The Plight of Piero the Pony

I never realized how much I loved ponies. Two summers ago I got an itch to buy a pony. For my daughter, of course. Sadly, we had her only 8 weeks and she had to be put down. She was very ill with a liver disease. That's another story entirely.

This past summer the itch came back. I've always wanted a paint. There's just something about those colors. So I was thinking, paint pony. Works for me. I found the BEST paint pony ever. I really am getting to the point here. I only realized after having Astro (the paint pony) for a while, that I just have a thing for ponies. Funny since I also have a thing for Drafts. They do look kind of cute together. Sorry, back to the point.

The other day a friend calls me up and says she has this pony and asked if I will take him. She's had him for a few years, but he is not ridden regularly and she felt it wasn't fair to him. She let a friend borrow him and while at the new place he started to misbehave. The new barn didn't have time to deal with it....enter Loretta.

My first thought after going to observe him was that he is misunderstood. I am at times clairesentient with animals, especially horses. (That simply means that I pick up their feelings, or intuitively know or understand what they are feeling.) He had been checked by a vet and his feet are great, so I decided to take him.

He arrived on Sunday, just 3 days ago. He seems very mad to me. He quickly has established his place in the herd, above Astro & below Tango. I have not turned him out with Scottie yet. Scottie wants to eat him, so I'm delaying that for as long as I can. I pretty much am just letting him chill for a while. Relax and know we love him and will care for him.

He's an interesting character. I asked a few things of him, basic ground and respectful behaviors. He learned fairly quickly that when he walks away from me I will take over and tell him to move. He seems to understand that he will have to keep moving until he stops and faces me, and at that point that I want him to come to me. I am pleased about that. He appears to be totally relaxed on the ground. Did some rope work, fligging over his head and ears, nothing bothered him. What puzzled me is that mad feeling. He continued to hold onto it, even had his mouth clenched. I saw him lick and chew maybe once during the 20 minute session we spent together.

He clearly does not understand flexing at the poll. We went in many circles and didn't get anywhere. I finally decided to make the request so quiet that his head was hardly bent at all. But at least I felt him give so I could reply with a release. Hopefully he'll get that soon. I think pressure and release is a new subject for him. He is only 10, so he should pick it up quickly. I plan on pretending like he was not ever broken, so I won't be getting on him for a while. I am also counting on the assumption that he has never had a human establish themselves as herd leader. He seems puzzled by my behavior. It fascinates me how different they all can be. Astro accepted it right away. He would say, "Ok, is this what you want, here, like this, like this?

I have to put my kids to bed, so long for now.

Scottie tells his side

"Did she actually say I was the problem??? Ok, so here's what really happened.

I lived on a big, beautiful farm in Middleburg with my mom, little brother and lot of other horses. The nice man there would ride me on a trail through the fields about once or twice every couple of months. One time he took me hunting and it was a lot of fun.

The man who owned me bought my mom, a registered Irish Draught, in Ireland. He did not know I was going to be born until after they came home. So there I came, and I looked Belgian. Well, I guess he only wanted race horses at this point, so he decided to sell me.

This is where Loretta came in. She came to visit several times before taking me home. I think she was a little intimidated by my size, but she said she liked my eyes.

Ok, here's the part where you find out SHE was the problem. It only took a few days for me to really settle in and make friends with Tango. He knew right away I was in charge, so no problem there. Loretta got me and took me out for a trail ride. It was very nice in the woods and wow, there was a lot to see! We went trail riding several days that week. And the next week, and the next week. Get the picture? I had barely been ridden regularly and now I had to go out all the time.

I was noticing that when Loretta was around me, she really didn't act like a leader. And when we went riding she would let me trot if I wanted to, or even canter. Hmmm, I thought, since there were only two of us horses and Tango is an old man, I quickly became his leader. Maybe I needed to be her leader too? Wow. That's a lot different from what I was used to. I never had to make real leadership decisions before and now I found myself doing it all the time.

Since I felt I had to be the leader, and that is a BIG, important job, I had to stay on guard and protect our safety all the time. I became very stressed out, which lead me to become extremely nervous. Soon enough, I was nervous all the time. Even when Loretta would take my saddle off and drop the girth, I thought a lion was under me trying to eat me! She didn't seem to understand this at all. I had to walk around all day with my head up looking for danger. This was a very difficult job and soon I was so nervous and upset that we could not go out riding.

I just couldn't understand why she was standing in the field, crying and calling me very mean names. I won't even repeat what she said here. I thought she realized she needed to change because she introduced me to someone that said they could help. This new person did teach me a few things, and I still remember them, but she also scared me. She never hurt me, but her actions were very abrupt, fast and startling. I was really scared and did not know what to do. Well, I guess I finally got through to Loretta because that lady stopped coming.

I'll tell Loretta I need to write more tomorrow. I have to go because I just found out there's a new pony in my field, and of course, I need to show him who's boss!


Scottie
p.s. do you want to know why she named me Scottie?
any Star Trek fans out there? Because she had to be beamed up to get on me!!!!

clear communication
visible results

Training tip-C Continued

C Continued

Consistency

I will never forget the day that my trainer told me I needed to be consistent with my draft's training. Things weren't going that well and I was not thrilled with him to say the least. My efforts to reinforce what my trainer taught him were almost non existent.

She looked at me and said, "Loretta, you need to be consistent with him. This is a horse that will always need this type of work, it's just who he is. He needs to know what to expect from you, where you are in his herd. And he needs consistency in your training. Start at the same easy place for him each time. Always end on a good note. If he learns something new really quickly, just end there sometimes. He needs you to approach him the same way, feed him the same way." You get the picture.

I freaked out. Why you ask? That's not such a big deal you say. Well, to me, it was. I was not being consistent with much of anything in my life, never mind my horse. About two weeks later the same trainer says to me, "Loretta, how do you disciplin your kids?" I was confused. How could that have anything to do with my horse???? She asked again. I replied with a rather meek, "Well, I usually send them to the stairs or to their room if they've done something bad." Ok, I'm thinking. Where is she going with this? I was astonished when she replied, "I'm going to guess that you are not very consistent with their disciplin(when needed)." If I was confused before, this put me over the top! It was true. I am a wimpy mom. I am the fun one, the one that teaches them to smell the manure-ah-roses, the one that laughs with them when an adult should not be laughing. But discipline, NOT my strong point AT ALL-ever.

So it hit me. I had heard of people with horses that had life lessons to teach them. Some even say that the horse you need comes into your life for that very reason. I never really thought it could happen. There I was, face to face with my huge draft horse, and I'm thinking, is this for real? You are trying to teach me stuff that doesn't just apply to you-to us?

More on this later......

Loretta
20/20 Horsemanship

A-Z Training Tips C=Communicate

Today's tip: Communicate


We are constantly communicating with our horse. We catch him, groom him, tack him up and go riding. When is the communicating going on? The ENTIRE time. And guess what? When you aren't preparing for a ride you are still communicating with the horse.

You go out to feed, to clean stalls, etc....Every time you come into contact with him, you are communicating with him. Try to take the time and notice what you are saying. This includes verbally, with your thoughts and intentions and physically. Horses are sensitive, they can feel your thoughts and emotions. They stay alive by reading body language, so really pay attention to how you use your body. When you are cleaning the barn and your horse is in the way, do you automatically walk around him? The one who directs the horses feet and gets them moving is the leader.So, if you are moving around him, then in his mind, he out ranks you in his herd.
You DO NOT want that!

It is very important that you are able to have your horse move front,back,left and right without moving your feet. The more this is practiced, the more respect he will have for you. Do you ever watch horses together in a field? The leader of my herd of 3 will often move the others for what seems like no apparent reason. So, sometimes I will go out and move him, just because I can. This really keeps him sharp, and in check. You might be saying to yourself, "But my horse does not seem disrespectful." That may be. Some horses are conditioned in a way that these things do not SEEM to affect their behavior. Usually, over time, something will come up, and the issue can be traced back to lack of respect due to improper body language. For more on body language, see my post for tip B.

If you are located in Northern VA, I am conducting a demonstration using some of these techniques. Visit http://www.meetup.com/trailriders/