motorgypsy
04-30-2006, 03:02 PM
Reminder - Silken was a total nutcase when we got her - would literally try to jump out a stall window and spooked at every little thing. She spent months with two really outstanding trainers who said she was extremely intelligent but couldn't handle change. So she's fully trained, knows all her cues, is rideable but not yet safe. We're throwing every possible change at her.
Silken now allows us to catch her and put a lead on her without protest although sometimes she'll give her usual little grunt and move away. If she does she gets three chances. If she doesn't let us catch her she has to wait until everyone else is fed before she gets her food. Needless to say she hasn't gone over the three chances.
Recent breakthroughs. She now fairly willingly allows us to rub and brush her with both hands on both sides. Before she acted like she was being shocked when we touched her. The real breakthrough was when she stuck her foot (she's very tall) in her feed bucket and couldn't get it out and allowed me to remove it. I then got the file and started filing her feet and she let me do so with no fuss at all. Before she had freaked at leg and foot handling. She now lets me clean her hooves without protest and will actually continue to eat. We're also teaching her to lower her head on cue to pressure on the top of the head. She doesn't like it but is learning and isn't freaking. Next will be some long walks around the property. Remember - she's great on a lead and is ok if we go first but we'll eventually work on her going first ground driven.
She now hangs out with the main alpha mare in the pasture and the other alphas who accept her. She is no longer frightened by rain on the tin roof or dragging the long fat stretchy leadline (we don't tie her when she eats - we drape the line over the fence so she can pull it off if she wants to and she has learned that she can but normally doesn't do it) She goes in the stall willingly and doesn't freak if we go into it also. She also moves her butt away from us when we ask rather than toward us in a defensive position.
Littlle by little! - pictures in laslt post
Silken now allows us to catch her and put a lead on her without protest although sometimes she'll give her usual little grunt and move away. If she does she gets three chances. If she doesn't let us catch her she has to wait until everyone else is fed before she gets her food. Needless to say she hasn't gone over the three chances.
Recent breakthroughs. She now fairly willingly allows us to rub and brush her with both hands on both sides. Before she acted like she was being shocked when we touched her. The real breakthrough was when she stuck her foot (she's very tall) in her feed bucket and couldn't get it out and allowed me to remove it. I then got the file and started filing her feet and she let me do so with no fuss at all. Before she had freaked at leg and foot handling. She now lets me clean her hooves without protest and will actually continue to eat. We're also teaching her to lower her head on cue to pressure on the top of the head. She doesn't like it but is learning and isn't freaking. Next will be some long walks around the property. Remember - she's great on a lead and is ok if we go first but we'll eventually work on her going first ground driven.
She now hangs out with the main alpha mare in the pasture and the other alphas who accept her. She is no longer frightened by rain on the tin roof or dragging the long fat stretchy leadline (we don't tie her when she eats - we drape the line over the fence so she can pull it off if she wants to and she has learned that she can but normally doesn't do it) She goes in the stall willingly and doesn't freak if we go into it also. She also moves her butt away from us when we ask rather than toward us in a defensive position.
Littlle by little! - pictures in laslt post