On (almost) Wordless Wednesdays,
I feature rescued animal in north Texas.
Beau, our big black and white paint horse has been appearing quite frequently on my blog this summer, as he has been making great progress with his training!
Beau has a gorgeous, long mane. However, he tends to get huge knots and tangles in his mane. Sometimes, the knots get so tangled together that they turn into dreadlocks.
In the past, we’ve mostly left Beau’s mane alone. Having your mane brushed can hurt, especially if there are big knots or tangles.
Beau has gotten so much more relaxed this summer about having people touch his neck and mane. Recently, we’ve been working on brushing Beau’s mane. Twice ealier this month we’ve brushed his mane in a “two-person team.” One person to talk to him, scratch his nose (which he loves!) and feed him treats, while the second person slowly puzzles out how to undo the knots without pulling too much on his mane.
Even though Beau can wear a halter now, we’ve been doing all of this mane brushing at liberty. That way, if he wants to leave, he always can. It’s always important for the animal to have a choice during training.
We use a detangler product called Cowboy Magic Detangler.
This past weekend, I noticed another big dreadlock starting to form in the middle of Beau’s mane. He stood calmly and let me pull the knots apart and run the brush through his entire mane. (Well, almost all of it! He’s still not too sure about having a big brush up behind his ears, so we skipped his forelock and the bits of mane right behind his ears.) After I finished, his mane looked SO much better. It was hard to snap a good photo of him, because he kept trying to follow me around afterward. But, I managed to get one good one!
Check out the photo above, doesn’t he look gorgeous with his mane all brushed?!
He looks great Mary. It’s very helpful to have you explain all the steps taken in getting to this point.
What about his tail? Have you tackled that yet?
Gail
PS – enjoyed the good report (again, so nicely detailed) on Blossom’s ride taking in all the recycle boxes…..very clever indeed 🙂
Hi Gail,
Thanks for the comment and also the question!
Glad you also enjoyed the post earlier in the week about Blossom. She and I have been having a lot of fun lately. 🙂
Regarding Beau’s tail, I have not tried to brush it out yet. He will let me touch all over his back, hips, and hindquarters, but he still sometimes gets concerned when I am touching or standing near his tail. I want to make sure he is super comfortable with me standing near his tail and touching his tail and around his tail before I start trying to brush out his tail. I don’t want to do things he isn’t comfortable with and I also want to make sure that I don’t put myself in a position where I could potentially get kicked.
Hopefully we’ll be able to brush Beau’s tail soon! 🙂
I’ll keep posting about his progress as we keep working with him.
cheers,
Mary
It looks so pretty! If I don’t brush Shy’s it locks up, too. Not knots, but more like twists.
Yes, that’s what happens with Beau, too. He gets twists, which eventually turn into big dreadlocks. I love long manes, but they definitely are more work to take care of!
~Mary
He does look beautiful.
Mary, it warms my heart reading about how gently you treat these animals, and with such respect and compassion. Thank you, to you and all the other volunteers, for what you do.
Thanks Dianne!
Beau’s journey has been a long one, but everyone at the rescue has been so pleased with his progress over the summer and really, over the past year.
We have a few new volunteers who are interested in positive training who have recently started at the rescue. This is exciting, as they’ll be able to help Beau (and his buddy Gracie) learn how to interact positively with a variety of different people.
cheers,
Mary