So Micah has pretty much a solid foundation of what a weanling should know understand and be responsible for, however I have the privilege of taking care of him another month… well when you graduate baby boot camp with honors, your teacher has to use a bit of imagination to build in these skills without over doing it. Today Micah lead out to the pasture next to the golf cart, and of course I lead him back in with it, at night, in the dark with the headlights. Micah was like oh this is so cool. Baby Micah loves to learn. 💕
Micah update. Here is a short clip of his understanding of having his feet handled at liberty in his field. At this point in his understanding we are varying the order in which we pick up his feet, where we pick them up, stall, aisle way, field, tied, haltered, rope on the ground or over his neck or back. It started with consistency. Same place same order same same same in three different locations, stall, aisle and field until each location was solid. Now we vary it! Any hoof and any place any combo of liberty, tied, halter… He has had his feet trimmed twice now and is excepting-of the tools as well. Timing on his ability to balance and stand focused is getting longer so next trim is going to be by a real farrier! Go Micah
Micah progress:
I would like to talk about allow vs make. So many times I see people making their horses do something instead of inviting them to explore and allowing them to think about something. If you have to micro manage the lead rope or pull on them incessantly it’s not their idea. Its you making them do something. Why not set it up and allow them to think on something a minute. Now Micah is pretty confident and yet on day one ( sorry no video as I was focusing on observing his expressions and behavior) he was not to sure about touching several things in the arena, one the flowers, two the noodles and three the plywood. He would stop and look at them but wasn’t sure touching them was a good idea. However, he took right to the mounting block, ball, and rope. Now on day two he got a little more confident with the flowers and such and way more confident with the ball and such. So watch him go from touching w his nose , to biting things, to holding and dragging items to even walking on or across obstacles on day 3. We like to say nose neck maybe the feet and that maybe is front feet and eventually hind feet. Later in the video he has his halter on and I can start to shape his play. To even where I can have a conversation about his feet at the pedestal. This is one highly intelligent foal. He needs to keep himself engaged more then most foals. I have provided him enrichment toys in his stall as well. In the pasture he has his mini mules and donkey to keep him thinking.
Micah update! Here is his end of the week video. He learned more about the trailer this week. He loves getting in but one day decided getting out was just not happening. So today I got to watch him get mad frustrated and then think his way out. Its not perfect yet but at least he is hoping out. We introduced bathing and clipping as well. These are both his first introductions to a bath and clippers. I have been working on tying him so he was understanding the high tie well enough to add the bath. This is one smart little fella.
Micah will continue his education this week so stay tuned. I charged the rouge pivo so maybe i can capture more of his progress this week.
Micah has been excelling at the day to day handling so here is a quick progress check.
Micah’s progress in two days. The first part of the video was the evening after his procedure. Mission “Trouble Puff” removal. Just went in to check on his condition and ask for some response from suggestions. He was hanging in there until I requested to hindquarters to yield. Don’t worry he missed me 🫣 but I made a mental note to work on that.
He came out the next morning and lead to the pasture by himself. I didn’t use Khody as a guide for him. He also lead in that evening in the dark by himself like an perfect gentleman. So the next morning back to work. He got to go out with his herd and everything was way better. No worries or herd drama. I gave him a few minutes to nicker to his farm family and observed his interactions and mental state which was totally different then when he got here. The response he had was confident and calm, polite and respectful of everyone. So I got his halter and did a 5 minute session with him and introduced some hind feet lifting for the first time. I wasn’t sure what his initial response to picking up the left hind would be as he had had a incident at his owners place with a fence and caused some severe damage. He handled the pressure well. Teaching a horse to yield appropriately to pressure could and will save him if he ever got caught up in something. Teaching them to turn loose vs fight and hurt themselves worse trying to get away from the perceived danger. Do your preparation work ! Dont wait till its gone wrong.
Yesterday afternoon we decided we needed to check up on some basic skills all horses should understand . Now I already knew Micha didn’t lead but I had sewn the seeds of it the day i picked him up and i had been nurturing those seeds every time I interacted with him. The reason for the big jump forward was he was set for having his trouble puffs removed the next day. Yikes !
So knowing i would first need to be able to get him from his field to a stall for the procedure was motivating me to test his understanding over a longer distance. Worse case I would saddle up Khody and dally off him and bring him in. But how much nicer it would be if he could just quietly be lead in in the morning…
First morning, so Micha faired just fine through the night with the minions and his manny. I was relieved to find he was at least still in the same paddock. After breakfast and some small requests from me to move to and from pressure I was so excited to see he was finding comfort and sinking up with his herd for a moment at least. We have a ways to go but it put the afternoon play session in my head as to how to proceed…
Making sure Micha stays in check…
Pedro says we don’t chase teddy😮
Micha breaks the rule by chasing Teddy…
Michas first 30
Seconds of herd introduction
This feral ex stallion. He was still a stallion when he was brought here. We have since gelded him… that took incredible patience and two amazing vets. But… today was the very first time after his training session he decided to walk up to me as i was sitting on the ball. Now it may not seem like a big deal but let me tell you its a huge deal! He really didn’t want to play any of my “reindeer games” this morning. He had a hard session yesterday not physically but mentally hard, like to someone watching it would have been as exciting as watching grass grow. But to me and him it was a necessity. So today he trucked out of the feeding area when he saw me and I was like yup I get it buddy, yesterday was hard, however today will be better. So I hopped on Khody and headed out in the pasture to retrieve him. He was Still not playing my games … I eventually convinced him to take himself back to the round pen and he complied but it wasn’t his idea. So to end on such a awesome moment was worth it to me and hopefully to him as well. Progress is progress even if to everyone else it looks like waiting for paint to dry. 🥰
