ouchie

In good news, Mae is ok. She may have the genetic eye problem that some chocolate rocky mountain horses have, which is only a problem if she is bred to another chocolate carrier of the gene. As our stallion is black, there will not be a problem as she cannot pass this on with him. Or something like that. I'm not 100% on the genetic match-ups, but this I know to be good news.

In not so good news, said 11 year old stallion is completely terrified of plastic bags. Tyler was working with Stormy with them and as we were waiting to go out of the barn with them, she picked them up and they rustled and he freaked out. Backed up, snorted, rolled his eyes. So, I went off to work him, not realising just how scared he was. When I picked up a bag, holding it nowhere near him and crinkled it, he ran backwards. It was pretty dangerous just walking him round near them. Every time he heard the sound he tried desperately to get away. Now, I have no idea why he's so scared (Mae let me put them on her ears earlier...) but Tyler put Stormy in the temporary corral in there and came to help me. We tried him walking and touching them, we tried to get him to come and sniff it, none of it worked, he just wanted to get away, regardless of whether he was going backwards or sideways or both. Now, I must say, he wasn't mean with any of this. He didn't try to kick, knock us down (just yet...), get angry, or anything other than panic. I was worried for him, but didn't want to quit with him still being so scared. Eventually, while Tyler was holding him, I took the bag and placed it next to his shoulder. He flinched and trembled but didn't try to get away. We did this on the other shoulder too, with a few fights, and lots of praise when he stood still. I didn't use any force with him, mainly pressure/release and backing him more than he wanted when he backed away.

Our final decision was to attach them to his saddle and let him just go crazy. He was so unexpectedly terrified at this point that I really wanted him to feel the fear but not actually get whatever dreadful consequence he was expecting. So we put them on him and he stood, seemingly not minding so much them not actually touching him. The issue now was the crinkling as we tied them on. Then, as soon as he so much as took a step, the noise startled him and he went. Only I had hold of him at this point and he pulled and writhed at the end of the longe so much that I am ashamed to say he got away from me. He ran a few laps of the arena, longe trailing, flew over two of the little jumps we have up as barriers to the entrance, then came back to me, shaking and blowing. I felt really, really bad for him, but had no idea how to make him see anything but fear for the bags! We tried again, with both of us holding him on a longe line, and he attempted walking reeeeally slowly, but it made a noise again and off he went, this time pushing me out of the way. Tyler has a lot better centre of gravity than I do and she managed to hold him, and I managed some kind of Matrix-esque dodge to escape his flying hindquarters. Once he settled this time, we let him stand with the bags, and then I removed them, slowly, as he jumped each time they crackled. We stood and made a fuss of him for a while but he was pretty traumatised.

I don't know if we did the right thing but what pushed me to immerse him, as it were, was that he wouldn't even face them. He wouldn't even stretch his neck out, snorting, to nose at it, or have any scared curiousity as many horses would. he downright refused to acknowledge that it was anything other than death.

Anyway, we all got through it. I have a sore wrist and a stiff back from all my dodging, and he was obviously very stressed, but I got on him after this and let him have a stretch. We rode past and between two bags and he looked but didn't spook. He still refused to touch them.

Next step will be big blue tarp, with me on his back.

Poor horse. Either he was never plastic bagged, he's forgotted, or someone somehow abused him and he relates that noise to it. Or something else weirder!

new year worries

I haven't had anything worth posting for a while. Everything was going well once I got back from my break. Tatoum is back in gentle work, on course for our dressage training sessions (with my boss' dressage trainer who I don't get on with...) to make sure we're working on the right things for the Equine Canada tests. Grace is no longer being worked, but we are spending time each day touching her belly, brushing her, playing with her in readiness for her May baby.

Today though was bad news day. The vet came out to do a general check up on most of the horses. Mae has had a weepy eye for a while, but no other visible problems. We've been treating it with antibiotics and it has kept it ok, apart from in real cold weather. However, the vet believes it is Uveitis, probably brought on by Leptospirosis. My knowledge of the two illnesses did not extend to knowing there was a link between the two. But Lepto is apparently a very common cause of Uveitis and this can lead to such horrific things as blindness, liver and kidney failure, and it can be passed on to fetuses in pregnant mares, and Mae is really only here to be bred...so we just need to wait for the tests to see if this is the cause and then to find out what the extent of her eye problem is. She doesn't show any signs of blindness on trails or in the barn, so that's something, for now. She's not cranky, doesn't seem to be in pain, but I am very afraid that her future here is bleak if this diagnosis is made.

I've tried very hard not to have favourites since I've been here. I got on well with Maverik, and he went, and I got on with Bond, and now he's gone, and neither of those two going upset me. However, Mae is the kind of horse who will snuggle with me for fun and who comes to me first in the field and lets me ride her bareback with Gracie tagging along next to her and lets Tyler slide off over her butt and is generally a massive sweetie. As I've said before I've never had much experience with mares, and the majority of those here are pretty snarky and bitchy. Anyway, to utilise her sweetness, I took her on a trail yesterday as a nanny for Tyler who was riding Lilly, the baby, who was on her, I think 3rd ever trail. It's snowy everywhere here, and as the ground is becoming more frozen, we are able to go on more and more trails. We recently discovered a small stream that is not frozen, so we went up there to show Lilly it. Mae has done it a couple of times, but she insists on doing it in her own time, sliding down the bank, sticking her nose in the water, having a little sip, then walking over very calmly. Lilly had more of an issue but didn't panic at all. She stuck her nose in the deep snow holes the hooves had made, snorted in the water, and then went over it too.

To add to all this fun, a couple of days before, Mae and I, out trail marking on our own, had been chased by one of the neighbours dogs and their puppy also. She didn't panic, but she was worried as they kept following us so one was on either side of us at all times. When I turned to face them, they ran, but as soon as we moved off, they came back. So we skittered back to the barn, and they followed us, cheeky little gits, so I dismounted and chased them off the property.

Anyway, back to the present story, as we were practising the ditch, the dogs appeared, with their owner, who was leading her donkey, and then her son turned up behind us on his skidoo, and then the guy who works at our barn turned up on the 4 wheeler so it was a lot of fun for the horses, who were alert, but not spooked by any of this. I was very impressed by Lilly, who had a lot to contend with!