Introducing our project mare...

Mocha

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28 March 2006
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Hope you aren't sick of snowy photos - Our big freeze is over thankgod but these are the most recent riding photos I have.

The mare is affectionately known as 'Jeep'
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She is a bring on an sell project for me and 'TinyTrigger' (member)


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She has been turned away for 2 years to foal and with the weather we've only managed to get some light riding on her.
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I've been a bit tentative about asking her to move on because shes extremely powerful! She's been angelic so far though!

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She's lovely. And makes the winter look so pretty! Bloody horrid white stuff.

Recognise those pictures of you and mocha playing in the water. How's Odie doing? He was lovely
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Thanks - she is very nice natured, 'sweet' is very apt indeed.
She's a RISH by Rich Rebel.

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She's lovely. And makes the winter look so pretty! Bloody horrid white stuff.

Recognise those pictures of you and mocha playing in the water. How's Odie doing? He was lovely



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Odie doing nothing at all these days, having serious issues getting shoes on the bugger (I dunno if he'd had his bad farrier experience last time you heard about him?) and all the horses are out unfortunately due to college/time restraints... he just doesn't hold muscle when he's not in regular work so its hard getting bloody saddle to fit him.
He keeps weight well, but his muscle just wastes away spectacularly - finicky bugger that he is.

He seems to have a ridiculously high metabolic rate, he passes 4x as much dung as your average horse - he's like a food processor, but anytime he had bloods done etc they always came up normal. Its not been a sudden change or anything, just the more I got to know him the more quirky things I realised.

I bought him a wintec dressage for this purpose (so I could keep adjusting it) and I haven't got round to getting it altered, or buying the right arch!

Plan is though to get him in work ASAP and he'll be actively for sale. I've had no interest in loans for him and he's last on the list of 'lifers'. Jeep is only temporary too.

And Mocha's got a brace on her foot to grow out a stubborn crack.

Vega is the size of a small house and she won't be 2 until may.

Rofl - I've just way too much to be doing!

So only the nice uncomplicated horse gets ridden
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Fun time with horses then.

Poor mocha and her braces - her friends will be laughing at her.

Send Odie to me - he can come and live a shoe-free life with my other gelding and form their own 'We Hate Farriers' club. I'll get them t-shirts made up.

Then you can concentrate on playing with Vaga (although I'm sure it was River last time I heard!)
 
Mmm.

Lol, it was River - I changed it again, wouldn't stick.

Is that a new gelding you have? I'd have him shoeless only he's completely pathetic and I can't bear to see him lose his fabulous movement. He did one jumping competition, lots of hacking and some trek in 2009.. and that is it!

We are managing to get shoes on him, but he has to come in and be cross-tied in the barn and petted lots and shod very tentatively, half set at a time... PITA! When I have time (phrase of the decade!) we are going to be clickering with gusto!
 
I have aquired yet another horse from a friend - Toby in my signature is mine to play with until further notice (prob until I break Piper). He is SUCH a drama queen. Very beautiful and very affectionate but dear god is he frustrating. HIS feet isses stemmed from me daring to squirt hibiscrub onto his frog.
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6 MONTHS before he wouldn't throw himself on the ground if he even though I was about to pick that foot up! :rolleyes: I always said I hated welsh cobs and now I rememeber why! Swap?
 
Lol!
Well Odie was good with his feet and being trimmed successfully.. but for his first shoeing (long story short) the farrier came out unannounced and basically bet him into a corner - so he's totally traumatised. In the beginning (with a decent farrier) he was so traumatised he didn't react except to be thoroughly frustrated (body language) but then he started to deteriorate with every shoeing... and discipline couldn't be used because well he was just afraid. He scuttles backwards. Nothing works!!

I made the mistake of trying to sedate him with a large dose of sedalin (because although we were working through it, I didn't want loanees having to deal with his issues and possibly make him worse) and he reared up drunkenly and stood down on the clench of a half on shoe... punctured his sole and tramautised himself even more!

He's alright to pull shoes off, and to trim, and to tidy his feet up afterwards... its the hammering of the nails in he doesn't like. I think the first farrier quicked him aswell.

So are you barefooting it or what are you doing?

Do you still have the gorgeous Pink? *is afraid to ask*
 
Poor odie
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That kind of experience would put any horse off. JOJOBA's Bob had a similar experience (6 people trying to pin him to the ground to take his shoes off when she wasn't there) and now the only other person he'll let touch his feet it me!

Toby's barefoot with good feet and now tolerates a farrier trimming doing his backs, though I mostly do them as they're very straight forwards. Break through was doing leg stretches - learnt he could pick up with feet again! Thankfully his feet wear so evenly with work that he survived 6 months of no trimming. Fronts have never been a problem though.

Pink's still alive and well but pretty much retired! Kalli's moved to a posh expensive yard (which her and A LOVE) and Pink's owner didn't have time to keep her on DIY livery all by herself (esp as I was increasily busy with my boys) so needed to move with her. But Pink's owner wasn't wanting to fork out that kind of money for livery at posh yard she wouldn't use so she's gone to live with her at the petting farm (where she's farm manager). So Pink's pretending to be a clydesdale to fit in
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She's not loving it though - lives with 2 shetlands, a donkey, a cow, lots of ducks and geese and a yearling clydesdale filly and i think she misses having 'proper' horse company. Not sure what the next step for her is - possible coming to live with me on loan for Toby's owner to ride. Currently not been ridden in over 6months though - without me to prod and poke her owner into getting on with it she's unlikely to ride again.
 
Aww
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Pink.

Yeh - I'm hoping to do something similar to leg strectches with clicker.
I used him for a behavioural project in college, and classic conditioning hasn't worked, infact with all the attention he was getting, now even asking him to pick up his feet puts a worry on him - even though he's good and he trusts me so he'll comply.

So my shaping plan with the clicker is something along the lines of..
-cock hoof
-offer it forwards
-offer it forwards and place it on an object (upturned bucket or similar)
All the while getting him used to being rewarded for doing something fun.. and as far removed from conventionally picking up his hoof as I can make it.

The hopefully...
-offer it forwards into hand (instead of object)
-offer it backwards
-offer it backwards into hand etc

Working our way towards the farrier hold.

Having never done clicker though, I dunno how well it will work!
 
Lateral thinking definintly required! Toby's similar. The more 'fuss' you make out of it (even if it's 'positive' fuss) the more suspicious he becomes. He's very receptive to new experiences and with a little pracitice is perfect, but once he's had a bad experience of something and any attention is paid to it he becomes difficult.

Which is why the leg stretching worked so well for him. That and simply ignoring it. He'd be asked to pick all feet up in a routine - if he offered it great, if he didn't I just made absolutly nothing of it and moved on. Over time he relaxed about it and almost forgot.

How about teaching Odie to spanish walk? That involves lifting and holding the leg without having anything to do with his feet.

Clicker training could work really well but maybe get yourself a book to read up on the principles if you've not used it before. It's all straightforwards and simple but can almost do more harm than good if you get the concept a little wrong. Or maybe some to come and show you? I saw a woman doing a clinic a while ago and it is amazing and well worth investing in. They'd give you a good shaping arc too.
 
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