| 11/11/2007 I had to give Tigger away - she presented too much of a danger
to my students, and to the barn owner, Pal. Tigger charged her one morning when feeding, in all-out
attack mode! I just don't have the time, Willingness, or energy to deal with a horse like that
right now. I've got a wedding to plan, that's coming up in less than 2 months, lots of children
coming out to ride that I don't want to endanger, even by having a mare like that around. She
started out being a sweetheart, and for some reason she just snapped - but then when a trainer
came to pick her up, she was evidently just as sweet as could be - no ears back, no attitude,
no nothing. She hopped on the trailer just as good as could be, and was no problem. I'll try to
keep tabs on how she's doing - I got the email of one of the guys that got her. Now I think I'll
just work with the horses I have - maybe I'll keep a weblog on working with Rocky, or Dandy, or
Enoch, or maybe all three. |
| 11/7/2007 No more working with Tigger - she's turned evil! Something
snapped in her, evidently - she bites, tries to kick, rears, bucks, crowhops, and everything that
a good horse wouldn't do. I can't imagine what on earth went wrong! She was so sweet, and so good
- now she's just absolutely mean and awful! I don't have the time, patience, or energy to work
with her like I need to. I'm going to give her back to Jayne, the lady that gave her to me. What
happens from there will be up to her. More to come later on what's happening. I'm waiting to hear
back from her so I can get her to come get Tigger. |
| 10/29/2007 I started riding Tigger again today - and actually I rode
her twice! When I rode her in the morning she was more than a little snotty - pinning her ears
every time I asked her to do anything, and throwing little hissy fits - nothing major though,
just a bit of attitude. I rode her for about an hour at a walk and trot, making lots of turns.
The head-tossing is almost completely gone. Tried using a martingale on her this morning, with
marginal results - not much difference to speak of. I worked with her over small crossrails and
lots of poles, and very few times did she actually manage to get over them without tripping. Tigger
is a very clumsy horse.
Yesterday I worked with Tigger on the trailer - going
in and then backing out without hurting herself because she's so worried about it. She did very
well. She kept trying to turn around to go out, but there wasn't enough room, and I wouldn't let
her because she would have gotten stuck and panicked. Not good. I also rode her western this afternoon,
with just a halter and lead rope for steering, and she had very little attitude at all - and didn't
trip at all going over anything.
|
| 10/25/2007 Tigger's cut is doing much better. In the time I've had to
work with her since she got this cut (which, amazingly, was almost ten days ago!), I've done a
lot of clipper work, worked on tying (to a trailer, a post, and cross-tying), and even worked
with her on deworming - using applesauce and a syringe. I haven't worked with her on the trailer
yet, because I haven't had the time, and I've been really busy with other things. And it's finally
raining! It's been raining for two days now, and the forecast is calling for rain again tomorrow.
Tigger still follows me around, and will stand to be groomed, and will hold her front feet up
for about 15 second intervals now. I haven't worked with her very much on her back feet yet; I
haven't had anyone available to hold her for me. I've clipped her bridle path and most of her
nose so far, without incident, and I've been cleaning that cut twice a day. It's almost completely
healed - it's still draining, which is good, but it left a lot of buildup that had to be cleaned
a lot, and she hates that, because it dries on her shoulder and it takes a lot of work to get
off. I haven't ridden her since she got this cut, but I hope to start riding her again at the
beginning of next week. That'll give her the entire weekend to finish healing. Let's just hope
she doesn't get another cut right after that! |
| 10/16/2007 Things are progressing slowly, but they are progressing,
thankfully. The wound on her hip is almost completely healed, but now she's got a deep cut on
her left shoulder that I'm having to hose out to keep the infection from setting in. Trust me,
that's a fantastic lesson on standing still for her! She'll stand still if I just run the water
over it, but when I put the nozzle directly over the wound and force the water into it, she hates
it and walks forward really fast to get away from the hose. I did that for about 35-40 minutes
today, and she did better than I thought she would. Then I cross-tied her, groomed her, worked
on holding her feet up, brushed her tail out really well, and worked with the clippers. My brand
new clippers stopped working, so I went to Walmart and bought a $20 of people clippers - they
work just fine. That way I won't have sunk a lot of money into something if it doesn't work for
very long. So she did fine with those. After she dried off I sprayed her cut with Wound Kote to
help it clot - it's not working very well, because the wound is still draining. It's really nasty
looking. I won't be able to put a saddle on her until this cut is healed, because it's right over
where the knee roll of the saddle would be. So you can bet we'll be doing a whole lot of ground
work. |
| 9/28/2007 Tigger carved a nice big chunk of flesh out of her hip - smart
horse. It's really tender and I know it hurts her a lot, because she doesn't want anyone to touch
it. It's been a chore getting medicine on it so far, but I always manage in the end. I haven't
ridden Tigger in the last two days, but I've still spent time working with her. Today I was working
on clipping - especially her nose, since she doesn't like that at all. She always throws her head
up and around when I get the clippers near her nose. I worked with her for about twenty minutes
today on keeping her head still, and got most of the long hairs clipped off her nose, and even
got some of them sheared off right next to her skin. Accomplishment! I had her in a stall when
I was trying to spray medicine on her wound, and she ran in circles around and around me trying
to get away from it. I kept working with her, though, and by the time we were done she wasn't
totally scared of the medicine bottle, even though she still didn't like it when I sprayed it
on her. She accepted it, though, without getting mean, so that's good. |
| 9/26/2007 I've ridden Tigger twice again since Sunday, and she just
keeps getting better and better. I started trotting her, and she did great - knew what I wanted
right away, and went right into the trot. She has major steering issues - my knees have had a
lot of very close calls with the fence so far! Her circles are far from round, and she likes to
throw her head around a lot - and tug on the reins like she doesn't quite know how to deal with
having a bit in her mouth after so long. I'm working on that though - every time she tosses her
head, I hold tight on the reins and pop one side of them to get her to stop - and she always does.
When I started out riding her today, the head-throwing was constant - and about 30 minutes into
our workout, she'd go nearly the whole way around the arena without tossing her head at all. Her
transitions are getting better too - she goes right into the trot, and walk, from a halt, and
her downward transitions are getting better - slowly but surely. I worked her all the way around
the arena today, including downhill, for about an hour. She is really out of shape! She was very
wet and lathered with white sweat before I was done with her. More later! |
| 9/24/2007 I rode Tigger yesterday! I saddled her and cinched her up
the day before, and put all my weight in the stirrup - I would have gotten up on her, but I didn't
have a helmet on, and no one else was there in case of disaster, so I didn't. Yesterday I got
up on her, though, and she didn't' care! It took a little persuasion to get her moving, because
I don't think she understood what I wanted her to do. She finally went, though, and she kept bowing
out to one side, but a little leg mostly corrected that problem. I haven't lunged her yet, but
she'll stand still now to be groomed, with just the rope thrown over her neck. She'll pick up
all four feet easily, and she stood quietly in the crossties the other day. She's really curious
and tries to get into everything! Other than tossing her head a few times while I was riding her,
I have nothing to complain about. She was a very good girl! I rode her for about 15 minutes, just
at a walk, over poles, around a barrel, with stops and starts and turns. She didn't offer to run
away, buck, rear, bite, or even pitch any kind of attitude. Whenever I touched her with my heels,
though, I did get a sense of tenseness in her - like she would run away if given the slightest
provocation to. I didn't provoke her to. So I'm very encouraged with Tigger's progress! I gave
her a bath the other day, and I banded her mane while it was wet, so that it would end up all
laying on the correct side of her neck. She's getting along great with the other horses, and all
her cuts are healing very nicely (from confrontations with the other horses). She has no problem
taking the bit, and she'll let me touch her anywhere. I'm excited to see what else I can do with
her.
|
| 9/19/2007 Tigger's training is progressing exponentially well! She doesn't
run over me any more when I'm leading her - she respects my space now. She's gotten a few bumps
and scrapes in the field with the other horses, but she holds her own, thankfully, and gets along
with everyone pretty well. I've given her two baths, and the last time it was a whole bath except
for her tail, and she stood almost completely still the entire time. She'll also stand for grooming
now, and even stand still to let me run the clippers all over her. We found out that she hates
shots when we had to get her Coggins test drawn. I put a saddle and bridle on her the other day
and she just didn't even flinch - she was so good, just let me do anything to her. She'll move
away from pressure on either side now, back up easily, pick up all four feet without protest,
and stop on command. Today I'll work on getting a saddle on her again and cinching it up as tightly
as if I were going to get on her. Last time I pulled it pretty tight, but not as tight as it would
go. I have two other horses I'm exercise riding, so that takes up a good bit of my time as well.
That's why I'm not able to update Tigger's weblog very much. But rest assured, I'll do it when
I can! |
| 9/6/2007 I've worked with Tigger each day since she's gotten here, usually
at least twice a day. So far I've pretty much just been lovin' on her, bonding with her and getting
her used to me. She wouldn't let me touch her nose or mouth at first, and now I can rub all over
her nose, but she won't let me slip my fingers into her mouth yet. All a matter of time, though.
Also she wouldn't stand still to be groomed at first, and today when I spent time with her, she
stood entirely still the entire time I curried and brushed her, including her legs, which I hadn't
ventured before. She even stood still as I walked from side to side, and all the way back to her
tail! We started working on yielding to pressure today - both during backing and moving over when
pressure is applied to her hips. I want her to move when I merely think "move". That's the ultimate
goal. She came right up to me when I went into her pasture, and let me halter her easily. Leading
was better today than yesterday - she didn't try to run me over! She stopped and started as easy
as you please every time I asked her to. It took more than I wanted to get her to back up, but
she's slowly but surely starting to "get it". Tomorrow I'll put a few of the milder horses, including
Prissy, in the quarantine pasture with her to see how she/they do. |
| 9/5/2007 Tigger is here! She came this morning around 10am. Word has
it that she loads on a trailer just fine - she just isn't too sure about the backing out part!
She just about sat down trying to back out of the step-up trailer. Poor thing! She looked around
and then started eating grass. I put her in a stall per the owners' advice, and she fell to eating
grain right away. She wasn't too sure about the cow coming up to check her out, but eventually
realized that the cow wasn't out to get her. I opened the gate where the other horses were and
let them go up into the barn a few at a time to introduce themselves to Tigger. No incident there.
She was very curious and wanted to find out about everyone. I took her out in the field to walk
her along the fence lines, and found out quickly that she doesn't lead very well - she's pushy,
and doesn't really know what whoa means. If she has her own agenda in mind, she just completely
ignores the handler. I spent a good thirty minutes working with her on stopping and starting,
and just basically getting her attention on me. We made our way over to the quarantine pasture,
where I first managed to knock the gate off its posts (that thing is hard to put back on!), and
took her halter off to let her go. She flew around the pasture at breakneck speed - I was scared
she was going to go through the fence! The other horses came up to the fence to see who the new
girl was, and again, really no incidence. I think she's going to have a rough time of it when
she gets in the pasture with them, though. Poor girl. |
| 9/4/2007 Equine Kingdom is acquiring a new horse! Tigger is a 5 year
old Appendix Quarter Horse mare. She's been neglected for most of her life and doesn't trust people
very much yet. She needs a lot of attention and love, and she hasn't been ridden very much. It's
been over 6 months since she was last ridden, so she'll definitely need a lot of refreshers. She's
not very comfortable around other horses, and she'd rather run away than fight her way out. She's
16 hands, dark bay, with a tiny snip of white on the side of her nose. She's a bit skinny, but
we're pretty sure it's stress related. She'll be coming in the morning, and from that point on,
Equine Kingdom will have a new horse to have a training weblog about! It'll start out just groundwork,
but will eventually progress to riding and more advanced training as time goes on. Stay tuned
to the updates on a regular basis! |
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