Gran Teddy Auto Log: #183 - My Granny wont float

Gran Teddy Auto Log: #183 - My Granny wont float: Yay, I have a new horse with her own issues. Thankfully it appears to be her only one but she just wont go in the horse float and when coaxe...

#183 - My Granny wont float

Yay, I have a new horse with her own issues. Thankfully it appears to be her only one but she just wont go in the horse float and when coaxed in she plays up.  She goes left and right and jumps around and being such a big girl I need to be particularly careful.

I am trying to get her in each day and when she will go in she backs out virtually straight away.  She pulled back with such force that even when anchoring with all my weight she still managed to take me skiing in the paddock on two occasions. I had to drop the lead twice too. I got her in about five or six times and she ate a mouthful while she was there about half the time but she quickly backed out again. I try being encouraging and talk sweetly and pat her while she is in but if she backs up I have to let her go until she gets passed the entrance as she may hit her head on the top of the float and that would just be more  trouble. She grazed the top of her head today on the top of the float flap but I stopped her on the ramp. Stopping her on the ramp is successful some of the time and I will just have to preserver.

It doesn't help that I have a shocking headache or that Teddy decided to run around neighing for 30 seconds while I was inside the float with her. Sending her searching for him (this was when she grazed the top).

Ideally I hope she will learn to self load but we are very far off that now. I will try again tomorrow and the day after that, so on and so forth. I may have to buy a rearing bit just to gain more control.  She certainly gives me a workout though and don't be fooled my the photo looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth... we that is actually unfair, she is great apart from the floating issue.

Gran Teddy Auto Log: #182 - A new blog name has been chosen!

Gran Teddy Auto Log: #182 - A new blog name has been chosen!: Yeap I have decided to call the revised version of this blog Gran Teddy Auto. It just has that special kind of ring to it. From now on I ...

#182 - A new blog name has been chosen!

Yeap I have decided to call the revised version of this blog Gran Teddy Auto. It just has that special kind of ring to it.

From now on I will be writing about my experiences with both horses. Most likely any writing on Teddy will focus on ground work, natural horsemanship (no particular teaching, just whatever I have adapted that works for me) and liberty work. With Granny I will be focusing on dressage, eventing  and trail riding.  But you never know I might mix it up a bit.

So for any new readers out there (perhaps you were drawn in by the new blog name!) these are my babies, photos taken today:

Granny 

Teddy

Here's to an awesome equine 2013!

Teddy Log: #181 - Looks like this is the Teddy and Gran Log n...

Teddy Log: #181 - Looks like this is the Teddy and Gran Log n...: It's been two weeks since I got my new horse Granny. Not a name I would have chosen but what are ya gonna do! I cant think of a good name...

#181 - Looks like this is the Teddy and Gran Log now

It's been two weeks since I got my new horse Granny. Not a name I would have chosen but what are ya gonna do! I cant think of a good name that sounds like it either and if I do change her name it would have to sound similar.  I must admit that Gran is kind of sticking with me now though, so keeping it looks inevitable.

She is a 14 year old Clydie X TB, 16.1hh. light bay with a baldy face and white patches around her body. She looks mostly Clydie to me, even has the feathering around her hooves and she is built like a tank.  She has great dressage scores from the past but has been out of work for nearly five years so we need to work to get both of our fitness up. It looks like she has her dressage aids firmly committed to memory she is doing so well. She has had one foal in the past but I have her as my new riding mount and Teddy has been doing ground work.

I originally hoped that seeing as she is such a sweet natured girl that some of that may rub off on Teddy but they are in separate paddocks now as the only time I put them together Teddy started being a bossy boots. I don't want her picking up his bad habits, so for now at least, they are talking to each other over the fence with a driveway between them. They seem happy enough with that.

I doubt I will find the time to write a blog for each horse but I still want to record our progress and my ups and downs of returning to riding, so this will now be the Teddy and Granny Log (I need to work out how to change it on Blogger - maybe something like GranTeddy).

Teddy has been doing a bit of ground work and is doing very well. He's a lefty like me so he is working on the squeeze game on the right side. He has actually turned a corner from his rude behaviour of the last month and I  think it might be that I have moved him down the line in the pecking order. I want Gran to be seen as my number one and I do everything with her first. On the one occasion when I didn't, I started Teddy on ground work and took him out of Gran's sight and she started to threat and pace up and down the fence line calling out to him. She is such a girl!  Teddy did the same the first time I took her out of his sight but now he couldn't care less.  And his ground work has been consistently good so I hope we progress a lot on that front. The real test is when I get the float modified to accommodate Gran and take her away from the farm. It will be interesting to see how they both behave.

I have been working Gran fairly regularly after initially coming off her on the first day. She spooked as I was getting on and I hadn't even put my foot in the other stirrup when she seems to simultaneously jump forward, up and to the right and I went backwards and to the left! I fell flat on my side and once again I felt pain in places I'd never experienced before! It took some help from Kim the next day to get me on the right path as I was kind of shaken up by the fall but I'm OK now. Gran is such a lovely horse to ride. Such smooth movement. We are coming along OK but she is still pulling up a little sore. I cant get a physio or masseur out here until next year due to the Christmas holiday (a two week wait) so I've started her on Bute just to be sure. I also find that she is so wide that I'm pulling up sore too!

Today was an unplanned rest day as I've had visitors all day and ended up having a BBQ which left no time to ride. It wont hurt her to have a break but I hope to still work her each day, even at just a walk, to get her fitness up.  Once we are on our way I think I will have to alternate days between Teddy and her. There are also a few clinics coming up mid January so I want to take Gran out to them as well.

So far so good. 

Teddy Log: #180 - Did the Parelli Wild Horse Catching Method ...

Teddy Log: #180 - Did the Parelli Wild Horse Catching Method ...: For a week Teddy was isolated in the laneway so he could not get to water and was fairly confined. This was to allow me to train him to be c...

#180 - Did the Parelli Wild Horse Catching Method Work?

For a week Teddy was isolated in the laneway so he could not get to water and was fairly confined. This was to allow me to train him to be caught. The idea is that the confinement is so he cant run too far away, the rubbing the halter and lead rope on him and massaging him with it etc. is to give him a good experience,  and the only taking him water twice a day and letting him drink after he has been caught is to tell him that I am the boss and he is dependent on me as the pack leader to provide him with what he needs.

So I have now done this for seven days straight and contrary to the Parelli literature saying that this method doesn't fail and that it works on wild horses within a week or two - it failed on Teddy.

Teddy didn't even improve. He is now actually more apprehensive than he was before. Of the two times a day he was offered water from me he refused them. He didn't drink at all on the first day and only drank once a day after that.  He refused to come for food - even his favourites, pears, licorice and peanut butter cups. He would flinch each day I would first put the halter and lead rope on his body to massage him with it, although he was shown it and allowed to smell it each time. And for reasons unknown to me he has now taken to rearing up when I pick his hoof up to oil it each day. He has never done this before in the time I've had him. This isn't a "I have a sore there" rear either, he does it with each hoof and pulls back his back legs with the back hooves over and over and over.  One day he carried on so bad he broke the hay twine the leap rope is tied to twice.

When I go out to him without the halter and lead rope he's fine and on Thursday I was leaning on a gate and he rested his head on the side of my arm and stayed there quietly for a good five minutes before I moved as he was falling to sleep.

I can see no signs of injury or pain. The worst thing he has is a cracked front hoof but its just on the rim and the farrier will have it off next week.

So where to now? I know people will tell me I didn't try the Parelli method long enough but there are two reasons for this. One - he's worse after seven days, and Two - I had to take him out and he will go back in for the next week as our new horse is coming tomorrow and I want them in adjoining paddocks until they get familiar with each other and I've wormed my new horse.  So like it or not he will be getting the same deal next week. It does say in the literature to do something unusual like leave the gate open, so I consider this one of those things it's just he's gate has been open for full day and night (after tonight).

Maybe Granny Smith will bring Teddy back around. We will see.

Teddy Log: #180 - Tough love for Teddy... Again!

Teddy Log: #180 - Tough love for Teddy... Again!: This evening I put Teddy in the laneway where he will stay for a week, maybe two, depending on how he goes. I will bring him water twice a d...

#180 - Tough love for Teddy... Again!

This evening I put Teddy in the laneway where he will stay for a week, maybe two, depending on how he goes. I will bring him water twice a day (obviously more if it's hotter) and lead him to the area where he can drink it once he has accepted the halter and lead rope without being a la la.

He isn't being fed right now apart from the mercy cup he gets with his vitamins and there is plenty of feed in the laneway so he should give it a good mow.  I'll expand the area he can be in after the first week and he's achieved good progress.

You can do it Teddy!

Teddy Log: #179 - Teddy and my love/hate relationship with hi...

Teddy Log: #179 - Teddy and my love/hate relationship with hi...: I have decided to retire Teddy from dressage and trail riding, and concentrate on ground work with him. He just has too many issues that are...

#179 - Teddy and my love/hate relationship with him

I have decided to retire Teddy from dressage and trail riding, and concentrate on ground work with him. He just has too many issues that aren't improving and as soon as I think we are getting somewhere with something, for reasons unknown to me he reverts back to an old bad behaviour or he continues to resist in a behaviour I am trying to correct, which I find incredibly frustrating on both counts.

Lately I have had to contend with him deciding that as soon as he sees a halter or lead rope in my hand he runs away and it has taken me, at times, over an hour of constant too-ing and fro-ing to catch him. I try to do this in the way I first taught him, without a bribe etc and he was good to catch for a solid year but suddenly he wont accept this again. Even if I leave the halter and lead rope on the ground and walk away he will walk to me but he wont go within 50 metres of the halter and lead rope. He acts like its a snake in the grass. Once I have him he is fine but I am at a loss to understand why, in a blink, he can revert back to an unwanted behaviour. I ensure I am consistent and as patient as I can be, but I have my limits and I feel I have reached it now.

I have never been able to take him out trial riding and  this is something I'd love to do. I have friends that invite me to trail ride with them and I have to say no as I cant trust Teddy on a trail. He still isn't up to it after all of our ground work lessons, dressage lessons, day to day ground and saddle work at home that I do with him once or twice a week, after all the daily contact where I reinforce behaviours, after getting floated to Bolinda once a week or so, being socialising etc. All of this and I still cant say we have progressed all that far. After two and a half years of working on Teddy's behavioural issues where I feel that I have achieved some great improvements it ends up being me going out to see him one day to find that someone has wiped his mind's whiteboard clean and I have to start all over again from scratch.  This is not an exaggeration. I've made all the excuses for Teddy that  I can.

Here is an example - Today I went out to the paddock with some licorice for him and he initially stood as far back as he could from me and craned his neck to take the licorice. He was stretching that much that he just reached the licorice with his lips. He wouldn't let me touch him and he was acting like he was ready to run off and I didn't have anything with me, just licorice. Go figure!

All this is not a matter of riding or training ability on my part because even a very experienced rider would have trouble settling him on a trail ride and after all these years of dealing with all the horse people out there who think they are "experts" I can tell you I'm just as good, if not better, than most of them when it comes to dealing with a horse. When it comes to trail riding the best I can do is take him to the reserve across the road and ride him around when no-one else is there, but it is never relaxed enough to be enjoyable. I find myself gauging a ride by how well I got through Teddy's issues and a good ride is when I've dealt with fewer problems. I can honestly say that I've never had a problem free ride on Teddy and this isn't something I can "sell on". It would take a very special person for me to move Teddy on to.

So I'm at the stage now where I want to progress with my riding and the only thing that is holding me back on achieving this goal is dealing with Teddy's behaviour. It may be catching, hyperactivity, the constant head tossing, the stepping away from the mounting block, the unpredictable hunching in his back where I wonder if he is considering bucking (this is also fairly new). He has been thoroughly checked by vets and his health is good apart from the minor beginnings of arthritis in his front fetlock which is treated and he shows no signs of lameness and bolt around a paddock freely.

To put it simply - I just don't get it.

I will continue to work on these things with him but on the ground. Maybe, if we go along well, he can graduate to some free style work etc. but he is virtually retired now from riding until something incredible happens.   I am confident enough in my riding to want to progress and to feel happy and content in that progression. To do this I need a horse that can travel with me and Teddy isn't that horse. This may be a failing on my part but I really have tried. I've learned a lot from Teddy and from watching others whose horsemanship abilities I am confident in. I've come a long way since the day I got Teddy and I'm happy with that and for all the lessons I have learned along the way  thanks to Teddy.   

I will get another horse for riding (I've been looking for about 5 months now and I finally thing I have found the right horse) and Teddy can be a companion to that horse as long has there is harmony in the paddock for the most part.

I recently went through the Parelli  level one sessions with Teddy, which I haven't done in months, and he is still very confident with that, so I will work more on going through that ground work program. I just may find that Teddy has another calling and skill set. Only time will tell.

Wish me luck.