Nancykitt
Well-Known Member
Ozzy arrived on 26th June. I did want to tell everyone because, as we all know, getting a new horse is exciting!
But at the same time I really felt for his previous owner who has had an awful time with all this and didn't deserve it.
However, there were rumours going around (not on here) about where he ended up - and in the end I decided to come clean about it all today.
For those that didn't see my other posts about Ozzy, he does have some 'issues'. It's quite likely that at least some of these are related to the fact that he has been on the equivalent of a national tour within a very short space of time, having had very little disruption for the past 8 years. We employed a horse transporter with an excellent reputation to move him up here; the driver who picked him up described him as 'a little headstrong'! (ie, he ran off soon after being clipped on to the lead rope).
He is difficult to lead; his reaction is to pull away and run off. This might be because he believes that he's about to go on another wagon. Or it could be another issue, we're not sure.
He is also food aggressive and the first time we gave him a haynet there was a lot of kicking out. This has now improved, but IME there is always a good reason for food aggression.
Overall, though, he seems to love Snoopy and AJ and appears happy and relaxed with them.
Ozzy had his first groundwork session today on leading, which didn't start off well because, as mentioned, his default when clipped onto a rope is to be OK for about 4 seconds and then bomb off at impressive speed. (This is different to our first cob, who would literally run at you/through you and knock you flying!) However, with perseverance and calmness, he made lots of progress in just 20 minutes. This (see photo) might not look like much but for him, focusing on the leader and stepping back when asked is a pretty major improvement, especially as he clearly wanted to be off with the other two at one point. We decided 20 minutes is enough, ended on a high, followed by rubs and a treat.
It doesn't matter how long it might take, we'll take things as slowly as we need to.
But at the same time I really felt for his previous owner who has had an awful time with all this and didn't deserve it.
However, there were rumours going around (not on here) about where he ended up - and in the end I decided to come clean about it all today.
For those that didn't see my other posts about Ozzy, he does have some 'issues'. It's quite likely that at least some of these are related to the fact that he has been on the equivalent of a national tour within a very short space of time, having had very little disruption for the past 8 years. We employed a horse transporter with an excellent reputation to move him up here; the driver who picked him up described him as 'a little headstrong'! (ie, he ran off soon after being clipped on to the lead rope).
He is difficult to lead; his reaction is to pull away and run off. This might be because he believes that he's about to go on another wagon. Or it could be another issue, we're not sure.
He is also food aggressive and the first time we gave him a haynet there was a lot of kicking out. This has now improved, but IME there is always a good reason for food aggression.
Overall, though, he seems to love Snoopy and AJ and appears happy and relaxed with them.
Ozzy had his first groundwork session today on leading, which didn't start off well because, as mentioned, his default when clipped onto a rope is to be OK for about 4 seconds and then bomb off at impressive speed. (This is different to our first cob, who would literally run at you/through you and knock you flying!) However, with perseverance and calmness, he made lots of progress in just 20 minutes. This (see photo) might not look like much but for him, focusing on the leader and stepping back when asked is a pretty major improvement, especially as he clearly wanted to be off with the other two at one point. We decided 20 minutes is enough, ended on a high, followed by rubs and a treat.
It doesn't matter how long it might take, we'll take things as slowly as we need to.
I am so pleased for Ozzy. Please do keep us updated when you can, it would be lovely to learn about his progress and how you help a horse like Ozzy to settle.
x
