Some ructions.
Tia has been a little gem with Jazz. He is obviously very well socialised with other horses and he has not given her any chance at all to have a go at him, always approaching her at safe angles and with gentle movements to reassure her. She meanwhile is helping immmensely by not screaming, kicking or making any fuss whatsoever about him, just allowing him to be close by quite happily.
This morning he didn’t want to go into his stable and leave her, in fact he flatly refused to do it! no fuss, no bother, just "NO". He's too strong to push around, so I had to fetch a whip, but all I had to do was touch him with it and in he strolled, quite unconcerned. He was much better than yesterday when he was in the stable and couldn’t see her – until I took her into the barn to ride her!!!!!
Then all hell broke loose. He was barging the door so that it was visibly beginning to break in the middle and kicking up a heck of a fuss banging the door with his foot. When his front feet appeared over the top of the door I realised that I had to do something quickly :-000000000 I left Tia in the barn and ran outside and put up the snow board which I used to use to stop snow going into the stables in a really bad winter. Like shutting the top door, only I don’t have any top doors! He was quiet then and I rode Tia quite happily for 45 minutes. She was very good, especially considering how little attention she has had lately.
I brought her out and took off the top door and he was fine, not even sweated up. So we tacked up and I rode him for about 20-25 minutes. He's already worked out how to stand at a mounting block, which is new for him. In his work, I got some lovely bend and change of bend in walk, and some approximate shoulder in. I started to teach him turn on the forehand, which he picked up quite quickly. He works rounded all the time if you just give him the right contact, and that arch of shining copper in front of me is superb! He rides huge, and I love it. I have learnt to sit the trot and not to rise so far with it too. I’m so looking forward to jumping him but I’m going to wait until I get back from next weeks holiday.
I love him. I needed a horse with character if I was going to replace Tetley and Jazz has as much personality as he had. Very different, but just as much. He is a fine, fine replacement. He makes me laugh just to look at the funny expressions he has on his face. I miss those huge ears that Tetley borrowed off a fair size donkey, but there are compensations aplenty with this fellow and Tia.
C
posted by cptrayes @ 5:14 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
this reminds me of the debates i've seen elsewhere on how many horses is the optimum number.
in your case - esepcially if he 'doesn't do alone' it sounds like it might be three.
or - might i recommend a stable mirror? working wonders on molly for very little investment and if his issue is not being left when you want to go ride Tia (or even take her out to a show) that might well be the solution.
mine was £28 + carriage off ebay (retail from the same firm is £40), acrylic, rather good (their arena mirrors aren't that pricey either) and if it does the biz, well worth it...
Caroline, I've always wondered what you feed your barefoot horses? Tia seemed to transition very quickly.
So Jazz hasn't got shoes on, has he ever been shod?
Judith
I think we just have a touch of new-home-itis Claire. He was much improved this morning from yesterday morning, when he was unhappy alone in a stable. Obviously if he doesn't continue to improve I'll find out how to stop him getting in a stew, but it's early days for him yet. He used to live in American barn stabling, so he's not used to being all alone out of sight of another horse.
Thanks Sheila, it's nice that you are still keeping in touch.
Judith I'm not sure it's just the food, I think it's the whole environment. The food is plain unmolassed horse and pony cubes and ryegrass haylage. My land is low in magnesium and calcium, which is very important for feet, so I feed a farm supplement which is high in magnesium and calcium. Designed for cows, but it seems to do the trick.
The rest is plenty of work, using boots if necessary. Tia's back feet were flat for a long time and I limited her work on the road and booted her up when necessary. She also suffered from concussion in three feet early on because they weren't well attached at the laminae and boots helped with that too. Her back feet are about to really come good as a bull-nose drops off the bottom. They are now well concave but they have a short toe - the shape is more like front ones. The front ones are perfect wild horse shovels, really superb. (To be fair, I did choose her partly because I thought she had feet that would transition quickly because I knew I wanted a barefoot eventing season if possible. She did us proud of course.)
My horses are either out 24/7, or they are out in the day and the rest of the time they live in the barn, where they can move about all night. I'm sure the barn is invaluable for both movement and for keeping their feet out of the wet.
I think all those things together are the key to why my horses do well barefoot. I have the time and I have the facilities. I'm a very lucky person.
Jazz had one set of front shoes on in his life. His feet are shedding sole at a rate of knots now that they are gone. They are already about half an inch smaller than they were and they are going to be great feet, white or not. I rasped the front ones again today to get a bit of flare off and he was a very good boy :-)
C.
Seems as if Jazz will settle down pretty quickly. He's probably just a bit uncertain in a new place. Once the routine is established and he realizes he is not being abandoned forever when Tia leaves, he'll be fine. I'm impressed with how much he's settled in in just two days!
I put the saddle and bridle on Chance today, only to find out I don't have a bridle small enough. As big as his head looks, it's smaller than Tucker's! Bit of a surprise there. Managed to get the girth short enough. He was unimpressed with the tack and lunged pretty well...that is until he got a little fed up on the right rein and threw a tantrum. Nothing too terrible, but it does show he has some spunk.
You obviously love training the babies Jean, you can tell it from how you write :-)
C.
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