The Ozzy Diaries

Jasmine2023 said:
I am sorry to hear that Ozzy bit Snoopy 😓. Just shows that even friends don't come before hay! I really hope he gets out of this aggression with food eventually.
Click to expand...

To be fair, if Ozzy had taken on a young Snoopy he would have regretted it very quickly! Snoopy was the most food aggressive horse I'd ever seen.
None of the other horses would dare to go within 10 yards of him if he had a feed bucket!
As he got older he realised that he no longer had to fight for food and he became much more agreeable. He will even share with AJ now.

Ozzy will get over it eventually, I'm sure. And he's been a very good boy today with his groundwork.
It just made me laugh, the way he acted because Snoopy went out for half an hour!
 
August 2nd

Ozzy's first (partial) bath - since being with us.

We were planning to ride today but then realised that it's the village annual flotilla and there will be a lot of activity (large vehicles, rafts, loud music etc). I was disappointed but decided that it was best to postpone.
Instead we decided to wash Ozzy's legs with the medicated shampoo and get at least some anti-mite stuff on him. Not ideal as he still has loads of feather and there is no indication of when the vet might come. But he'll need to have his legs done frequently as part of CPL management so we thought it would be a good investment of time.

His mane is also itchy and a bit of a mess so we decided to start there. Ozzy has definitely been washed before in his life. But he acted as if this was the first time he'd seen water and a sponge.
It took a lot of negotiation to get him to agree to having his mane washed but in the end he allowed it.
The legs were a different story. He would not let us near those legs. We couldn't even touch them.
We decided to give clicker training a try. He seemed to get the hang of this pretty quickly! Eventually he let OH wash his front feathers. He was NOT happy about them being rinsed but it did get done in the end. We then used the clicker training to negotiate having legs dried with a cloth. This worked well.
By the end of the session he would let me brush his front and back legs.
We also tried a bit of clipper desensitisation but there's a long way to go with that.

Overall, we made a bit of progress. Main thing is that he didn't really strike out or kick today, he just snatched his legs and danced a little. This is an improvement on last time!
Shout out to little AJ who was an absolute saint in keeping Ozzy company.

1754139109620.jpeg
 
Nancykitt said:
August 2nd

Ozzy's first (partial) bath - since being with us.

We were planning to ride today but then realised that it's the village annual flotilla and there will be a lot of activity (large vehicles, rafts, loud music etc). I was disappointed but decided that it was best to postpone.
Instead we decided to wash Ozzy's legs with the medicated shampoo and get at least some anti-mite stuff on him. Not ideal as he still has loads of feather and there is no indication of when the vet might come. But he'll need to have his legs done frequently as part of CPL management so we thought it would be a good investment of time.

His mane is also itchy and a bit of a mess so we decided to start there. Ozzy has definitely been washed before in his life. But he acted as if this was the first time he'd seen water and a sponge.
It took a lot of negotiation to get him to agree to having his mane washed but in the end he allowed it.
The legs were a different story. He would not let us near those legs. We couldn't even touch them.
We decided to give clicker training a try. He seemed to get the hang of this pretty quickly! Eventually he let OH wash his front feathers. He was NOT happy about them being rinsed but it did get done in the end. We then used the clicker training to negotiate having legs dried with a cloth. This worked well.
By the end of the session he would let me brush his front and back legs.
We also tried a bit of clipper desensitisation but there's a long way to go with that.

Overall, we made a bit of progress. Main thing is that he didn't really strike out or kick today, he just snatched his legs and danced a little. This is an improvement on last time!
Shout out to little AJ who was an absolute saint in keeping Ozzy company.

View attachment 164254
Click to expand...
Well done all, that sounds like great progress! What a good boy and excellent humans :D
 
You're doing much better than me my pony still objects to being rinsed and bathed 😅 we dectomaxed and steroids for her mites when she first came and then I used pig oil to keep on top of her feathers since but she doesn't have CPL.
I adore how pink Ozzy is 🩷
 
HaplessHorse said:
There seems to be a lot of unique colours that turn up in cobs, I think a few new colour genes have been discovered. Maybe he’s another new one 🤷‍♀️🤣
Click to expand...
Haha! You may well be right - we certainly think he’s one of a kind!
Cloball said:
I love a bit of colour genetic nerding and I'm stumped as to what colour he actually is 😅 I going with flaxen chestnut sabino roan.
Click to expand...
I like the sound of that! Although I have to admit that when one of our neighbours said ‘Oh, you’ve got a palomino!’ I smiled and nodded as I’d always wanted a palomino when I was a kid.😁

I've seen a photo of a newborn Ozzy and his mum is a smallish blue roan cob. Makes me wonder what his dad was like!
 
Sorry to be that person but is he tied to the gate or the post in that pic?

Just that I saw a horrific accident where a horse pulled back hard when tied to a gate, the string didn’t break and the gate ended up round the horse’s legs with a bad outcome.

You’re probably fine and I’m being overly cautious but just something to think about.
 
Btomkins said:
Sorry to be that person but is he tied to the gate or the post in that pic?

Just that I saw a horrific accident where a horse pulled back hard when tied to a gate, the string didn’t break and the gate ended up round the horse’s legs with a bad outcome.

You’re probably fine and I’m being overly cautious but just something to think about.
Click to expand...
He's tied to a breakable tie which is round the gate. It will just come undone if he pulled back with enough pressure.
 
Nancykitt said:
Our EP described him as a ‘palomino roan.’ He has developed little chestnut spots on his chest & body, plus he has the very pale face & legs. We were saying that he could enter a Coloured, Spotted & Palomino class and be the only horse to tick all three boxes!
Click to expand...
Ozzy sounds as if he is the exact same colouring as my Belgian Draft cross ( not in my icon pic) who is strawberry roan with a flaxen mane and tail with some red hairs, and who also has small very chestnut patches and white socks. He has got lighter as he has grown ( now 11). Would attach a pic but even from my phone they always say ‘file too large’ 🙄
 
jojo5 said:
Ozzy sounds as if he is the exact same colouring as my Belgian Draft cross ( not in my icon pic) who is strawberry roan with a flaxen mane and tail with some red hairs, and who also has small very chestnut patches and white socks. He has got lighter as he has grown ( now 11). Would attach a pic but even from my phone they always say ‘file too large’ 🙄
Click to expand...
Have you tried screenshotting the photo then cropping the edges and then uploading? That always works on my phone. Good luck!
 
jojo5 said:
Ozzy sounds as if he is the exact same colouring as my Belgian Draft cross ( not in my icon pic) who is strawberry roan with a flaxen mane and tail with some red hairs, and who also has small very chestnut patches and white socks. He has got lighter as he has grown ( now 11). Would attach a pic but even from my phone they always say ‘file too large’ 🙄
Click to expand...
Not so very long ago, he would have been simply known as a strawberry roan - a pink pony - but a little bit of info on genetics has produced some very exotic (and precious) descriptors!
Main thing: Ozzy is a handsome animal and beloved in the eyes of his owners, the rest is irrelevant, especially in a gelding.
Did you manage to get to the base of Ozzy’s feathers, yet? Looks to be very peaceable anyway!
 
@Rumtytum thanks for the suggestion. Tried that but file still too large seemingly. @Exasperated - not sure what you mean? My boy is strawberry roan as I said ( and as you might expect from the Belgian input) but has ‘faded’ as he has grown up, so no real descriptor for him now but not exotic or precious.
 
10th August

A 'not very good' update.

Last time I posted that Ozzy had picked up the clicker training very quickly. We had to stop it, though, because he started to bite us. I know that some horses get like this with treats so we just cut out the treats.
The weather here has been awful all week. We had a big storm last Monday but it was gale force winds and rain literally all week, so no riding. On Wednesday there was a short spell when it wasn't too bad so OH went to do some groundwork with Ozzy. It was going fine until Ozzy bit him on the arm. It's quite nasty. I think OH will need to wear tendon boots on the arms in future!
The weather is supposed to improve next week so I was looking forward to getting out and about.

Other than that, all three horses have been OK until today. When we went out to feed them this morning they lined up as usual for their feeds. Aj was standing next to Ozzy, nothing unusual about that. And then suddenly Ozzy turned and clamped his teeth on AJ near his withers. Aj was squealing but Ozzy wouldn't let go. Even when AJ tried to move away, he wouldn't let go.
It's not broken the skin but all the fur is off and it's very swollen. Looks like riding is out of the question for a while.

i always make Ozzy step back before I give him his feed but today he refused to do it. I had to raise my voice and point the whip before he'd take a step back. When OH went to pick up the feed bucket after Ozzy had finished, he put ears flat back and looked like he might bite.

We have no idea what has caused this apparent change in behaviour. Ozzy moves around the field very nicely, no signs of lameness. He isn't stamping his feet so I'm not sure the mite issue is behind this.

It may sound daft, but I was actually crying because he'd hurt little AJ who had honestly done nothing wrong. It wasn't great when Ozzy bit Snoopy but I could understand why because Snoopy tried to take his haynet. Today looked like an unprovoked attack. Looking at them now in the field, Snoopy and AJ are giving Ozzy a very wide berth.

OH is as philosophical as ever - 'sometimes horses behave like this and it's hard to see why. But we'll sort it.'
We've had big issues with some of our horses in the past, but we've never had an aggressive biter.

Before anyone says get the vet out, forget it. It's now over a month since I requested a visit. All three horses need teeth doing (can't get an EDT to travel up here) and Ozzy needs sedation for leg clipping so that his CPL can be treated. But the vet just says they can't come yet. It's incredibly frustrating.

Every person reading this will have had a day when they've felt absolutely rubbish about keeping horses. I'm trying to stay positive but right now it's not easy!
 
I feel like a lot of young geldings go through a biting stage, almost like a human toddler going “look at this new thing I’ve learned. I must show everyone!”

My Highland definitely did (& he did do it to horses as well as humans). He did it around treats (luckily not bucket feeds & nets but then he wasn’t as resource guardy as Ozzie) which led to me stopping training with them until he could control himself a bit better but also as a displacement type thing if he was worried or excited. (The first camp I took him to he was an utter nightmare for it and got both me & my friend’s mare badly)

He did eventually grow out of it! (And in the meantime he basically absolutely was not allowed in my space unless he was being polite as shoving & space invasion was usually a precursor to biting)
 
oh what a little bugger 🙈 , hopefully he redeems himself asap. I’ve always ended up with dominant geldings, thankfully not towards me but other horses and no way could he be fed alongside others. When it comes to hay in field we scatter several far away piles. The food anticipation gets him stroppy to others too, so even though he comes in to eat hell see his mate away from me/the gate. This hasn’t changed in the 5 years I’ve had him, so I don’t expect it too , he’s just a greedy git.
 
Boulty said:
I feel like a lot of young geldings go through a biting stage, almost like a human toddler going “look at this new thing I’ve learned. I must show everyone!”

My Highland definitely did (& he did do it to horses as well as humans). He did it around treats (luckily not bucket feeds & nets but then he wasn’t as resource guardy as Ozzie) which led to me stopping training with them until he could control himself a bit better but also as a displacement type thing if he was worried or excited. (The first camp I took him to he was an utter nightmare for it and got both me & my friend’s mare badly)

He did eventually grow out of it! (And in the meantime he basically absolutely was not allowed in my space unless he was being polite as shoving & space invasion was usually a precursor to biting)
Click to expand...

Ozzy is not super-young but I think he is quite immature for an 8 year old and has probably led quite a sheltered life so far.
Can I ask how you actually responded to the biting? When OH got bitten on the arm, he shouted 'no' loudly and straight away made Ozzy back up - but other than that no physical chastisement.
Today there was nothing I could do as they were on the other side of the fence.

For the last couple of weeks Ozzy has seemed much less reactive with his feeds. We were putting out 4 nets between the 3 of them and it worked just fine.
It seems strange that he had the episode today.

However, now we have managed to get a round bale delivered we'll be setting up our haybell today. There are four 'windows' between three of them so I'm hoping it will work OK.
One the reasons I wanted the haybell is because the wind up here is so awful I was losing literally half of it; the lane was littered with hay and some even blew up the garden (which is quite a long way!) Another reason is that hay will always be available, which is often good for food-aggressive horses.

I know that horses are not always lovely, friendly and cuddly - infact, some never are and never will be.
I was spoilt because I was lucky enough to own, for 13 years, the sweetest, kindest most gentle pony anyone could wish for. And AJ has always been a 'people pony'.
It's lucky that OH is much more 'workmanlike' and pragmatic than me...
 
cauda equina said:
I'm so sorry things haven't been going smoothly
I hope tomorrow is a better day and that poor AJ isn't too sore
Click to expand...
Good grief, I think I’d be a damn sight more concerned about the husband.
Horses do bully, bite, kick, establish priority with other horses.
They are horses, that has to be respected, altho not necessarily tolerated - if persistent or vicious harassment, separate.
But non-feral horses should not be doing this when being tended to, ridden, with people around, and they certainly should never think that is behaviour applicable to humans.
Please, do not allow your eight year old riding animal to treat you or your husband or anyone else - like another horse.
 
Exasperated said:
Please, do not allow your eight year old riding animal to treat you or your husband or anyone else - like another horse.
Click to expand...

Well, yes, it’s not great - but I think that under the circumstances OH reacted in what seemed a reasonable way. And today I would not give Ozzy his feed until he had stepped back - he knows the routine and won’t get away with trying to dominate like this.

I’ve seen some people recommend a punch in the mouth as a response to biting but we haven’t resorted to physical punishment. Would be interested to hear people’s views.
 
Nancykitt said:
Well, yes, it’s not great - but I think that under the circumstances OH reacted in what seemed a reasonable way. And today I would not give Ozzy his feed until he had stepped back - he knows the routine and won’t get away with trying to dominate like this.

I’ve seen some people recommend a punch in the mouth as a response to biting but we haven’t resorted to physical punishment. Would be interested to hear people’s views.
Click to expand...
Do not do that 🙈 I repeat do not do that.

Some horses just can’t have treats.
 
Was he expecting treats? I do think the grass is so crap they are all pretty hangry. Are you feeding them in the field together?

At the moment it’s a one off, he’s had a pretty shit few weeks and I’m assuming it was a nip and hubby isn’t missing part of his arm?
 
It’s easy to be wise after the event, but giving treats to a food aggressive horse probably wasn’t the best idea. Biting is dangerous.

There’s a lot to unpick with Ozzy, rather like the horse in another thread that’s been running.

He could be in discomfort, so bodywork (as long as the bodyworker is warned about the biting) and a scope for ulcers maybe as a first post of call.

Are you going to be getting your own transport soon? Then you can travel the horses to the vets for routine stuff rather than wait months for them to visit you. You’ll need to warn the vets and other professionals about the biting, too.
 
He was given treats as part of clicker training, that’s all. We stopped as soon as we realised it was causing a problem. We are trying to get him used to the clippers. Clicker training worked quite well but the biting isn’t acceptable.

And just to reassure everyone- we don’t advocate punching/hitting horses. OH is confident he can work on this. It’s just that I’m feeling a bit eeurgh today.

ETA- we aren’t planning on getting transport soon - but in any case, Ozzy is so terrified at the prospect of being loaded, it’s not something I’d be doing for vet treatment just at the moment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top