Thursday, April 03, 2008

My Methods Aren't Perfect

Okay so my methods are far from perfect. I'm working on it and I have two good friends overseeing my feeble attempts (and probably snickering along the way). On Saturday after the WCR barn clean up I ran over to see the boys. I was much too lazy to ride so I thought I'd take Cody out on the road and do some ground work in a place he wasn't quite as comfortable. I was right about his lack of comfort. He lead really well but once we started heading away from the barn he kept trying to look back. I sent him out on a circle several times but they were always really spastic and frantic. He just wouldn't relax. We ended that adventure by stopping facing away from the barn for a few moments.

As soon as we start approaching the barn where he can see everyone, then he slows down and relaxes, so I think the next step is to work on the road where he's comfortable and then push his comfort level a tiny bit each time by stepping further away. I might ride him out there as well, at least if he's relaxed we can get some work done.

When that adventure was over I measured his hooves one more time. I'm still wary on what size boot to buy as he's right on the very edge of two sizes. My next plan of attack was to deworm the four horses. I wanted to start with Cody and get it over with because he can become a bit of a pill. Unfortunately I haven't quite gotten the hang of it and I took too much time and the head tossing began. So I resorted to putting it in his feed bucket with an apple and some feed. This worked for both my horses the last time I tried. This time, not so much. Cody ended up eating most of his, spit out a little. I was too lazy then to try deworming everyone the right way so everyone got theirs in a bucket. Kiko ate all of hers. Kalani managed to spit just the dewormer out. And Axel, you know - the horse that eats anything, staged a hunger strike. I haven't heard how the next day went as we left his dewormer in the bucket to try again in the morning. So it's back to the drawing board on that one. Steph doesn't have an issue deworming my horses so it's just a matter of practice and techinque. At least I have two months before the next time.

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