Farrier Prep

Josie has not always been the perfect horse for the farrier. She has gotten loads better since I got her, but she is not the perfect partner when it comes to giving up control of her feet..... The interesting thing, is that she is not bothered by getting her feet tangled up in things (hula hoops, kiddie pool, etc). She just isn't all that willing to pick her feet up and hold them for you. I have to admit that I haven't worked with her enough on it in a focused manner to get her better for the farrier. After watching the recent Savvy Club dvd on farrier prep, I have re-committed myself to making a program out of it to see if we can overcome this issue. I have no doubt that it will increase my leadership points from her if we are successful!

So yesterday, when I went out to play, the girl did NOT want to talk to me! How interesting! I had not seen her in about a week. She was at the round bale with several other horses. I entered the paddock and started walking around the round bale. There was an Appaloosa in there that likes to be in my pocket, so I just played with driving him around for a while. She eventually got curious enough to look at me, but still didn't come over to say hi. I eventually tapped her butt when I went by on the circle, at which point she ran away from the feeder and away from me, and then faced up to me. I just kept on playing with the other horse, and eventually she came over to check me out. I petted her for a while, then asked her to halter. I went to lead her--away from the gate, which she wasn't expecting--and she was just dogging along. So we worked on stay with me and give me some EFFORT. Eventually I had a more willing and respectful horse. We went into the indoor and I let her loose with Vegas for a while. They really ripped around, preferring the canter today, which is very interesting!

After haltering up again and playing some games, I decided to do some of the farrier prep exercises. I friendlied her legs quite a bit, and worked on picking her front feet up. I led her with the rope around her leg, then put a noose around her pastern. I have been playing with holding her leg up with this for the past week or so. My goal is to get her to hold her leg up, instead of me doing all the work. Then I tied her leg up like Pat did in the video. I really did not know how she was going to take this, since she doesn't like the control taken away from her on her legs. At first she just stood there. I released her leg. I did it again, and let her stand there for a while. She eventually started trying to free her leg. She never completely freaked out, but did have a minor tantrum. She was particularly interested in trying to get the rope in her mouth so she could free herself! It was very interesting to watch. I waited until she relaxed and put her head down a little and then released her leg. She went kind of introverted after that, but all in all I think it was a successful session. I didn't want to do too much at once, so we quit on that note.

When I came out today, I was fully expecting her to not want to greet me again today, since we had kind of a provocative session yesterday. I got the complete opposite! When I whistled for her, she perked her head up and came over to the gate immediately. Just before the gate she stopped, blinked a lot, and licked her lips, showing me some tongue! She doesn't lick with her tongue out very often!!! Very interesting indeed! I must have gained some leadership points yesterday....

I won't go on too much longer, but I had friends out to visit today and they were going to have pony rides on Coco. Turns out he woke up on the crazy side of the fence today, so I ended up using Josie instead. She was a complete doll! I love my girl!!!!