![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronOthello has been in disgrace lately- a couple of weeks ago he flattened Lou in an act of uncharacteristic stupidity - and my wife is now entirely convinced he hates her. She is more than capable of dealing with him but he tends to be well behaved until he seems trustworthy and then do something that causes her injury, typically out of pure gormlessness.
One of the suggestions I was given at the time was that we should do some work with him in the field to remind him that he has to pay attention there as well as when he comes in. We've been following this up for the last couple of weeks, making sure Lou does a bunch of groundwork with him as well - apparently it's quite common for Dales ponies raised in the dales to be trained by men and they are often less respectful of female handlers. Our chiropractor breeds them and as my beloved typically ends up having to visit after Othello has flattened her somehow they end up chatting about them quite a lot.
Today Othello was determined not to work, especially in the field where Joe was happily mooching around and Lou was moving the electric fence to open up some fresh grazing. He was happy to lead towards where everything was happening, but if I asked him to turn away he started working very hard to turn straight back around. I ended up having to pick up a lot more energy than I would usually use just to get a response out of him, let alone getting him walking the way I wanted in a straight line. It worked though- he started resisting less and finally moving with me as I asked him to and even turning away from his friend and walking away with very little protest. At that point I figured we were doing pretty well for an evening and took him back to by Joe, turned him round to face the gate and took his head-collar off. He stood by me quietly so I gave him big scratches and then gently turned him round and we started walking over to where Joe was grazing on the new grass. As we got nearer I slowed down to a halt and to my surprise Othello stopped with me and just stood for a moment. I started walking on and he picked up his pace to match mine. I left him at the long grass where he started grazing happily. This is the first time I've ever created that kind of connection with a horse and even if it was only for a few seconds it was amazing.
Pictures of the beasts in question:
Senator Joseph Pony and the glory of the sky.
"How do I drive this thing?"
"You can't drive, Othello"
"Of course I can, stupid human, I'm a driving pony."
One of the suggestions I was given at the time was that we should do some work with him in the field to remind him that he has to pay attention there as well as when he comes in. We've been following this up for the last couple of weeks, making sure Lou does a bunch of groundwork with him as well - apparently it's quite common for Dales ponies raised in the dales to be trained by men and they are often less respectful of female handlers. Our chiropractor breeds them and as my beloved typically ends up having to visit after Othello has flattened her somehow they end up chatting about them quite a lot.
Today Othello was determined not to work, especially in the field where Joe was happily mooching around and Lou was moving the electric fence to open up some fresh grazing. He was happy to lead towards where everything was happening, but if I asked him to turn away he started working very hard to turn straight back around. I ended up having to pick up a lot more energy than I would usually use just to get a response out of him, let alone getting him walking the way I wanted in a straight line. It worked though- he started resisting less and finally moving with me as I asked him to and even turning away from his friend and walking away with very little protest. At that point I figured we were doing pretty well for an evening and took him back to by Joe, turned him round to face the gate and took his head-collar off. He stood by me quietly so I gave him big scratches and then gently turned him round and we started walking over to where Joe was grazing on the new grass. As we got nearer I slowed down to a halt and to my surprise Othello stopped with me and just stood for a moment. I started walking on and he picked up his pace to match mine. I left him at the long grass where he started grazing happily. This is the first time I've ever created that kind of connection with a horse and even if it was only for a few seconds it was amazing.
Pictures of the beasts in question:
Senator Joseph Pony and the glory of the sky.
"How do I drive this thing?"
"You can't drive, Othello"
"Of course I can, stupid human, I'm a driving pony."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 4 Aug 2006 09:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Aug 2006 10:09 (UTC)