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.

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.

Tonight I was invited by a friend to attend a demo by a horse trainer who instructs using the
Parelli method, which is also known as “Natural Horsemanship”. The instructor, Farrah Green of Sioux Falls, SD, was able to control her horse on the ground via subtle body language cues and get him to do amazing things such as trot in sync with her, lay down on his side, sit up (which requires a huge amount of muscle control from the horse) all while playing with him. It was like watching them do a dance together they were so in sync with each other. She also rode him with only a hackamore (no bit in the mouth) and he was wonderfully responsive. A very cold night but worthwhile to see someone who can train a horse to this level with no force of any kind.