Gatsby and Daisy's first day practicing haltering
Neither horse has had much handling, although both accept being touched. Gatsby, a dark red sorrel gelding, really enjoys being scratched and rubbed, especially on his neck. Daisy, a lanky chestnut mare, is a bit more shy–she seems to like getting scratched, but she will move off if she gets a bit worried. I started off by just hanging out with the two of them in the large run-in shed. I alternated letting them sniff me and follow me around with scratching and brushing them. Both tolerated a metal curry comb, which was great.
Daisy learns about ropes
Then, I went and got a couple of handfuls of grain to practice with the actual halters. Well, Gatsby was an eager beaver then! The little guy is definitely motivated by his stomach. He was very willing to work for a bit of grain, and acclimated to the halter and rope pretty quickly. Of course, we did go in baby steps, first getting him to let me put my hand over his neck. Then having him let me rub all over the top of his neck and poll with the halter. After that I let it dangle and swing around off the far side of his face. Finally, it was pretty easy to pull up the nose band and fasten the halter.
I repeated putting the halter on and off about half a dozen times. He’s nowhere near perfect, of course, but by the end he was standing quietly for me to put the halter on, without having to go through all the intermediate steps. Daisy was a tad more skeptical at first, but after a bit of repetition she was also allowing me to put a halter on and off.
Gatsby
Gatsby was doing great, so I hooked on a lead rope and we left the shed to wander around the pasture. It was a mixture of leading combined with him following me since he knew I had food. However, for a horse who had never worn a halter before, he was doing great! So, we even left the pasture (and all his buddies) and took just a short little walk around the property up to the feed room to say hi to Dawn. He got nervous and unsure about walking on the concrete, but all in all, he did excellently.
Overall, it was a very successful day! Gatsby and Daisy are both smart and sweet little horses and should be fun to work with. They have the potential to be great riding horses for whoever ends up adopting them. As you can see in the photo below, they are both quite curious and friendly. It was hard taking photos because they wanted to stay with me the whole time!
Is that camera edible?
Very interesting reading your experiences with the horses! I am enjoying reading your blog.
Thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Mary
It sounds like they each did quite well. Good for you.
Great job! Sounds like things went really well. 🙂
It did! I think both of these kids are going to be great little horses!
Great job! You know it is hard to know how fast some animals will progress but also very rewarding when they figure out that their behavior responses are why they are being rewarded.
Love the last caption, made me giggle!
Gatsby is especially cute! He has a very curious and good nature expression. How old is he?
Molly, I have no idea! I’d like to look at his teeth, which should be possible now that he’s fairly comfortable with a halter. (we were able to work more on haltering/leading today).
Many of the horses we rescued from Iowa seem to be smaller–quarter pony sized rather than horse sized. I would guess he was probably a 2008 baby and will be 2 sometime this year.
Mary
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Mary
It did! I think both of these kids are going to be great little horses!
Molly, I have no idea! I'd like to look at his teeth, which should be possible now that he's fairly comfortable with a halter. (we were able to work more on haltering/leading today).
Many of the horses we rescued from Iowa seem to be smaller–quarter pony sized rather than horse sized. I would guess he was probably a 2008 baby and will be 2 sometime this year.
Mary