Finally!

Gwen let me worm her today. It only took 8 days.

She really didn't want me to put the tip of the tube in her mouth, so I had to change tactics. I put my finger in the corner of her mouth and clicked her for that. Then I held the tube in my hand while I put my finger in her mouth. Finally I moved the tip of the tube so it went into her mouth with my finger. After that, I built a little duration until I finally just pushed the plunger on the tube.

Her reaction? Completely non-remarkable. She said "hmm, that tastes funny. Can I have another treat now?" After all that work it was completely anti-climatic, but exactly what I was looking for.

In Coriander news, he got his teeth done again on Friday. Unfortunately he decided that he wasn't going to let the vet put the float tools in his mouth so he had to be sedated. That was depressing for me since he was so good about being wormed Wednesday. Part of the problem may have been that I wasn't the one holding him, the vet insisted I stay out of the stall due to my recent injury. She is pretty hopeful though that he'll eventually let her do it without any drugs at all, so after I told her that I've been clicker training him she said she'll stop back on evenings when she happens to be in town and work with me to desensitize him to the equipment. Pretty awesome, eh?

Remember when I mentioned that I'm planning on registering Gwen this month? I'm still planning that but getting decent pictures of her to send in with the paperwork has proved difficult. I asked one of the other boarders to take pictures while I held her earlier this week. Unfortunately, Gwen said "can't stand still. Going into heat." She was a complete wiggle worm and I only got two useful images. I tried again just tying her to the arena fence yesterday morning. I got a few more usable pictures but the square picture from the front is still eluding me, hopefully the third shoot will be the charm.

Worming success

Yesterday Coriander got paste wormed without even having a halter on his head!

I have been very unhappy with how stressful worming my horses has been in the past: they'd throw their heads up and shake their muzzles away from me up above my head. Then, when I finally managed to get the paste in their mouths they'd either rear or jump away from me. It was horrible.

So this time I decided to do it completely different. First I threw the due date right out the door and gave myself a two week window to get them wormed in. Second I just took the tube of wormer into their stalls and played the "can I touch you" game with it. I started at the shoulder and eventually moved up their necks, to their jaws and finally next to their lips. After I got to this point I switched to the "good" treats and asked them to let me put the tip of the tube in their mouth.

Gwen is currently still stuck at this point, she's in heat right now so she's feeling more testy than usual.

My boy, with the motivation of the "good" treats (he loves his licorice), started consistently letting me put the tube in his mouth until I just took the opportunity and squeezed it in. He didn't throw his head, rear, or jump. He mouthed it for a while and then looked at me for more treats- which I gave him. He got quite the jackpot for that.

The cost? Four days and lots of treats.

The result? Completely stress free worming. Priceless!

Recovery: week 3

Personal update: Doctor appointment on Monday went well.  I got another X-ray that showed everything is healing as it should.  I got the staples removed (owie), and I got some new footwear.  Now I'm in a removable boot and not a cast, bathing is SO much easier.

Here's the bad news, well not really bad more obnoxious.  When I dislocated my ankle I did a lot of damage to the soft tissue down there.  The surgeon put in pins to hold my fibula to my tibia so the soft tissue will heal correctly, hopefully keeping me from ever dislocating my ankle again.   I have surgery scheduled to remove those pins on June 1.  I cannot walk until after that surgery because those pins could break if I try.  That means I've got 7 more weeks on crutches.  Awesome.

So what's going on with the quarters this week you might ask?  They got wormed yesterday morning.  I was a little anxious about it since they were so bad about the tubes last time.  I went to the store and got some especially "good" tasting tube wormer that some horses will eat if you mix it in their feed thinking that's how I'd have to get it into them.  I told my barn owner about this plan when I hobbled in Wednesday evening.  Thursday evening she told me she just gave it to them the usual way and they were fine.  No problems.  Huh.  Obviously her technique is vastly superior to mine, next time I'm going to ask her to worm them while I watch.  She told me how she did it, but I'm a visual learner.  I have to see it to get it.

That's not the only area where she's having an easier time than I do.  She's been using a chain on Gwen when she turns her out and Gwen's been responding well to it.  I was afraid to use a chain since she's so reactive (I didn't want to start WWIII) but it seems I shouldn't have been so worried about it.  Gwen respects the chain and hasn't been that naughty for my BO.

Was breaking my ankle a message from the universe that I need to take a chill pill and let someone else hold the tiller for a while?  I would never broadcast myself as an expert on horse handling, far from it, I still have tons to learn.  It seems that this is a good time to really learn from having someone else handle my difficult horse (BO loves Coriander btw, says he's the sweetest horse ever- which he is.). Good thing I still have weeks left to devote to learning.

Thanks universe, message received.  Think you can make your next message hurt a little less?

Front wheel steering

No more excuses, we're working on steering even if I can only do it in the barn aisle.

Last night Coriander got reintroduced to the bit. I did very basic ground exercises with him. I put light tension on the outside rein and then asked him to give to the inside rein. Sort of a light introduction to contact. I'm glad that I'm doing this with him from the ground first. He didn't have a fit about it or anything, he just isn't very comfortable with it. He still mouths the bit like crazy and stiffens up against it. He actually poked his nose up in the air to try to get around it last night. He never pokes his nose up, so that was different. He did bring his head back down, but I'll definitely wait to climb on his back until that reaction is gone.

Then it was Gwen's turn. She's working with the sidepull and responding really well to it. This is the third time I've worked with her on this, so I started out standing at her shoulder and asked for nose tipping from one side to the other. As an aside- I don't make my horses bend their necks all the way around until their nose touches their shoulder like I've seen some trainers do. I don't see the point of that. I can't think of any situation in which it would be necessary to ride with my horse's head cranked around to the side like that. Is it a flexibility thing?

Anyway, all I was looking for was a nose tip and release in tension from the rein I was pulling. She did so well at that we started on the next step, moving her feet. Standing at her left shoulder, I put tension on the left rein and pushed on her belly at the girth area: asking her to turn with the rein and move away from the pressure. She's a rockstar, she did really well at this from both sides.

Unfortunately the night didn't end on a good note. It was worming day and they were both not very good about it. I think I'm going to have to try the sugar water trick I read about. Fill the worming tube with sugar water and give it to them randomly so they learn that not every syringe being poked into their mouth is full of nasty stuff.

Quarter Horse Rodeo

Ugh, winter.

Sunday there was freezing rain all day long so I didn't do anything with the horses. Monday was a nice day but I had a project I had to work on last night so I couldn't do much with them again. I turned them out, that's it. Though Gwen did try to give me a heart attack. Apparently I wasn't getting her haltered fast enough to bring her in so she pawed at the gate... and her foot went between the bars. She thrashed around long enough for "oh sh-" to go through my head before she got it free, and then I passed out from fear. Not really, but it sure felt like it. Silly horse.

Anyway, tonight we worked in the mini-indoor. Coriander got some lunge work. He went over a ground pole at walk and trot and did well. He's been over a pole before but only at the walk. We also worked on cantering. When I first started lunging him I only asked him for the walk and trot, letting him build some muscle before we started cantering. Now he's ready. I also want to start him cantering under saddle sometime soon and I'm hoping that knowing the voice command for it will make it easier. He jumps right into it going to the left, to the right it takes a while, so we'll work on that.

Then I took Gwen out, and I decided to take my lunging surcingle out with us. After she got to trot around loose for a bit, I had her do a little bit of lunging at the walk. Then I put the surcingle on her. She actually stood still while I was cinching it up, that shocked the heck out of me - it being her first time and all. Then I unclipped the lead rope and BOOM!!! She took off across the ring like she was strapped onto a rocket, racing around bucking and twisting. That lasted for about 3 minutes and then she was done. I walked up to her, tightened it up a little more and backed off in case she wanted to jump around again. She trotted off a bit but that was it. Good girl!