All The Kings' Horses

I worked with Baker on Friday this week.  I ended up spending about 51 minutes with him, which is definitely longer than I usually recommend working with a young baby, but most of that time was spent with him standing in the cross ties drying off while I did other little barn chores.  We started out with another bath.  This time I tied him straight to the tree with a quick release knot.  He has been so respectful about being tied (*knocks wood), and he was completely relaxed about bathing for most of his session last time, so I wasn't really worried about him doing anything this time either.  And he didn't let me down - he didn't even startle when I turned the hose on, and was pretty quiet for the majority of the bath.  This time, I even tried spraying his face.  I used the very lightest setting on the spray nozzle.  I think it's called the "mist" setting.  I pointed the sprayer way up high, over his head, so the water rained down on him. ...

So, I know it's been a while.  Partly, I have been super busy with all the extra care that Baker needs (as well as a few other sick and injured horses - when it rains it pours :/ ), and partly I didn't want to do anything too stressful with him too soon.  Baker has been doing phenomenally with his stall rest!  I have been turning him out in a stall sized pen on the grass, three times a day, for up to an hour or so each time.  He gets quite upset the longer he is in the pen, and hollers at me, or whoever, to come and take him back to his stall.  He is so relaxed in his stall, and under his fan.  It is definitely his happy place!  This will be very helpful when he goes to overnight competitions and has to stay in a stall.  Some horses that live outside 24/7, like all mine do, get very anxious and upset when they have to stay in a stall for a night or two at a show.  Horses don't like changes in their routine, and they don't like confinement, es...

I wasn't sure when I would be able to start working with Baker again, since his injury and surgery.  However, as I was thinking about it, I realized that I really am working with him every day, several times a day.  We aren't working on anything real specific, but the daily handling definitely counts as training.  I'm still not sure when I'll get back to what we were working on before his injury.  We definitely can't do trot sets anytime soon.  He has to have a month of stall rest, another month in a round pen, another month in a paddock, and then he can go back to "work" after that.  This type of recover usually applies to horses that are already working under saddle.  The only real "work" that Baker was doing before his accident was the trot sets, so I will hold off working on those again until he is cleared for more activity.  Meanwhile, I could still work with him on things like the clippers, however, I have been so busy with bringing him in ...

Whew!  I am so exhausted, but I wanted to take some time to sit and write about what has been going on - for anyone who hasn't been following all the drama on Facebook.  And to catch everyone up on the whole story.  So, Wednesday morning started out like any other morning, until about 6:45am, when I got a text from Lois, who feeds the horses in the morning.  She said "I think something is up with Baker.  Rolling a lot. And Fiona gave him a little kick to the side a few minutes ago.  He's not acting right."  I immediately went out the back door, in my pajamas (I was already awake, but just doing morning paperwork, so I hadn't gotten dressed yet), to assess the situation.  I watched him for just a minute before I decided that it was definitely something serious.  She told me that Fiona had kicked him (she had a video of it, but it was too dark to see exactly where he got kicked), and that within 2 minutes of being kicked, he walked over to wher...

It's been a pretty hectic week, so I have only worked with Baker once so far, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it.  I worked with him on Monday for about 27 minutes.  For those of you who are not from around here, it's been really hot and humid this week.  Most of the horses have been sweating just hanging out in their fields.  As I approached Baker's paddock on Monday, I noticed that he was no exception. Before But this actually presented me with a great opportunity to work on something new with him - bathing!  I am always trying to introduce new things to a horse in the most positive light possible.  I am also always on the lookout for opportunities that make learning something new even easier.  When would you be most receptive to feeling cool water on your body?  When you are already feeling pretty cool?  Or, when you are nasty with sweat and dirt and feeling pretty yucky?  Well, horses are no different.  ...

I worked with Baker for about 27 minutes today.  I haltered him and led him to the tree.  He was a bit resistant to walk forward today, so it took quite a bit of tapping with the whip, quite often.  Eventually, we made it, and then I tied him, groomed him, picked his feet and flysprayed him.  I had a helper again today, so we worked on the clippers together.  Just like the last time, when I turned the clippers on, he was very curious and wanted to touch them with his muzzle.  He was very relaxed while I clipped all the short hairs on his muzzle again.  And he was also quite relaxed as I moved the clippers to the area of his jaw just beyond his muzzle.  That's the part I had worked on last time, for the first time, and he had been a little fussy about it.  During this session, he was perfectly fine with it.  So, I moved on to a little farther up his jaw.  I worked on the area underneath his jaw, in the middle.  He reacted much t...

I worked with Baker for about 25 minutes today.  He came right up to me to be haltered, but then he was a little fussy, trying to push my hand, so I had to reprimand him not to touch me and to maintain a fair amount of space between us.  It is very important that you always insist that your horse (big or small, older or younger) ALWAYS maintain an appropriate distance from you and not enter your personal space.  It is especially important for a colt who has the potential to be a stallion.  The last thing you want is a 1500 pound stallion pushing you around because you have told him in the past that it's ok to be in your space.  When working with young horses, always ask yourself "is this something I would allow a larger horse to do?"  Anyway, after we established appropriate manners, I led him to the tree.  He was a little more resistant to lead at the walk today than he has been in the past.  I had to use more whip than I have had to recently, an...