21/02/2022
Gem and her kid.
Gem has settled into the main herd, she has horses her age, a coming two year old to keep in check and two weanlings to watch over and loves it. She is happy and looking good!
When the vet floated her teeth he confirmed the age we thought she was. Gem will remain under our care, we know she has been ridden, and Kahlan rode her ba****ck many times and they seem to just work together. Kahlan got a saddle from her grandma to try this year, it is cutback to accommodate her wither. However, before any riding we want to make sure we start miss Gem with groundwork, slow and catered to her. I have had a ton of horses over the years come in, with various levels of training. Horses are good at remembering a routine. Especially if that routine revolves around food!
Some horses came and would anticipate certain things, such as saddling. As soon as they saw the saddle they’d dance around, back up or even nip or kick out etc.
most times you don’t have a clue what the horse has gone through, whether they relate a saddle to pain, hard work, or a specific person they didn’t feel good with etc etc ….
have many exercises to mend this, but I can say for certain that doing the opposite of what a horse has been conditioned to or learned begins to give the horse the option to change the behaviour on their own.
We already knew Gem had a bit of an issue with a girth. It doesn’t matter the reason, it doesn’t mean she was mistreated, it doesn’t mean she’s bad or really doesn’t mean anything other than it needs to be resolved.
Health issues should always be checked before behaviour. A horse has one way of communicating to us. I can tell my doctor about my pain, a horse can’t. If your horse gives you trouble, I bet they are actually telling you something.
It would have been unfair to have saddled her, rode her, we know she rides beautifully, but there is no rush. So instead of presenting a saddle, Kahlan and I rode her a few times ba****ck.
(She was put on alfalfa, feed, oil, and second cut hay, teeth floated and ulcer treatment if necessary-however she stopped acting snippy when you pressed on ulcer “hot spots”, so we are monitoring and vet said he’d give us meds if we felt they were needed). So far she has gained weight, seems happy, and can be touched everywhere.
She is now at a point this year we will begin groundwork to get those muscles working and offer her a job to keep her in shape. She, from what we can tell, enjoys walks down the road. Ears forward, walks without stopping even if given the choice (no rider so if she wanted to stop on the lead she could have) but instead she kept her head lower at Kahlan’s height and looked at things (not in a spooky way)and walked at a good pace. She got to eat some grass along the way, so walks down the road aren’t all about “work” if that makes sense.
Now we can build on that. We know she enjoys it, we know she’s safe enough, and we know we can ride her ba****ck. A saddle is the next step. While we know she has been ridden in a bit, for the job she is doing, it really isn’t necessary. We worked on halter pressure, and with the training she has already she understands stop. So we will continue bitless as ditch grass is just so yummy LOL
Did I spoil Macki with grass along the ditch? Yes. He got confused on which rides he was supposed to work, and which rides were leisure and we stopped for snacks. It’s not his fault he now tries to eat when you ride him. That was human error. What I did start teaching him is an OK command. When his neck was tapped four times he could put his head down. Of course winter came and the opportunity to be consistent went away, but it will help balance this behaviour out. He will understand there will be times to eat, and times when he can’t. After it is done consistently, he will have formed an understanding. Can he ask? Will he ask? (Ask really just means will he try over and over? Yes, yes he will. And that’s ok. I taught him he could and now I have to fix the problem I created. And that’s ok. It happens. He reminds me of my Pony as a kid Jasper. I’d let him eat, next thing he was pulling me into ditches. I grew up riding roads, can’t have pulling ponies 😂
However when I did competitive trail, Hawk and Jazz knew from consistent training when they could sn**ch a bite of grass and when they couldn’t. My mother even taught her mare to p*e from whistling. It’s pretty phenomenal what you can teach a willing horse.
Anyway I’m rambling on. Just thought I would share my thoughts and pictures of Gem.
I don’t post much and I apologize. If anyone is interested in joining our team and help out with horses that come to the farm, pictures and social media stuff, please contact me!
I’d appreciate any help!
I’d also like to say, I dislike the term “rescue” for our farm. …. Mint and Gem were not rescues. They didn’t need to be rescued from a sorry situation. They were horses that needed something their owners couldn’t give them, AND THATS OK.
Horses take TIME, MONEY, TRAINING, CARE and are A-LOT OF WORK and it’s OK if you can’t do it.
We are not a RESCUE, but we will RESCUE a horse in need hands down.
We are an open door horse farm that will help any horse that their owner would like to move on for whatever reason.
Will we go to auctions again? Yes! Does that mean the horses there are rescued? Not necessarily! Maybe for some their options are bleak due to their health, soundness, looks, etc etc etc so those are the horses we will look for.
Anyway have a fantastic day, remember to give your horse a little hug and say thanks every now and then ;)
