I haven’t written about the mini foster horses in almost 2 weeks because progress is slow and I don’t want to bore everyone. In the last few days things have moved along a bit though.

The girls are spending much more time on grass now, their winter coats are finally all gone and their coats are pretty shiny and healthy looking. I still can’t brush them so their manes are pretty scruffy but hopefully in the next month I’ll be able to try, at least with Spice, the bolder one.

It has helped to take the advice about working with them “outside their bubble”. I have been hanging the carrot stick over the fence, flicking the rope around from the other side of the fence, letting the rope touch them briefly and finally (only with Spice) rubbing back, neck, rump with the carrot stick so they know it won’t hurt them. I think Spice is starting to think that feels really good as she is starting to stand still for the scratch with the stick. I can also drape the string that is on the carrot stick (Savvy String) around her neck, over her back and touch her legs with it. Sugar still is very wary of the stick and string although I’ve been able to get it a bit closer to her lately and she has sniffed it. Being able to rub her with the stick has been a huge breakthough. I hope Sugar will accept some rubs with the stick soon.

Tonight I made some great progress. I had the girls loose in our outdoor arena to graze. I went in the arena and start lightly flicking the carrot stick and string around as I walked then stopped and waited for the girls to come over to me. They both did and got treats for coming to me. Then I started walking around the outdoor flicking the stick rhythmically in front of me. They both followed me all over and when I ran, Spice trotted behind me and when I stopped she usually stopped although once I had to slap the ground with the stick so she didn’t run into me. I played this game for a while with them and occasionally doled out a treat to each one then left the arena without putting pressure on them to do anything.

Later tonight when I went to feed them they both came over the fence and Spice poked her head through at me. I was able to rub her face with my hand for many seconds then worked my hand along her neck and rubbed it for quite a while. When she seemed okay with that I touched/rubbed her chest then touched her upper legs. I was also able to run Sugar’s face for the longest time I’ve ever been able to touch her. This is a big change even in the last week.

Horses see us as predators and they are the prey so it takes a lot of work to earn their trust especially when they haven’t had much human contact. Here is a video showing the friendly game and how it is used to win the trust of and desensitize a horse.

Friendly Game

Eventually I should be able to do more of this with the girls. Of course right now they haven’t even had a halter on yet so everything is done with them loose in a fenced area and usually from more of a distance. I’ll do another update once we have made some more progress.

Cookie has returned from her “tryst” with OhBee. She was ultrasounded this a.m. and is in foal so Ed, OhBee’s owner, was nice enough to trailer her home to us tonight. Nick was so happy to have his friend back and the two of them happily cruised the pasture as soon as we put them together and tonight Nick is looking very zenned out in his stall. We are looking forward to a gorgeous foal next April.

The foster mares have been here one month today. We have to keep them in a pen or “dry lot” except for a few hours a day as they cannot be on grass all day or they will founder (develop laminitis). They are now less skittish when we enter their pen and they do come right up to the fence when I am out in the barnyard or go to feed them. They do enjoy their time on grass and nicker at me when I go to open the gate letting them into one of the grassy areas of our farm. Tonight they got to go in the largest pasture we have along with my horse Nick. I thought they would feel more secure if they had him with them and they all played at first before they settled down to graze. I did not have any trouble separating Nick from them or getting them to move to their pen tonight after about 3 hours on grass. That was a pleasant surprise as I was a bit worried they would just take off and run and run since I can’t get a halter on to catch them but instead have to use the “driving game” to move them from space to space.

I can now touch their faces pretty much every time I am around them, even Sugar is letting me push her mane out of her eyes. I would so love to get a brush on them but they aren’t ready for it yet.
At the Parelli event this weekend one of their instructors told me to try working with them from outside their “bubble” so I have been flicking the “carrot stick” (a long orange stick) with a rope around outside their fence then hanging the rope into their pen and letting them see it. I am calling it my horse fishing pole. I actually was able to drape the rope over Spice’s neck and scratch her back and rear briefly with the stick. Sugar will not let the rope be too near her yet but will let it touch her head briefly while she reaches for treats.

Their coats look much better as they have lost most of their scruffy winter coat and have a shine to their summer coats now. Spice especially has filled out and doesn’t look ribby any more. Sugar has filled out a bit but still looks too thin. I am still wondering if she may be expecting a foal due to the shape of her belly and that her spinal muscles seem dropped down from her spine as a pregnant mare can look. Time will tell……

I’ll write more about their progress and try to take some new photos of them soon.

Speaking of Natural Horsemanship — I stumbled on these really neat videos of a 15 year old girl, Danielle Herb, working with a horse and her work helping ADHD and autisitc children by having them work with horses. Her program is called “Drop your reins” which is also the name of her web site. The one video is called “Natural Peopleship Learning”. What a cool young lady! Check these out:

Drop your reins

Natural Peopleship Learning

Working with Halo

Yesterday and today I have been attending the Parelli Celebration which is an educational event about natural horsemanship, a great way to train horses in a positive manner. This year they have a new format where some students are “spot lighted” showing what they can do with their horses then Pat (Parelli) gives them a score and his comments which include a lot of constructive “this is what I would like to see you do with your horse”. Pat then shows the students how to accomplish whatever his suggestions are. I thought it might be a little boring watching others work their horses but actually it has not been and I’ve seen some awesome partnerships between horse and human this weekend as well as heard suggestions that will help me with my own horses. I did end up buying the new “Parelli Patterns” DVDs and hope to actually find some time (probably late at night) to watch them and learn more.

I am hoping some of what I have learned will help with the mini/pony foster mares as well. I was disappointed to see that the rescue horse Pat Parelli chose to work with was from a rescue in another state rather than from a local rescue such as Spirit Horse Equine Rescue (where our foster girls are from). I hope that next time they will use a local rescue. Spirit Horse is doing some wonderful work using the Parelli program with their foster horses and it would be nice if the Parellis recognized that and worked with one of their horses instead of one from 4 hours away.

This is a quick update on the mini/pony foster mares. Spice has been quite feisty this week since she’s been in heat. She nipped at my arm today when I tried to touch her neck so I backed off. They are getting more curious. Today they both were sniffing at my shirt through the fence which is new. I just know we can’t push it with them or otherwise we will justify them being afraid of us. Approach and retreat is the way we work with them. As the Parelli’s explain it, we are predators to them and they think we are going to eat them. So if we move fast, yell, approach quickly, etc. we are only convincing them we really are going to eat them. Patience is the only way we will ever get these girls to trust us or any human. So in 3 weeks it doesn’t appear that there is a lot of progress but our patience is laying a foundation for future trust.

Here is an update on the two mini/pony mares we are fostering.
They are well adjusted to their paddock and to spending a couple of hours per day on grass. They will come to the fence when we bring hay, water or treats and both take treats from our hands as long as we don’t make any sudden movements. I can touch both their faces and stroke Spice’s neck, chest and upper legs a bit more. I try to spend time every day just sitting in or by their paddock. They do usually approach me and sniff at my hand but any movement on my part and they jump away.

One of the girls is very clever — they figured out how to open the latch to the sliding door that goes out to the outdoor arena where Nick had been hanging out most of this week. Kent woke up at 5 a.m. the other day and happened to look out the kitchen door to see Nick zooming around in the outdoor with two small shapes also running and realized they had gotten in there. He thought he had forgotten to latch the door that goes into Nick’s half of the shed and out into the outdoor. Then it happened again a couple of days ago. When he closely looked at the latch he saw some reddish hairs on it and it was flipped up. He now has a clip on the latch so it can’t be flipped up by anything lacking hands!

Last night there was an incident with Chryssy (our almost 3 year old mini donkey). I went to turn them in and Chryssy wasn’t coming. I could see a dark shape running near the fence and realized she was on the other side of the fence (as in the neighbor’s yard). I had Kent run and get a flashlight and sure enough she had gone through the fence (which was a barbed wire fence in that spot and we are slowly getting rid of barbed wire as I hate it). She actually broke a strand and there was hair everywhere so I was worried as to what I would find. Kent cut the other 4 strands of wire so we could get Chryssy through the fence and we got her in the barn. She was very calm and only had a few scratches and scrapes which is amazing for having gone through barbed wire. A horse would have panicked and been all cut up. So at 7 a.m. today Kent was out stringing new electric fence to the inside of the barbed wire.

Not exactly sure what happened but Sugar and Spice had been out grazing with the donkeys and I am speculating that Spice chased her, it was dark and Chryssy ran through the fence. Although the donkeys have been out in the same pasture with the mini/pony girls for a couple of hours a day for a little over a week, they are still afraid of them and Spice is in heat which is making her more dominant. We have seen her chase Sugar, too. Needless to say the two groups are being kept separated for now. However I am able to let them out with Nick, who is still lonesome for Cookie and is happy for a little company (he chases the donkeys so can’t be with them).

Both girls have “worm bellies” but Spice doesn’t look too bad overall. They are shedding their winter coats. Poor Sugar is so skinny except for that round belly and I am hoping she isn’t pregnant (no signs of heat in her so far). I have dewormed them with small amounts of Strongid 3 times now but only use about 1/4 of their dose. There were various stallions left loose with them at the farm they were surrendered from so it is a possibility that she was bred. They were surrendered in Oct. so if she is bred a foal could be due as late as Sept. Only time will tell as there is no way a vet could get near her to examine her right now.

We accept that progress will be slow with them and just have to keep slowly building up their trust. I promise to post updates when anything interesting happens with them and once they have shed more will take more photos.

About a month ago we heard that an area equine rescue, Spirit Horse Equine Rescue had lost some of their foster home space and needed to more some horses elsewhere ASAP.
We talked about it and decided we had enough pasture to help out.

A week ago today our two new foster horses arrived. They are actually large mini horses or mini’s mixed with ponies so not very large. The mares are two of the 30 horses surrendered last fall from a neglectful situation. They have not had much human contact and are afraid of being touched, have never had a halter on, never had their feet trimmed and vet care status is unknown.

The first couple of days we just stood outside their paddock fence and stood quietly, sometimes talked to them and offered them treats.
Spice, a beautiful little girl with flaxen mane and tail, has warmed up a bit over the week. Spice is about 2 years old and sadly saw her mother put down at the time of rescue as she was suffering from a severe leg wound that was not treatable.

She will walk forward to take a treat and now allow me to touch her face, neck, and mane and sometimes her chest and upper front legs. Yesterday she allowed me to touch her with the end of a rope and stroke her a bit with it. I am doing that in order to condition her for when we try to put a halter on her.

Sugar (who came with the name Shy Girl but we want to change that label!), is much more cautious. She is probably about 5 to 8 years old.

She doesn’t seem to understand what purpose we humans could serve where she is involved. So far after one week here, she will walk to the fence for treats/hay. She will let me very briefly touch her face with a couple of fingers. Tonight I actually was able to smooth her forelock to the side of her face out of her eyes — that is HUGE for her. She is watching Spice for cues as well as our other horses and mini donkeys so she is smart. Hopefully as she sees us working with them and them accepting us, it will help her come around.

A couple of days ago I introduced the mares to the donkeys hoping them might hit it off. They are all about the same size but our donkeys are afraid of horses. I turned them all loose into a small pasture area but the donkeys pretty much kept their distance. A couple did try to briefly sniff at the horses but when they turned around the donkeys zoomed away to the other side of the field. They are getting a bit braver sometimes so hopefully will become friends.

Because they haven’t been dewormed before I only gave them 1/4 of their usual dose — otherwise there is a risk they would colic as the large worm infestation they are likely harboring is killed off. They did fine with that amount so maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll give them another 1/4 dose. Shots and farrier work are still out of the question but I am optimistic that by late summer we’ll be able to do that. We are using the Parelli/Natural Horsemanship method of training so I’ll be posting more updates as progress is made with the girls as I am optimistic that it will work well for them.

As a homework assignment for a blogging class I read this article. “What is like breathing to you?” was the question put to the readers of Terry’s blog.

Breathing for me is my farm, my animals, my life in the country, riding my horse…….in the past 5 or 6 weeks I’ve had two really bad days at work. I’ve left being very upset. When I’ve left work upset I fight the city traffic and as I drive I fight to breathe. I just want to get away as quickly as possible. The minutes of my 18 mile commute put space between me and work and as I get closer to my farm I start to be able to take deeper breaths. I think to myself I’m almost home, I’ll be okay, I can relax and breathe again. I feel the tension in my shoulders start to fade. I turn onto my road and my breathing is easier, the tears are gone. I see my horses and mini donkeys in the pasture and work becomes a distant memory. I feel my blood pressure going down. I go to the fence and rub my horse’s neck and feel his warm breath on my face, I’m home…….I can breathe, I am at peace.

Let me first say I never have won anything big in a raffle drawing. Last year my luck changed and at the Midwest Horse Fair I won a breeding to a handsome stallion for our mare. So today we took our mare, Cookie, to the stable where she will be staying in order to be bred. Poor Nick (my gelding) was upset when we loaded her and drove off. Tonight he is pretty quiet but when we let him in he was looking for Cookie in all of the other stalls. Pathetic….

Here is the stallion Cookie is being bred to.
Here are some candid photos of Ohbee.

The stable is very nice and Cookie should be very comfortable there. She seemed quite calm when we left. Ed, Ohbee’s owner, was very gracious and showed us his offspring from last year (3 fillies, all very nice) and his other horses while we were there. Temperaments are sweet and I especially love the head on one of them, Luci, absolutely gorgeous head and neck. We look forward to a beautiful (or handsome) foal in late April, 2010.