Fun with horsies
Nov. 4th, 2002 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreTook the kidlet out to the stable after school today. Whisper has been a real pig lately when we try to get her out of the pasture. The approved Clinton Anderson response to this is to first get her into a manageably small space, which we accomplished by chasing her into the paddock. Then one person is the “safe” person to whom we want her to go; the other chases her and makes her run any time she’s not within arm’s reach of the safe person. This hopefully teaches her that coming to the person with the halter is a Good Thing. (We’ve done it before, a year ago, but the effect seems to have worn off, so time to repeat the lesson.)
Since I’m not mobile enough to do the chasing, I got to be the safe person. Whisper knows me, and also is bright enough to remember the lesson, so she came to me pretty quickly. First I just patted her; then walked away to see if she would follow, which she did. After a bit of that I was able to slip her halter on, and asked her to follow me some more; and then we finally snapped on the lead rope, with nary a twitch from the silly horse.
Of course, after the kidlet took Whisper inside, I had another problem. I had to open the pasture gate to give the other horses access to the paddock again... and then get myself out without being followed through the gate by Moshe, who knows quite well that I am The Source of Carrots and Other Good Things. Serves me right for treating Whisper’s stable neighbors, right?
Since I’m not mobile enough to do the chasing, I got to be the safe person. Whisper knows me, and also is bright enough to remember the lesson, so she came to me pretty quickly. First I just patted her; then walked away to see if she would follow, which she did. After a bit of that I was able to slip her halter on, and asked her to follow me some more; and then we finally snapped on the lead rope, with nary a twitch from the silly horse.
Of course, after the kidlet took Whisper inside, I had another problem. I had to open the pasture gate to give the other horses access to the paddock again... and then get myself out without being followed through the gate by Moshe, who knows quite well that I am The Source of Carrots and Other Good Things. Serves me right for treating Whisper’s stable neighbors, right?
