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Lacey, Fabio and Me: The Neverending Story

165K views 2K replies 70 participants last post by  gunslinger 
#1 ·
This will probably predominantly focus on Lady because she basically knows zero things but Lacey will probably be mentioned so I figured she needed to be part of the title... :D


So, Lady is my foster horse from an organization called Sound Equine Options.
She's a ten year old (approximately, no one's checked her teeth yet) Arabian mare who was rescued about a month ago from pretty serious neglect (she's put on probably 100-150+lbs so far). She was literally living in someone's suburban backyard with her year old filly, a donkey, and a mini.
Her filly was signed over to the rescue as well and I think she's already found a new home, or at least she's being fostered by some people who want to adopt her eventually.

Lady was a bottle baby (orphaned at some point) but so far she's not showing any of the really bad orphan "traits". She doesn't have much of an idea about one's personal space but she's not terrible about it.
She's supposedly broke to ride but the owner she was removed from said that she (the owner) was the only one who could ride her... We're thinking that maybe a couple rides were snuck on to Miss Lady but that she isn't truly "broke".


I just got her yesterday so I figured that now would be a good time to start writing about her, start from the beginning, right? :D


So, basically my "job" is to get her trained up to actually being ridden. If I wanted to, I'm "allowed" to actually get on her eventually myself but I don't have to. Depending on how she progresses, I may start riding her myself but that really really depends.

Right now, our goals are: getting to know each other, leading well (she's under the impression that leading probably means she takes humans somewhere...), desensitizing to everything, being touched all over - she does not want her belly touched right now, saddling, blanketing, fly mask, I want to teach her to pony so she can come on trail rides with Lacey and I, etc.
Basically, I need to get her up to normal handled horse level.

So far I'm loving her attitude. She's very looky and not spooky - very curious about things that scare her. I've seen her get scared a few times but I have not seen her actually spook. She's also pretty spoiled - what she wants is apparently what she's used to getting. However, oh darn for her, I definitely have lots of experience with horses like that *peers accusingly at Lacey*.
She also loves to be touched so it's super easy to reward her for the right things (Lacey hates touching which always makes rewarding her more difficult).


Summary of today:

Day 1:
The goal was working on leading, I also tried a few sending exercises - turned out to be a terrible idea to try with a horse that doesn't know what "whoa" means. :lol:
It got a little scary when she decided to trot super fast around me, on the lead rope, while turning her head and shoulders in towards me -trying to intimidate me. I dumbly ended up backing away from her the first time she did that so she tried it a couple more times. Thankfully I was using my 14ft lead rope so I just started smacking in her the shoulder whenever she turned towards me. She decided that would be a good time to bolt but oh, guess what? I was prepared for that so it totally did not work. After that, she basically stopped and was like "oh, I'm dumb" so we went back to walking 2 steps, backing up one, etc etc.
Then, we finally got down to the shed - thank Jesus for Lacey, she was basically glued to my shoulder the whole time (except for when Lady was playing up) all like "Hey guys! I'm so kewl! Does not need lead rope=CHAMPION!" so she was being a great role model.
I tied Lacey up to one post and clipped Lady to a leadrope I had "installed" on the wall of the shed in such a way that if she pulled back, the lead would get looser (no one knew if she tied solid) but not set her free. She stood pretty well there and I groomed her shoulder (I haven't touched her all over yet so I wasn't sure how she'd be with more than that).

After both girls were groomed, I took Lady 15 feet away to work on some more leading. She was a little easier this time but still really didn't understand what I was getting at.
Then I "tied" her back up and took Lacey 15 ft away to work with her. And well, Lady decided that she was done being "stuck" so she started testing out how well she was tied. To make a long story short, Lacey was a gem and Lady ended up being tied solid which she still didn't like but she didn't pull back or anything so yay! She even got the lead rope over and behind her ears but didn't panic, just untangled herself. Smart!
After that, I took Lady off for another 5 minutes and touched her all over with the lunge whip. She was scared of the whip at first but then realized that it wasn't hurting her so she settled right down. Then, as we walked back to the shed, I practiced leading correctly with her some more and she showed that she was really catching on. She even backed herself up a step, before I even asked, right before we got to the shed!

Then I fed them and let them both go. I'm really pleased with how far we got in just a couple little sessions.
I gave Lady some raspberry leaves with hers, likeI do with Lacey. Hopefully that'll calm her current heat down a bit (she's super in heat, all squealy and it's probably not helping her be not bratty, lol).


Tomorrow, I think we're going to work more on leading, obviously more on standing tied, I'll probably do a little more with the lunge whip - to get her thinking, and I'm going to hopefully get her brushed all over. I'm a little nervous about picking up her feet but she did just get them done so the trimmer must have survived...probably I will too... :lol: I'll probably also show her about flysheets, just so I can start doing that to her everyday since I figure that'll be CRAZY for her. :lol:



And here's a picture of the girl that I took yesterday. She's come a long way since she was rescued but still has a bit of a way to go.






Thanks for reading! :D
 
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#2 ·
How exciting! A thought occured to me. If she only recently had her filly off of her, that may be why she isn't all too happy about you messing around her belly area. She is probably bagged up and in pain, or she thinks that you are trying to nurse on her (That sounds stranger than it was supposed to...) and she is rejecting you (foal) from nursing.

Give her time, it may be because she is in heat, too. Some mares don't want you messing around back there around then.
 
#6 ·
Grayshell, I had wondered that too. You're probably right. Her poor udders are HUGE since baby hasn't been around for a week+. They probably hurt, poor girl!

Thanks Equiniphile! She's a really sweetie. She actually reminds me A LOT of Lacey back when I first got her, just less mentally "damaged". They're such a good pair, I just love it!

Aw thanks Tiny! I'm intrigued to see how it goes too! :lol: She seems to want to learn so badly. She'll be a great horse once she figures out the "rules".

Pretty much cacowgirl! I'm excited about it. I've never had the chance to work with a horse that knew this little so I'm looking forward to learning the ropes of training a nearly blank slate!
Lacey and Lady are pastured together. They pretty much immediately hit it off and were basically insta-besties. It's probably the best situation that could have happened! :D
 
#7 · (Edited)
Well, it started POURING rain so....
Day 1, Part 2 needed to happen. :rofl:

So, it starts pouring rain and Lacey, being the old lady that she is, "neeeeeds" her blanket on whenever it rains otherwise she starts shivering etc AND because her last ERU attack was brought on by being chilled - therefore being chilled could cause another attack to occur and "gift" me with $300 more in vet bills. o_O

Anyway, so I go up there and I see no horses. Panicking just a little since Lacey basically always greets me at the gate and Lady seems to think the gate is awesome, I start heading down into the main pasture.
Well, I get about halfway down, and apparently sweet Miss Lady took Lacey down to the shed to get out of the rain together. They're standing in one stall and, you guys won't even believe this, THREE DEER were in the stall next to them!! It was ridiculously adorable, like something straight out of a fairy tale.
The deer scattered pretty immediately after they saw me but I would have felt mean for shooing them away so I guess that's better than nothing...

The girls both nickered at me (adorable!) and after I put Lacey's blanket on (which Lady was not interested by at all - weird!) I decided that this was as good a time as any to practice more leading with Lady. I figured that inclement weather conditions was probably a good lil raising the difficulty level thing.
And guess what? Someone acted like they had never had a problem leading and what was I thinking for even going there! :lol: Mares!
Anyway, I guess leading is doing even better than I thought!

I also decided to move them out of the main pasture and into the larger+steeper left pasture. I was kinda waiting until I had caught Lady a few times and until I knew she and Lacey were getting along well (there's better+more grass down there and it would be pretty much impossible to catch a horse that didn't want to be caught down there) and I think she passed those tests.

Anyway, I kinda herded them up there (Lacey: "Oh! I know what that means! We better run! Yay!" Lady: "What the heck is wrong with you, weird lady? First you try to insult me by acting like I'm dumb about leading, then you try to herd me somewhere like some sorta sheep? Who ARE you??!") and once I got them up and over there, they thought the new field was fantastic.
Lady decided to explore at a trot and poor Lacey was like "Stop, stop! Where did you go best friend!?". Lacey almost fell down once because she got so concerned about where Lady was going. I determined that Lacey really can't see anything farther than about 15ft away from her. Lady would get about that far away and Lacey would start peering around like she had majikally disappeared.
Anyway, once Lady had pretty much looked at everything, she and Lacey came back up the hill, had a little pow-wow with me (she's very very sweet), and took Lacey to graze under a stand of trees she had found because it was still raining and Lady is apparently as much of a hothouse flower as Lacey is. :rofl:

She's really a great little mare.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Haha Maggie, I didn't even think of it either until I was there and having issues. It's so weird to me that she has no idea what "ah-ah" or clucking/kissing noises mean, she doesn't know "whoa", "good girl" means nothing... All these noises I'm constantly making around horses and she really does not know them at all.

Cute story from last night: since I let them into the big pasture, right in the evening I realized that that pasture is so steep Lady might have taken Lacey somewhere Lacey would have a hard time getting out of (Lacey's pretty smart about what she can and can't do but a new bestie might override that intelligence) so I went up to check. Thankfully, they were just down in the bottom of the pasture but not anywhere Lacey couldn't get out of.
So I clucked at them to see if they'd come to me since I brought them each half a carrot (Lady isn't hard to catch but since she doesn't know me yet, I figure it's better to be prepared than have to run all over the place after an errant pony) and Lady initiated a canter up the hill to me!! It was the sweetest thing. Lacey thought it was pretty cool too, thankfully!

Anyway:
Day 2

We practiced more leading, more tying, picking up feet, grooming all over, and I introduced her to a flymask. We also saw a deer and a coyote in the field - she wasn't scared of either, even though they were running. She has a really good mind, I think!

Leading was basically perfect. She's now stopping when I stop, turning when I turn, and she'll usually back up with relatively light pressure. Her only issue is that she still likes to be awfully close to the person leading her. I'm hoping that that will sort itself out as she figures out real life, but we'll see.

She's getting much better at tying. She definitely tests to see if she's tied solid or not and if she's not tied solid, well, by-by! But if she's tied solid, she stays. She does move around a lot once she gets bored but that should sort itself out.

I picked out her front feet today. She was pretty ok with me doing her right front but pretty uncomfortable with the left front. She tried pulling each out of my hands at least once (like 7 times with the left) but I kept going and we ended with her just letting me hold her hoof.

I also groomed her all over which she thought was pretty great. She was fine today with her belly/flank area (I didn't try touching her udders - didn't want to risk death) being touched. She seems to be out of heat now, I'm not sure whether that's due to the raspberry leaves I gave her yesterday (that'd be awfully fast for them) or whether she's just out. Either way I'm glad.
I felt so bad for her though once I started examining her back. She had, what appear to be, saddle scars all the way down as well as a month+ healing wound on her withers that looks like it came from either a really tight blanket or a saddle sitting on her withers. :( People are yucky.

I put a flymask on her today which the rescue thought was going to be "challenging". Hah, Lady was so not scared that she basically put the flymask on herself. At first she wasn't sure about this purple thing going over her ears but she put her head into it willingly and I rubbed her ears/face with it, then she was ok. She wasn't even worried about the velcro! So anyway, she and Lacey are up there, looking cool with their matching Kensington Plaid (well, Lady's is purple, Lacey's is light green) Bug-Eye flymasks. Very cool. :lol:

I'm also at a place of conundrum. Lady really likes me and Lacey is cool too. Lacey really likes Lady and I'm cool too. Lacey starts getting really worried when she's alone and tied - not that I really blame her being basically blind and all - and I feel terrible for reprimanding her for being nervous... When I'm working with her, I just correct her because she's fine and I have her back (she knows this and behaves pretty well when I'm there) but when she's all alone and knows that she had a friend just a second ago but said friend just disappeared.... I feel bad.

Anyway, that was today...so far. :lol:


I'm just amazed at how fast this is going! I thought for sure leading was gonna be like 2 weeks, then flymask for another week, etc etc. Who knew that training a horse could be this quick! Geez.
Lacey took so long...but now, looking back, she had so much more to contend with being basically blind around no one she knew, etc etc.
 
#10 ·
Who knew that training a horse could be this quick!
That's cause she's reletively young. A lot less stuck in her ways. Unfortunately, she'll learn things you don't want her to know just as quickly. (Speaking from experience with my young boy...:wink:)

Keep up the good work!
 
#12 · (Edited)
Truuue story Megan! I'm trying not to let her get away with anything that could turn into something worse eventually but it's hard to see what those things are exactly, sometimes! haha
And thanks! :)

Maggie, that's also super true. Miss Lady is basically dying to learn as much as she can. Her mind is like a little sponge, wanting to see everything, and she's not real snotty about much.
Thanks! :)


Day 3:

Today, Lacey really needed a bath (she gets really itchy if she goes too long between baths) so I figured that today was probably as good a time as any to walk them both down to my house and get Lady a little out of the pasture exposure, especially given that Lady is leading really well inside the pasture.

First, I groomed them both all up and used my long lunge whip to touch Lady all over. I'm still not totally confident that she really cares as little about being touched all over as she acts like she does (something about the look on her face/her energy, I dunno, switches..). Anyway, I figure that even if she is totally fine, there's really no harm in working with her more on it.
I managed to touch her all over and even got the lunge whip under her tail (not all the way to the dock yet but about 6 inches away) without much incident. I did find out that right before she kicks, she swishes her tail - that could be a helpful tell (she did not like the lunge whip between her back legs, even low down...but now she's ok with it. hahaha) to remember.

Anyway, she stood tied for quite a while while I brushed Lacey out and she did really well with that. She seemed much more relaxed about being tied than she has before. She actually stood there instead of constantly moving around. I also practiced with her about picking her front feet up. She's still pretty uncomfortable with that but at least today she didn't pull them out of my hands at all.

And here, I have to mention that Lacey is being an absolute gem. She's being very responsive to me. Today I even needed her to walk off so I could discombobulate Lady (while I was leading both of them) so I just dropped her lead rope, poked her in the direction I wanted her to go and clucked. She walked about 10ft away, then stopped and turned towards us, just waiting for us to be ready.
And, no matter how bratty Lady is to her (Lady is kinda trying to take advantage of her dominant over Lacey status), if I'm working with Lacey, her mind is with me. Today while I was leading them together, Lady thought about kicking Lacey but instead of acting out, Lacey just stopped walking and let me correct Lady for her (Lady also isn't allowed to start/participate in tiffs while she's being worked with, no matter the circumstances, but Lady obviously doesn't understand that rule quite yet, haha!). I'm so glad I have my Lacey girl to help me "manage" this Lady horse. If I had two unreliable horses...I'd probably go nuts.

Anyway, so after they were both all groomed, we walked down to my house. Lady was overall really great about walking through the neighborhood. She was scared of the manhole covers in the road but over the next couple of months I think they'll probably cease to be scary. She listened pretty well to my direction too. Not great, but fantastic for a horse that only learned what "stop" meant 2 days ago! :lol:

We get down to my house, Lacey's in her spot "tied" to the RV (I loop her lead rope to the ladder), and I tied Lady to a tree that's in the middle of the driveway so she can watch Lacey not react to getting a bath (lol). I'm pleased to say that Lady did great. She was a little antsy about being tied but I'd be antsy too if I were a horse tied to some weird thing and in a place I had never seen before, she stood there though so I really can't complain.
After I gave Lacey her bath, Lady seemed interested enough that I untied her and brought the hose over to her so she could look at the water. Interestingly, she dunked her face straight in it and started playing around with her lips and the water. Silly pony! I ended up hosing her front end off a little just to see what she did. And while it wasn't her favorite, she wasn't overly scared - just "why is this happening?".

After that we walked back "home" which went even less eventfully than walking to my house. We also ended up stopping at one of my neighbor's houses because they wanted to know all about where this "other" horse had come from. Both girls were a little antsy to get home at that point but they handled themselves well so I'm not complaining.

We got home and I tied them both up again to braid Lacey's mane and brush out her tail. I did both of those things then decided to brush and braid Lady's mane too because her mane is really thick and I feel bad for her poor overly hot neck under there. She did really really well with that. I was expecting more "Gosh darn it! I wanna be DONE!!" from her but she just put her head down and was very patient (I think she was tired after everything she had seen and experienced).

Then I fed them both and let them go. Lady's a bit of a brat about her food (rushes for it, etc) so I have to be a bit tough on her at feeding time. I'm hoping though that she'll catch on soon and start being a bit more respectful on her own volition.

Lady really doesn't have any concept of "punishment" which I'm not really sure how to deal with. A slap means nothing, "ah-ah" means nothing, a pop with the crop means nothing...the lunge whip initially got a reaction but now it's not concerning either... Huh. Well, she's very aware of some kinds of pressure and release (like if she steps into my bubble, instead of waving the end of the lead rope at her like I'd do with another horse, poking her repeatedly in the chest until she backs up is more effective). It's all very strange to me. WHAT happened to that horse? lol


And then, I took a picture of her with her cute braids. This is her "Really??" face.



Thanks for reading all that! :)
 
#14 ·
Thanks Maggie! I think she likes them too, she's been pretty insistent that she needs to shake her head all over the place with them (I think she likes seeing people scatter as they're whipped... haha!). Really though, her neck was much cooler today and she seemed overall less put out by the heat (it's been extremely muggy the last few days so everything feels hotter than it really is).


Day 4 -

Today she got a "break". Lacey had a lesson, it was gross out, and she's been learning hard. I figured she deserved a little respite.
Anyway, all we did today was: my lesson kid led her down to the shed while I led Lacey (I feel like it's important that Lady knows that proper leading etiquette is for all people, not just the "big" ones that can force her), she actually did really really well. Yay her!! Then she stood tied during Lacey's lesson (1hr) which she did pretty well with. A little fussy after the 45 minute mark but that was a long time for her to be patient. Then I brushed her while my lesson kid brushed out Lacey, worked on picking her feet up (she's doing great with her fronts, haven't gotten brave enough to try her backs yet), and she had to wait extra patiently for her food when it was time for that. She's catching on but I think it'll be even clearer for her once I have a separate stall area to feed her in. Right now, Lacey's fed in a blocked off stall and I hold Lady on a lead rope so she won't go fuss at Lacey for Lacey's food. Hopefully tomorrow/Monday I'll be setting up a stall situation so the whole feeding thing will be simpler.

I think I'm going to start teaching Lady about ponying tomorrow. I need to teach her how to lunge as well but I'm not sure which to do first... Or if I can do both at the same time. I imagine if I can keep her to a walk, both would be ok but if she decides to trot around about lunging, that might be something I should wait on until she's put on a few more pounds.... I think I'll just start with ponying and save lunging.

She is putting on dramatic amounts of weight though which is great! It's only been a week and I can already see improvement. She's still way skinnier than I like but she's coming a long. I'd say that in 3 weeks she'll probably be looking more like a normal horse. :D
I wish I could get weight on her even faster but then again, faster is not always better and she is gaining well...I just hate skinny horses! :lol:
 
#16 ·
Aw thanks Maggie! I'm trying! And she really is fun to work with, a goober, but a fun goober.
You know that feeling you get when you can tell someone/something isn't being entirely real with you/themselves? That's kind of the feeling I get from her. She's so tightly contained that I feel like one day she's just going to go "bizacko" (favorite word ever for "crazy") and I'm just hoping the real her will be nice. I think she's truly a sweetie, just on the defensive right now since she's been tossed around so much, but we'll see!
And GREAT idea about filming. I always wish I had gotten some film of back when Lacey was nuts (see, it's hardly believable anymore = why I need video to prove it. hahaha!) so great idea! Hopefully on Monday it'll be nice and I'll get a video of her first ponying session.

Anyway,
Day 5 -

Today we had a bit of a backwards step/eventual breakthrough.
It was way too wet to try ponying like I had planned so I decided to try to start teaching her to lunge. Well, she basically laughed in my face.
She kept trying to jump into my lap (no concept of personal boundaries) and I was feeling more and more frustrated. We ended up playing the game I like to call "One Step Forward, 5 Steps Back". It's where Lady get's into my personal bubble, I back her up 5 steps, then she takes a step forward - testing my resolve, I make her back up 6 steps, etc, etc until Lady stays where I place her. She actually did pretty well with that today. Not great but with how lap-jump-y she had been being, I consider only getting to 7 steps back a success. :lol: She seems to think that when I face her, I'm fair mauling game. when I stand next to her, she's fine staying out of my bubble. It's weird, she's weird, we'll figure it out, whatever. :rofl:

She's turning out to be a bit tougher than I had anticipated but I think we'll get there. Just one day at a time.


Anyway, with that all in mind, it was suggested to me ;) to try free lunging Lady with Lacey since Lacey knows all the forward cues and would hopefully teach, through her behaviors, Lady the correct reactions to cues, aka no lap-jumping.
Lacey was absolutely thrilled by this. She had so much fun. Lady was unsure at first but really seemed to catch on by the end of the session. she seemed really kind of surprised and thrilled that I was allowing the two of them to run like that. She really liked it though!

I had a realization while watching them run as well, about Lady. Perhaps, since she's spent 100% of her 10 years of life in a postage stamp-sized suburban backyard with 3 other horses and who knows how many dogs+kids, mayyybe she's never really gotten to seriously move forward... Maybe she doesn't move herself forward in response to requests for forward because there wasn't ever any room for forward!
Huh, what a thought.
Anyway, later when I led Lady, with Lacey following, through the gate to the upper field (she's figured out that it's absolutely hilarious to, when I start "herding" them up the hill, start trotting circles around the shed - such a jokester+BRAT!) I, without thinking about it, opened the upper gate, held on to near Lady's halter and swung the lead rope at her butt. GUESS WHAT SHE DID!? If you guessed that she moved herself forward, without panicking, and turned around to face me once she got to the end of the space I had given her to turn in, you guessed RIGHT! That's the gentlest I've been able to be and still get a reaction, in the 5 days I've had her!

This is a really good sign.

My fingers are crossed that maybe with a few more free lunging sessions, things will get even better! I also really can't complain when both my mares really love doing something - free lunging - that also happens to be great for them and fun for me. Cannot complain at all! :D
 
#17 ·
Day 6 -

I kinda decided that after the very successful free lunging sesh, maybe the thing to do for now is to forget about Lady 1 on 1 (beyond the basic grooming/picking up feet/etc) and focus on teaching her stuff via Lacey's knowledge. At least with the free lunging, there's been crossover (she yielded her hip to me AGAIN today after I swung the lead rope at it twice!! Longer term results YEAH!) so maybe that's the way to go for now.

Anyway, on that note, my lesson cancelled for this afternoon so I had a not raining afternoon free for horses = PONYING!

So Lady got her first intro to ponying today and I gots a video for you. :D

Lacey was extremely helpful, again.

Sorry for the length, but I wanted to fit the whole session in and this was what was left after editing out all the parts (13 minute session) where we went off camera. I thought the camera was shifted more to the right than it actually was so bummer deal. However, I think most all of the "important" stuff is there.

I realized after getting on, and having Lacey be weird about Lady being on that side of her, that I had stuck Lady on Lacey's right side. From what I can surmise, Lacey is basically 95+% blind on that side (she's a lot spookier on that side and a lot more nervous about ANYTHING being over there) so it makes sense that she'd be uncomfortable with having a whole freaking horse on that side! :lol:
Anyway, so I switched Lady over to the left side (equaling a terrible dismount on my part after we got done, obviously I should work on that) and Lacey was much more relaxed.

Lady seemed very confused at first but by the end, she wasn't dragging me back nearly as hard as she had been - thank goodness! It still definitely needs work (I'm thinking 1-2 more in the pasture sessions, depending on how well Lady picks it up, then off to the trails with us) but she'll get there. She apparently really likes being on the inside of a turn but the outside? No siree!! So that'll get some definite practice.

I'd also like to call your attention to the spot at 7:12+, I was SO proud of Lacey for this. Lady was being kind of a real brat and she was basically trying to pull the "my legs have turned to cement = no hope for walking!!" thing. I asked Lacey to stop, and then, since Lady was right behind her, she couldn't back up to get me to Lady, so I asked her to yield her hindquarters. That's something I've always tried to work with her on but she's one of those "if it doesn't have a purpose, why on earth do I need to do it??!" mares so we never got far without her getting super frustrated with me, etc. Anyway, I asked for one there because that was the only thing I could think of that would solve our predicament, and SHE DID IT!! :D Good pony! I was so proud. My girl comes through when she has a job.


Anyway, video!




Feel free to give me tips if you have ideas, I'm all ears and I've never done this before! :)
 
#18 ·
I like to have my ponyed horses head right there by my riding horses shoulder with about 2 foot of lead. it gives them less leverage to pull back and balk, plus they dont have as much lead to try and pull crap like reading or bucking. if they start acting up i just choke up on the rein, dally it (in western saddle haha) and move my riding horse off and they have to follow because their head is right there.

if i have a stubborn horse that doesnt want to move i just turn my horse into them making them move their shoulder or hip and lead straight off and usually they follow.

if you have a horse that is faster than your riding horse, lead em on the outside of your turn so they have more space to cover and a slower horse i have on the inside.
 
#20 ·
Thanks Christine! I would have loved to have her closer but she was just having none of it. I decided it was a "pick and choose my battles" sorta time. HOPEFULLY tomorrow (the next time I'm going to be able to work on ponying with them) she'll be more ok with being closer. If she's not, well, we'll work on making her comfortable with that. :lol:
Hah, I wish I could dally the rope! Darn Aussie saddle! Actually though, I think if I were to dally any rope on a saddle attached to Lacey, the saddle would slide over before anything else would happen (Lacey is basically like riding a barrel, it's ridiculous). :rofl:
I will give turning into Lady to catch her up a try, I didn't even think of that but that's a great idea!


Thanks Maggie! I was proud of them both. I have two good girls on my hands, what to do! :P
That's my hope that as she gets more comfy, she'll stay closer to my leg. my fingers are crossed! :lol:


Day 7 -

Yay, Lady's been here for a week!
Anyway, I was bummed today that I didn't get a chance to really work with either of the mares. I had to start a housesitting job by noon and even though I got up at 7am, packing up my stuff, feeding myself+my cat, packing up my cat's stuff (he's having a "sleepover" at my brother's place, lol!), and feeding the girls took waaaayyyy longer than anticipated.

Anyway, what little work I did do with Lady today was very successful! She yeilded her hindquarters to me again twice AND I was able to shoo her away with just my hands and have her patiently stand on the other side of her "stall" while I set her grain out.
I was impressed and proud. I had been enforcing my respectful=food, pushiness=no food rule by putting her on a lead rope and forcing her to obey but that's not my favorite. I think it's more "powerful" when a horse obeys a rule under their own power and not because of coercion or anything.


Also, I saw Lacey kinda bully Lady today!! :D :D :D Since Lady was an orphan, I feel like she really needs to not be the boss horse, at least for right now while she's learning how real horses live. Lacey wasn't a jerk, but Lady was drinking water that Lacey wanted to Lacey just walked up, pinned her ears, and basically shoved Lady out of the way. Tooo funny. Lacey's basically like "You can think you're the boss whenever you want but I'm really just using you, thought you should know". Silly girls!
The other funny part is that the only things I've ever seen Lacey be dominant over are the llamas. Lady must not be very invested in her own power! :lol:

I think they're both really coming along. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have been able to take Lady on a trail ride with Lacey and I. She's really filling in, it's time to turn that fat into muscle (on both girls really, but at least Lacey's fat is toned fat!).


Then a picture of them eating in their "stalls". Lacey is ridiculous. She'd rather visit than actually eat. She had eaten probably half of her food at that point but "needed" loves to continue. :lol: And you can tell, from how much Lacey's "electric tape" is stretched that that's not the first visiting break she's taken. :rofl:

 
#22 ·
Me too, Christine!! I'm so so so glad that someone mentioned to me about getting a foster! I hadn't even considered it before that, then I did and BAM! I mean, I don't want to get ahead of myself, or jinx it, but it's kind of eery how this has all worked out so far...

Also, I forgot to mention in today's post that, just for funnsies, I laid my hoodie over Lady's back, after the girls had been fed, while we were walking back up to the upper pasture. That REALLY changed her attitude. She wasn't scared of the hoodie (made sure of that before I put it on her back) but she was SO careful about it being on her back.
How she was reminded me of Lacey when Lacey has a scared kid on her back and she's trying her hardest to be a "good, not scary, girl". It was VERY interesting....

I think it would be so funny to find out in a few months that Lady is like super broke, or something, and her previous owners just MASSIVELY lied to the rescue. And she's just been messing with us all cuz she's a smarty.
I could kind of really see it happening because really? A horse that "perfect pony"-ish being left to just sit who majikally discovers how to lead well in one session, "discovers" that my space IS my space after 1 free lunging sesh?
I really kinda feel like Lady is pulling a MASSIVE con on all the humans she's been involved with for the last couple of years...or something.


But then again, I always feel like Lacey could really just start speaking English at any time and she just hasn't yet... Maybe I'm the insane one.... :rofl:
 
#23 ·
I wouldn't be surprised if she knows a lot more than we think she does. Not that I know anything about her story, but it is rather strange.

The lady I got Thelma from told me that she couldn't be fly sprayed or bathed. Indeed, when I tried to do so, she put up a big fuss, but it was obvious that she was not "scared! No like!" but more like, "I know this game. I put up a fight and then you get scared/annoyed and then leave me alone". Once I layed down the law and let her know that she didn't scare me and I had LOTS of patience, she quickly settled down and acted like a normal horse in only a session or two.

She knew what she was supposed to do, but who ever worked with her before me, had allowed her poor behavior. Be a strong leader and she'll come around. :)
 
#24 · (Edited)
So I haven't posted anything in a few days because Lady has been driving me NUTS.

I'm sure it's a case of "the second weeks", where she's over the "first week best behaviors" and on to being a lil tester.

Anyway, yeah, she was doing great with ponying in the field so yesterday I decided "What the heck! We're going on a trail ride!"
Hah, yeah.

To make a long story short, Lacey loves trotting/cantering on trails and Lady apparently plants her feet and refuses to move when she doesn't want to go. Where did Lady not want to go? Oh yeah, THE TRAILS.
So Lacey was getting more and more frustrated because I was asking her to be really patient and she hadn't gotten to run in over a week and Lady is just standing behind us like a statue.

Anyway, it was overall really really frustrating for everyone involved.

So today we kinda addressed that. I thought that perhaps Lady's quick-catch halter would maybe help. It's basically 2 loops of rope that go around her throatlatch and nose that'll tighten up more and more the more she resists coming along. Then it'll loosen up dramatically as soon as she takes a step forward - I felt like since yesterday went SO badly in a normal rope halter, I needed to make the wrong thing REALLY unpleasant and the right thing REALLY rewarding.


So I started out in the field and both girls did well. I even got them both trotting next to each other for a time. Lacey loved it, Lady was like "stoppppp making me work so hard!!" (I think her work ethic is lacking from 10 years of laziness because seriously? Being bested by a 27 year old=pathetic).

Then, I decided that instead of going all the way down to the trials and having to drag Lady along, I'd just work with them both on the gravel road right outside the pasture.
Pretty immediately Lady planted her feet and refused to come along. I tried to stay on Lacey and just haul Lady along but Lacey was wanting to walk so fast and Lady was going 0mph so I ended up getting off and hauling on Lady. She DID NOT like being forced to do anything but after probably 5 minutes of me just solidly pulling her off to the side (I figured pulling her off to the side was a better bet to get her moving) she finally took a step. Handily, the halter loosened up immediately, faster than I could have, so she was immediately rewarded. The next step, she OBVIOUSLY couldn't give in (too easy, right!), she planted her feet again but this time it only took maybe 30 seconds to get her moving. Then she tried it one more time but gave in pretty much immediately.
Then I hopped on Lacey and Lady came along all the way up the road and back again but once we got to the gate, fight time!
This time I just pulled on her really hard from Lacey's back and she came along after a minute or two so I immediately stopped Lacey and rubbed Lady's face.
Then I just walked them both up and down the road a few more times. Lady dug her feet in a feeewwww more times but they were all pretty easily solved so hopefully something "clicked" in her mind.
I think I'll just repeat what we did today, tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to go on a good trail ride on Friday or Monday. And I think I'll keep using the quick-catch halter on her for ponying until I know she'll come along.
I feel kinda mean doing that to her (since I'm basically coercing her with pain) but really, she knows she's bigger than me and I cannot let her just not do stuff she doesn't like. I'm refusing to play silly games with her and that's really what she needs so yknow... :/

Hopefully she'll soon figure out that "work" can actually be fun because this lack of work ethic on her part will get old really soon. She's in the midst of a major life change though so I don't really blame her for being a little bleep-y about things.

In other news, she's doing better with personal space. She's doing fantastic with yielding her hindquarters as well. Not as good as Lacey yet, but Lacey pretty much reads my mind about stuff I want her to do so I'm the tiniest bit spoiled. :lol:
I also introduced her to a spray bottle filled with water today. She was nervous at first but after I rubbed her with the bottle, let her sniff the bottle, and the sprayed the air next to her a few times (while sporadically feeding her carrot pieces for exemplary non-reactions) she allowed me to spray her all over with the bottle. She'll still need some work with that, of course, but she did really amazing for a first time.

She's really put on A LOT of weight too. The hollows behind her shoulders are nearly gone, her back bone is only protruding a bit, and her butt is starting to look less like a famine victim's patootie.

I REALLY think that once she realizes that work feel good (I know she has tons of pent up energy), she'll come around pretty fast. It almost seems to me like something happened to her in the past that left a terrible taste in her mouth about any sort of work. Or, of course, maybe she's just a brat and she doesn't want to so she won't! :lol:
I'm still housesitting but once I'm finished with that (Saturday!) I'm hoping to go free lunge the girls in the evening again. I tried yesterday during the day but I think it was just a little warm for them cuz they really were not happy about running.


And I hope everybody had a great 4th of July!


Also, because Lacey is adorable, here's a picture a neighbor of mine took the other day. The neighbor's granddaughter (3yo) LOVES talking to Lacey through the fence and that day they caught me right as I was walking back from riding Lacey. The little girl was really excited about being close to Lacey but was understandably nervous. I offered that she could help me lead Lacey so "we" decided that I'd hold on to Lacey close to Lacey's face and she'd hold on to the end of Lacey's reins where she felt safe.
It was adorable. She helped me untack and feed Lacey. She was SO proud of herself. It was the cutest!

 
#26 ·
I thought so too! :D That little girl was the cutest. I called her a "Champion of Horses" and, according to her grandma, playing "Horse Champion" is her new favorite game. Kids! :lol:


I've lost track of what day it "is"... I think day 11? lol

We'll pretend that's what it is...

Day 11!

Today I decided to just focus on Lacey. Lacey's like my best friend and Lady is like having a third wheel around ALL THE TIME when we hang out. That makes Lacey and I sound super cliquish but it's one of those things where Lady is going to fit in perfectly once we know her better and get used to the whole situation but right now it's kinda awkward.
Anyway, I decided that possibly the best fix for my current Lady frustration (since it's all basically unwarranted, just me hating change, lol!) is to ignore her for a day and focus on my bestie.

So, oh my word, Lacey and I had the best ride.
Lady was basically freaking out (first real separation since she got here) so she did some serious running around. The little old people who own the pasture got all worried because I forgot to tell them that I was separating the girls for my ride and I felt really bad. :/ I filled them in when I got back but I still felt bad.

Anyway, back to my ride. Lacey was excited to begin with but she soon settled down. I was really proud of her though, she only neighed at Lady when Lady neighed first and once we got out of hearing range, she didn't neigh at all. She neighed once about halfway through our ride but is was extremely halfhearted. :lol: It was like she was neighing out of duty and not so much actually necessity.

She seemed to enjoy being without "the kid" for a bit. She didn't even try to rush home. She almost seemed to be walking slower going home than away from home. :rofl:
I had even put her in her pelham, with a curb rein and snaffle rein, in anticipation of bolting or other silliness but I didn't engage the curb once! She just went along like "Cool story bro, us "humans" are hangin' out!"

Anyway, maybe I'll try to make that be a "thing"- one ride a week without Lady.
It'll be good for Lacey and me, and it'll be good for Lady to discover that people+horses leave and also magically return.

It was really nice. I like my Lacey girl. :)


Also, I'm done house-sitting tomorrow! I'm excited. It was cool for the first couple of days but now I miss my house+my cat+seeing the horses multiple times a day.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Day 12!

So, I'm really really proud of Lady today - I think taking a day's break did some good for us both.
It seems that perhaps the issues with her getting in my space when I tried to teach her to lunge were mostly my fault. Today I really thought about what I was doing with MY body instead of what she was doing. It turns out that I was kinda expecting her to be like Lacey who'll basically lunge herself if she's on a line and there's a person attached to said line. Apparently Lady is much more focused on my body language than Lacey is (which makes TOTAL sense since Lacey really can't see precise body language, just vague shapes that she attempts to make conclusions about) and me trying to drive her away from me wasn't enough.
Today, when I focused on her hip and drove her out with the end of my rope, she lunged like a dream!! I only had her walk because I don't want to push her too hard yet but she did great! When I'd take a step forward and line up with her shoulder, she'd stop and walk towards me. If I moved back to her hip, she'd circle me, shoulder - walks to me, hip - circle, etc.

It was 100% fascinating! I've never been around a horse that was that absolutely tuned in to my body language (or maybe I have been and I was just totally oblivious...). The second I was doing it "wrong", she'd start doing it "wrong". When I did it "right", she did it "right"!

Anyway, it was cray-cray. She was still mildly nervous about what I was doing but by the end (I was having her do one circle, stop and get praise, then switch directions, one circle, praise, switch directions, etc) she seemed to really be pretty comfortable with walking a circle around me. She was stopping great (just stepping in front of her shoulder gets an immediate stop) and overall it was a really great session.
I'm hoping that she won't need me to be SO precise once she really gets lunging down but for now, I'm satisfied.

Then, I groomed her and we "played" with spray bottles. She was totally fine with flyspray and totally fine with spray detangler on her mane but my smallest size bottle provoked a pretty worried reaction. She was fine with it spraying her everywhere but her neck. That was apparently a "private" spot. :lol: Anyway, I worked with her on that and by the end she was still giving me "OMG eyes" but I think with one more little session, she'll be golden. I need to use a louder spray bottle next time just to get her used to that (the one's I've been using are the more "misty" types that are pretty quite, I have one that's pretty loud = challenge).

I also got a rope around one of her back legs to "practice" picking them up. I'm relatively nervous about them because she has shown a liking for kicking out when she doesn't like something on her belly. That really doesn't mean much but yknow, Nervous Nelly over here is still kinda concerned. :lol: I think I'll just keep working with her on that and bolstering my own confidence as she shows that she'll pick up those back legs fine. I also need to be braver about touching her backend. She hasn't shown any brattiness about it, I'm just concerned for no real reason.
I think I'm going to try messing with her tail tomorrow. That seems relatively innocuous inside my mind and maybe that'll help me realize that she's not gonna annihilate me. :rofl:
It's one of those fears that I logically KNOW is pretty silly but that logic isn't doing much to sooth my internal fear response. haha Once I see someone else do it I'll be golden but for now, nerves.

On the picking up her front feet front (lol), she's doing great! I'm still picking them up, setting them down, praising her, then picking them back up, praising her, picking them out, and setting them down but she's doing fantastic! Today all I had to do to get her to lift her right foot was show her the pick, pet her shoulder, and start running my hand down her leg. Before I even got to her knee, she was holding her hoof up for me. What a good girl!!


Lacey joined us during this time. She just stood about 10ft away, "supervising". She's pretty cute. :)
Also, Lacey has apparently learned to go into her stall when I tell her "stall". usually I say "stall" then guide her in at feeding time but today I decided to just say "stall" to see what happened. Pretty much as soon as I said "stall" she started assessing exactly where she was and she got herself into her stall and into her corner where I make her stand while waiting for her food (I have precise feeding organization that eliminates pushiness for food).
She's cute.

I have two cute girls. Whatever am I going to do! :lol:
 
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