My next equine project horse

Ted has a go faster stripe, sorry for delay in updating, that four letter word 'work' got in the way.

We had a lovely time when David, Teds breaker came over. Ted has become ever more tricky to get on board and we could not decide if he was being a yob or if something was actually bothering him. I dreaded telling David because the one thing that Ted had excelled at whilst being broken was standing rock still through the leaning over/getting on process, and then I get the horse home and wreck the good work !

It was so obvious Ted had remembered David and I thought to myself, 'just wait, Ted will be an angel at the block'. He wasn't and I was rather relieved. Ted gets anxious at the block, he seems to want to get going quickly, so whilst he will stand for a few seconds that is it and he is off, there is no back up/girthiness or offer to buck, just a 'we're off' reaction.

David's answer to the problem was to fool the horse a little by taking him to the block and doing everything bar getting on. He was allowed to walk around the block as many times as he wanted to until he stood still, then a foot was put in the iron and removed regardless of whether the horse stood or moved. It took 20 minutes but Ted did twig he has to stand properly before anything else was done. it was fascinating to watch, no force, reprimands or voice control, Ted had to work it out for himself and when he did and was mounted and asked forwards from the block David immediately got off and made a fuss of him. This was repeated a few times before we went for a hack. Obviously it won't be an instant fix but at least I now have to tools to deal with it. I have always maintained that Ted was thick, very wrong, and David said he thought Ted was one of the most intelligent horses he has dealt with.

We hacked out and met a hedge cutter which Ted ignored and on our return David got off onto the block and repeated the get on/off another couple of times whilst Ted stood like a statue. Then we moved onto the clippers, the horse was hot so not ideal, but all I wanted to achieve was for him to accept the clippers on him, any coat removed would be a bonus. The horse was tied outside and I went to put him inside. David said no leave him outside and untie him. I asked why and the reasoning was, if Ted wants to leave let him, don't trap him with walls where he will feel dominated and frightened. Ted's default has always been to leave the scene.

So with the rope slack David started the clippers and allowed Ted to sniff them. The horse sighed, rested a leg and put his chin on David's shoulder and the clipping began on Ted's chest. Not a murmur out of the horse, until I took the clippers and he turned his eyes to watch me with a little bit of fear in his eye. I finished his little bib clip with the clippers going into his jowl area and between his front legs.

He was hacked out yesterday, went to the block and stood still and quiet. He went to a local school and was dismounted and remounted whilst there again standing still.

I strongly believe we never stop learning as horse owners/handlers but this horse and David make me feel like I know nothing despite over 35 years of ownership. There is still a long way to go before Ted and I will have a partnership but I am determined it will happen and it is lovely to have so many people interested in a furry carthorse and a windy 50 + owner.
 
What a really fabulous update! Its is so true that we never ever stop learning. I really like the sound of the way David deals with Ted. If the horse works something out for himself with less pressure they really do learn it better and faster.......bit like all of us really. Who wants to be 'told' to do something? Persuaded or learning it off our own back makes us much more willing all round. Ted really sounds like he wants to please and with you as an owner I think a great partnership will grow and grow........... :)
 
David sounds like a genius. You're so lucky to have found him. So many trainers would have taken the view that "the horse just needs to learn his place" and probably made Ted worse.
 
Caol Ila said:
David sounds like a genius. You're so lucky to have found him. So many trainers would have taken the view that "the horse just needs to learn his place" and probably made Ted worse.
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You are so right. I don't think Ted would be with us without David and the horse doesn't actually know his place yet given his mixed up 'wanting to please but being so anxious' temperament. Not sure who I am in love with the most - Ted or David !!
 
AA - its very interesting about the clipping outside idea. Mine was initially a nightmare to clip, and in a stable he became quite franky dangerous, but I had the brain wave of doing it outside so he didn't feel trapped and now, with the help of a little domo gel he is almost over his clipping phobia. Now we can just cross tie him in the barn isle. It keeps us warm and dry but removes the confinement for him. Simple things really that make sense when you think about them but sometimes its hard to see the obvious.
David sounds brilliant. And as you say, we never stop learning.
 
I have never commented on the adventures of Ted as I'm fairly new but I have read the whole thread.

I get quite tingly reading about Ted's progress and this is a great example of how rewarding horses can be.

David does sound like a genius.
 
well done Ted, on both the dressage-ing and the clipping!!

When I first got Ron I was told that I wouldn't be able to clip him without sedation... He had allegedly been spooked when being hogged, and put his head through the stable roof! I decided that this was, quite frankly, B@!!*<>s, and like everything else with him he'd been push and bullied all the way along. The first year, I asked an experienced friend to give him a tracer clip. We left his face and a good deal of his neck untouched. He fidgeted, threatened her with a foot when she went near his belly, he jumped every time you turned the clippers on or off, stomped about his stable, and what should have been a quick clip took us two hours. But we did that without sedation.

The following year, I'd invested in a pair of the Wahl Avalon, battery 'trimmers', and a Michael Peace DVD. I studied the DVD for weeks and spent ages playing about with Ron, the clippers and a long lead rope on the edge of the field. I discovered that his response was entirely fear based. By the time I actually clipped him, he stood, like a rock, but shaking, on the end of a lead rope while I gave him a hunter clip (left his face untouched). We've progressed from there over the last decade, and these days I use a pair of Wolseley Swifts, heavy duty mains powered clippers, and he stands, half asleep, wherever we choose to clip him, with or without a headcollar on. He still jumps when you turn them on or off, but I can cope with that!

The moral of the waffle is that patience is key, there's no rush to achieve everything this instant, and Ted is clearly the sort who needs to work things out for himself, so I reckon David's approach is the right one for you both!
 
Look out, a dreaded proud parent alert.

Sorry about this but I am so pleased with them today. Not ridden for 12 and 15 days respectively, Ted and Alice came out of the field this morning. We abandoned yesterday when the wind ripped a roof off in the yard and I decided that a pair of newly broken 4 year olds might just be fresh in a gale.

Both were a little silly to get on but once out they were perfect. We did a route they had not done before and not once did they need their lead horse to come to the front. Even a buildland yellow sack flapping in the hedge did not bother them, pity the rock steady lead horse that I was on did not follow the babies lead, she thought it was a yellow horse eating monster.

I guess random riding of young horses is not exactly the correct way to go but they coped well and were not at all bothered. Ted is aiming at another W/T test on 1st December with the local riding club if the weather and time allows him to be ridden a little between now and then.
 
Ted's rider has announced Ted is too scruffy to take to the dressage and I must tidy the horse up. With me muttering about 'he is hardly Valegro' I raided the tack room for a lightweight rug thinking it would at least, prevent the horse from wallowing in SH one T and resembling a giant chocolate chip cookie.

He wore a 6'9" fly sheet all summer, the same size amigo looked like a tutu and the weatherbeata didn't go round his chest. We move on to the 7' amigo and that did not fit either ! After much cussing and wheezing from me, the tack room is wrecked and I find the 7'3" weatherbeta, even that is not a great fit but will do for the moment. I have two 7'6" Fals which I never thought would see the light of day again but am I pleased I did not part with them.

It must run in the family, Alice and I go to Evans for our outfits and Ted goes to rentatent.
 
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annagain said:
I didn't even know there was such a size as 7'6"!
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Fal made me a heavyweight 7'6" for my heavyweight hunter, he was 18h. I had to take out a small mortgage to pay for it but it remains in excellent order and totally waterproof despite being 20 years old and in storage since 2004. 7'3" are purchasable off the shelf not sure about bigger though.
 
Blimey about the rug. Is Alice calling him fat yet? <g>
He must have grown - you will have to measure him. It would have been fun to have one of those growth charts, like the ones they do for children to hang on a wall or door, to mark at various times. Ted's would have to be on the outside wall of a large barn.

Fascinating to read about the mounting block training, and congratulations regarding the clipping. Well done all round!
 
Urgent Ted sized wheelbarrow needed.

Sitting in my nice warm and dry office I have just received a call from my friend who has hacked Ted out this morning. Ted has conked out a mile from home and is being led back. They did a route that Ted has done before but previous rides have been left handed and down the steep hills, this time they went right handed and up the hills - Ted didn't make it and apparently faded rather rapidly !

He is home now, tucked up in bed and trying to ring World Horse Welfare to see if he has a claim for over working an equine.
 
He will have been on the internet all night on his laptop, looking at pics of foreign fillies and chatting to mates. You need to turn off the hub in the tack room, or change the password to make sure he gets some sleep. :D Good 'ole Ted.
 
Digger66 said:
He will have been on the internet all night on his laptop, looking at pics of foreign fillies and chatting to mates. You need to turn off the hub in the tack room, or change the password to make sure he gets some sleep. :D Good 'ole Ted.
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You have a good point.

Ted lives out, but last night he came in to see how he would be when ridden out of the stables first thing in the morning. His 3 dressage days have all been out of the field, as has all his work through the breaking process.

|I was ashamed of the state he was in the last time we took him out, but didn't want to upset his routine. He is wearing a rug now but it would be nice to take him clean and tidy next week so I thought I would stable him last night and see what his attitude was like this morning and if all was well and sensible I can clean him up and leave him in overnight on Monday before loading up on Tuesday morning.

He was perfect, no change at all, no anxiety and rather liked the idea of breakfast. On exercise he was perfect, passed big lorries and didn't put a foot wrong until his battery ran out and he tripped a little, hence the getting off him.

I am looking forward to his next day out, it will be a clash of the Shire horses as his friend Brad, a proper Shire is coming along too.
 
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