included...walking over a taupalin, walking up to a closed umbrella and then it popping up a metre away (!) and then coming back towards the closed umbrella in his own time (beside the umbrella was his bucket of feed!)
WELL she got a bit of a surprise with Buster! He's a 14.3hh real sweetie- and he just kind of dandered in with her (he NEVER rushes on the lead rein!) and I could so tell she thought he'd be a bit of a plod (so many people do!)
He took the LONGEST of all the horses she had done to cross the taupalin, he completely fureeked when the giant red umbrella went up and WOULD NOT go near it again! He stood a full five minutes trying to make up his mind whether to get the food or stay where he was! Eventually the food was brought to him (and then he started snorting and spooking at the bucket!) Result? 'A highly suspicious horsey!' lol
So THAT was rather interesting! She says it'll probably be August before I'll get all the results XD Can't wait for that!
In other news- we got all four of Buster's feet on the ramp of the horsebox XD We didn't 'lead' him in but 'chased' him in! He responded well to pressure on his bum XD (normally if you put pressure on his lead rope it WILL be a tug-o-war!) So was well pleased with that
This was a pretty pointless post I know- but found the horse behaviour thing so interesting so thought other HHO might be interested too... lol
Wine and chocs and whatever you want if you've got this far and are in the land of the living still...
But it was necessary--- girl studying animal behaviour was doing a thesis on horses and their behaviour- so she needed guineapigs to get her research all done!
Anyway he had to do a series of tasks with her handling him (I was watching but out of sight). The tasks included...walking over a taupalin, walking up to a closed umbrella and then it popping up a metre away (!) and then coming back towards the closed umbrella in his own time (beside the umbrella was his bucket of feed!)
WELL she got a bit of a surprise with Buster! He's a 14.3hh real sweetie- and he just kind of dandered in with her (he NEVER rushes on the lead rein!) and I could so tell she thought he'd be a bit of a plod (so many people do!)
He took the LONGEST of all the horses she had done to cross the taupalin, he completely fureeked when the giant red umbrella went up and WOULD NOT go near it again! He stood a full five minutes trying to make up his mind whether to get the food or stay where he was! Eventually the food was brought to him (and then he started snorting and spooking at the bucket!) Result? 'A highly suspicious horsey!' lol
So THAT was rather interesting! She says it'll probably be August before I'll get all the results XD Can't wait for that!
In other news- we got all four of Buster's feet on the ramp of the horsebox XD We didn't 'lead' him in but 'chased' him in! He responded well to pressure on his bum XD (normally if you put pressure on his lead rope it WILL be a tug-o-war!) So was well pleased with that
This was a pretty pointless post I know- but found the horse behaviour thing so interesting so thought other HHO might be interested too... lol
Wine and chocs and whatever you want if you've got this far and are in the land of the living still...
