Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Day Three of training Skeeter.  

When I went in to feed the horses this morning, I walked by Skeeter's stall, and tried to pet him. He shied away. I thought I would have to go through the whole thing again to get him used to me again. But, when I went into his stall to clean it, he followed me around like a puppy and wouldn't leave me alone. I petted him a little on his face and right side, but I didn't want to push it because I didn't have my protective gear on.

Later on, all dressed up(!), I started in the corral with Skeeter, and rubbed him with the stick. He kept coming up to me. Today, though, for the first time, he tried to kick me! Pat thought he might be trying to become the dominant horse with me. I rubbed him all over and tried to get him to do the target shoulder exercise. That's where you put two fingers out, like the victory sign, and the animal comes up to your fingers. When they touch your fingers, they get a reward. I did it with Skeeter on his shoulder, but when he reached my fingers, he would always shy away. Pat said I shouldn't poke him with the fingers. Pat did it with an open hand, so I saw my mistake. But, he would only let us do the right side, not the left side. Pat came in and worked with him for awhile trying to get him to target the left side, and he tried to kick her! In fact, he did kick her! He just got her fingers and a little bit on her leg. She finally got him to do it, although every time we went in with him, she had to start again.

Pat also worked with him today with a rope. That's the next step after the stick. First you introduce them to the rope slowly, by putting it on their backs. Then you try to get it around them . . . their belly or their neck . . . and get them used to that. You rub the rope all over their bodies, so they get used to being touched by it. At one point, he stepped on part of the rope that was dragging behind him. Pat took the stick and touched the bottom of his hind foot trying to get him to lift his leg. But, he wouldn't, because I had worked so much with him yesterday, he was used to having the stick on his foot! Pat said I did a good job.

While Pat was in with Skeeter, I had a chance to look at Cracker who was laying down in the next stall. He gets this look on his face that is utter delight. If he was a cow, I'd say it was udder delight, but he's a mule, so it's utter delight. Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of him, so I went to get my camera. When I got back, Solomon the donkey was in the stall with him, and wanted to be petted, so he kept getting in the way of the picture. I tried working around him, and may have gotten a shot or two. Meanwhile, Cisco came in to see what was going on, and Chaco followed him in. All these animals were in the stall, and poor Cracker just wanted to get some sunshine!

Pat went back in this evening, and worked with Skeeter some more. I had to go in because the mosquitoes were so bad. I'm not complaining, though, because they were much worse in Maine. And lasted longer. Here, they pretty much just appeared at Largo, and they will be gone as soon as it frosts, which isn't that far off. Back to Skeeter, Pat worked with him a long time getting him used to being touched and targeting the left side. When she finished, he was pretty comfortable with it all, and didn't offer to kick.

Later at night, Pat and I watched more of the Wild to Willing video. The woman said how important it was to not skip any steps because it would come back later to hurt you. My not "insisting" on being able to rub Skeeter's right side did hurt us later on when we tried to get him to target the left shoulder. It's all so new and interesting . . . taming a wild horse! Awesome! He's small, but he's still wild!

We did a video today of me and Skeeter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtwK3Z9dLh8