1st December 2008

Just to say that Charlot has been moved away from the house to his winter quarters, along with the big guys, 2 pregnant Shetland mares and his new best friend, Merkisayre Jackson (small, little black sweetie).

We have decided to give him some time off. We do this sometimes with our youngsters, ie work with them in the spring/summer/autumn, then turn them away for the winter and re-start them again in the spring. It is a training practice popular with Icelandic trainers and one that we sometimes use.

Charlot seems to be going backwards in his training. I was looking at photos of him happily having has his back feet trimmed in the school, with someone holding him. He was calm and co-operative then but now he uses for target practice and that is not fair on any of us.

Weather and back permitting, I will go up and take some photos to show everyone that he is happy in his huge field, with his friends and plenty of grass. He has a rug on and is maintaining his weight.

12th November 2008

Well, another day - new strategy. To ignore Charlot and just work with his friends so that he can see they are not being killed by picking up their back feet!

We approached his back leg and he aimed as usual. Then we tried running a looped rope up and down the leg. We picked up the front leg using this rope and he was happy about that. We approached the back and he lamped out, bang! and we managed to get the rope around (you need a heavy rope) his back leg and ran it up and down like on this YouTube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdfSQ_f0bA8

Surprisingly, we were quite successful. Just did the one back leg, gave him some food and left it at that. I think we need to look more into this back leg rope thing abit more - I wish that video had spent more time on the back legs rather than the fronts!

8th November 2008

I caught Charlot easily, though he was hiding beside his new best mate (Jackson). Eggwub has been sold and moved south so Charlot has had to team up with another Shetland. Luckily Jackson loves me and believes every word I say so when Charlot was turning away from being caught, Jackson came up and I fed him the ponynut intended for Charlot instead. That caught Charlot's attention and he turned back to me, I popped on the headcollar and gave him the ponynut.

Leading into the school on a windy morning was achieved with no additional help. He walked in, was tied up next to others and we started the clicker training to pick up his feet. This time Jo had a hoof-pick so that we could actually achieve something. Charlot was not very helpful and while quite successful with the back, he actually lashed out with his back leg before we had even mentioned what we were going to do. We won eventually through patience, an infinite supply of pony-nuts and the clicker. Not our best day, by any means.

I think we might get Jackson in and line them all up, picking up everyone's feet and showing him that no one else is having this hissy fit about it and it is an everyday occurrence in their lives. He might catch on if he watches his friend.

Why can't this horse be easy? I am trying hard not to lose faith in him, to be honest. We have had him only 6 months, I know, but you would think he might have got the plot a bit more. No one has murdered him yet....... could someone tell him that? Picking feet up is a very basic skill and one we are failing at!

No photos coz and I can't click, feed and photo at the same time. Sorry.

5th November 2008

Clicker training again.... and again..... and again...!

Got the herd up, caught Charlot and tied him up in the school with a few Shetlands for company.

With me on the front end with the clicker and a pocketful of pony nuts and Jo with the four potential missiles (ie legs), I clicked and fed merrily away for good results while Jo picked up all four feet and did a tiny bit more.

This time, she ran her hand down each leg about 6 inches at a time, said "click", I would click and feed Charlot 2 pony nuts, then she would keep going downwards, 6" at a time, with the appropriate click and feed 2 nuts if he stood still. Then, when Jo had got the whole hoof up in the air, I clicked repetitively and fed Charlot a whole handful of nuts. Jo handled the foot for as long as he would let her and then she put it down for him, not letting him grab it away, kick out or plant it down again. We were in control. It was a quiet, efficient working environment and Charlot behaved allowing us to pick up each foot in this way.

Success, big kiss and another handful of nuts, I led him outside, took off the head-collar, kissed a few more hairy noses and went back to working with the Muppets! (little dun 37" geldings who we have had since foals!).

Mission achieved.

We started the day by calling everyone out of their grass-filled field and the whole world and his wife arrived except for Charlot and two mares. So I walked down and caught him very easily (by giving the food to the mares!) and then Charlot refused to walk up to the school from the field, where all his friends were milling about. Jo had to come down and walk behind him. We then took off his rug so he could roll and get some sun on his back as it was a nice day for a change.

So......here we are outside, like Jo's son recommended (see previous blog). You can guess how well we got on! We didn't!

To be honest, we were not holding our breath (Charlot was starting to hyperventilate) and he was at least consistent in his complete lack of co-operation. I actually think he has no balance on three legs, he just falls over when you pick up one of his front legs.

We tied him up outside and tried Robert's suggestion of "going near Charlot's back legs when he was outside - apparently he doesn't mind that in the slightest!!". He minded more than in the slightest.

So, new idea - CLICKER TRAINING!!! I had previously found the clicker and put it in a safe place (so spent 5 minutes trying to locate my safe place), filled my pockets with pony nuts and off we went. Jo placed her hands gently on each leg, told me when to click, I clicked and gave Charlot food. We did each foot with quite minimal violence from Charlot and left it at that. Perhaps clicker training is the way forwards. Charlot is not stupid and very quick to learn. He worked out the relationship between the required deed, the click and the food fairly swiftly so we will persevere with this method and see where it leads us.

NB - it is not easy to take photos, click and feed at the same time. But believe me, there was far less target practice from himself!

1st November 2008

Well, they've managed to finish the grass in the hill park - a clean plate has been made and it is time to move them down to the other half of this field - the lower field.

Firstly, though, we noticed that Charlot's rug was squint. So Jo went up to him, put on a headcollar, which I held, while she put everything right. He just stood there, in the middle of the herd (with others offering to "help") while we tugged and pulled and shoved his rug back around his fat big tum-tum so that it was symmetrical again. Didn't mind in the slightest, wasn't bothered at all.

Then we went an opened the gate into 25 acres of ungrazed pasture. This field has been left all summer and autumn, the grass is fantastic and it is all theirs (13 ponies + 2 goats in total). The whole herd was very enthusiastic and galloped through the gate and stopped dead, with heads down to eat - not that anyone is looking thin or peaky.

So, Charlot, the only one with a rug on, seems to have re-integrated himself with his chums. The spring/summer girlie rivalries are forgotten and everyone is acting as one in this herd. Today was Charlot's turn to guard against the potential tigers while the rest had a snooze. So he ate, and they snoozed, either standing up or lying (blob on bottom right of photo is someone lying down). You can see the length of the grass too. Oh they are in for a nice winter. You can also see that Charlot is the with the Shetland pony contingency rather than the big 'uns that are the other side of the stream.

5th October 2008

Well, I'll be ...........totally gobsmacked!

Sorry no ponio photos.

Yesterday was a day of shite, as we say - it rained, sleeted, snowed and blew a northerly gale (constant 8, gusting 10), wind chill factor minus several somethings. So it was very cold with blizzards all day. The snow couldn't settle much because of the rain and wet ground but it was disgustingly cold.

I felt so sorry for the ponies - they all live out and all I could do was hope that Charlot copied the others and used the available shelter - 5 foot high dry stone walls. I also remembered that he is quite fat so there are some reserves in there he could shiver off!

Today is much better. The wind has changed direction. It is warmer and everything has calmed down too (about a Force 5). Jo, the dogs and I went into the field to call the horses home as we wanted to put a medium-weight rug on Charlot. Of course when you want them, they just stand there and look at you refusing to budge. So we walked up the field (I slowly limped unable to keep up). Jo then announced that she actually hadn't got a head-collar with her, just a piece of rope. So, she went up to Charlot, put the rope round his neck and he followed her for about 1/4 mile home where we put him in the shed, found a "real" headcollar and put it on him.

I was amazed. I expect that sort of conduct from the majority of our long-term boys but from a rescue pony owned for 6 months, that kind of behaviour is amazing. When you can do stuff like that out of the blue, who cares about the feet drama - it will come together eventually. So, well done that lad!

Anyway, we put the new rug on. There were no kicky moments around the back end when Jo did up the leg-straps even though she nearly clipped Charlot's manly bits by mistake! I told him he had my full permission to kick her if she did that again!

With the new rug on, we put Charlot back with his friends hoping they would not start ribbing him and tearing the rug up like last time. I am watching!