This is how terrifying the scary gate is. Does it look terrifying?
We had what I took as a positive evening yesterday, Rio appears to be taking objection to leaving his field at the moment, but once I got him out of the first gate, last night he walked through here and stood nicely when I closed it. Today, we disagreed about leaving the field, and then spent 10 minutes around this gate trying to establish that the grass ghouls had left the area.
Last night, I was very proud of myself and how calm I stayed when he was being a bit silly and playing up. Tonight, I had to remind myself to breathe, and that we aren't raising voices any more. I had to opt for keeping his feet moving and having him move laterally in the hope that it would generate him some confidence in what I was asking of him.
I resorted myself to just making it out of the field, we had a little wander and Rio had some grass to settle. I decided that we would head up to the barn after all, and we had another discussion at scary point number 2 by the bath tubs. After a lot of walking in wiggly snaking lines, and some more lateral work, we made it past.
I have simple aims with each evening at the moment:
- Getting out of the field, hopefully with less disagreements as time goes on
- Tying up at the barn, to get Rio used to standing quietly on his own, and getting accustomed to his surroundings in his own time
- Picking feet without argument, and remaining relaxed (both of us!)
- Having Rio stand at the mounting ramp with me standing next to him on it, and leaning on/over him
I hope that this little routine will gradually build my confidence and his trust, because although we have issues at the beginning of the evening, he is more than happy to play at liberty when we get back to the field! If only he trusted me as much out of the field as he does in it. He's so funny bless him. Just need to get working on my parelli games so that he knows where my personal space is, and then hopefully it will help us get further together. With being off on holiday in 8 days, I could really do with him being less stubborn coming out of the field as friends are going to be taking care of him!!
Just in case you hadn't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for the skies at the moment. Aren't they just lovely? They are all from the last few days, the last one was this evening, and I was expecting a storm to break out any minute, but the skies were blue 20 minutes later!
Ride/play safe x
Hi Laura, I've been browsing through your blog & reading about your trouble with the electric gate and an old memory popped up. Years back, there was a 'spook spot' in my arena. It was just at the back of the stables, so I put the spooking down to the horses in the arena hearing sudden noises coming from the stabled horses. Then I read an article about electric fencing and had a light-bulb moment. The earthing system for my fence was just at that point, between the arena and the back of the stables and it turned out that all the horses were getting a mild electric shock every time they went past that point. I moved the earthing system and the spooking stopped immediately. So just a thought - ask the YO where is the electric fence earthed?
ReplyDeleteALternatively, is the fence shorting (making a cracking sound) when the gate is open? That's often enough to spook a horse who's had a few shocks. Maybe try turning off the fence before you go to fetch Rio?
Other than that, watch his feed. The cold-blooded cobby types are often very sensitive to sugars and can get a bit giddy with any sugars in their diet (spring grass comes to mind).
Best of luck.
Thank you very much, it's funny you should mention the electrical earthing as they've had the same problem at the yard before a few years ago. I will definitely ask the question though just in case. The gate does sometimes short, but if you could see him, he seems to play it up rather than being genuinely scared.
DeleteI have stopped giving him hard feed a few weeks ago now, as he's turned out 24/7 and we have good grass. He's grazed most of it down, so I'm hoping that if it is the sugars he should start to cool off!
Fingers crossed! Thank you for taking the time to reply :)
Rio is soooo pretty! Even when he's not being good, per say, it would be so hard to stay mad at that face!!
ReplyDeleteIt is very difficult indeed, I just can't stay mad at him at all!
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