weaning
Filed in: training
Weaning
Hi Ross
Glad you are up and running again.
A background to my questions. (Don't feel you have to answer them if you are under the pump!)
iMy 1/3 share ownership foal is called Lucy. She and Vance (the mother separated yesterday). They were stalled for 24 hours together then Vance went to within eyesight, in a yard . Sunshine is 12 days ahead of Lucy in the "Get with the Souter program."
I moved "Sunshine" the gelded weanling that I am getting paid "to handle/wean" next door to Lucy to keep her company. Sunshine has now been off his mum for 10 days approx. I can catch him in the roundyard and he is becoming more settled.I can get him to step his shoulder over. He had a mow you down mentality. I want to put him in a small paddock by himself to test the catching til I am happy with that, but presently he has a job babysitting! I am confident he will be ok when I do the paddock thing.
Lucy is much easier to handle than him but now she is a little disconcerted with what I have done! She has had half hearted attempts at trying to climb/rear out of the stable. Sunshine did the same only much more forceful. He actually fell back down after getting his hooves up over the top. I think he stopped doing that once he fell.
Anyway. Sunshine has a little lack of forward ( he has been haltered for vet care on his back leg and a bit of "handling" from my Dad and his owner, Bob) and roped to be gelded about 3 weeks ago.) and I am not sure how to get it happening apart from scaring the "bejesus" out of him- which is not the aim of the game...
I wanted to use the flag and I new it would not go well but I had to try. So I started with walking Sunshine towards the flag and it ended ugly a couple of times, he reared and got the rope tangled around a front leg but I hung on and eventually it came free and somehow we went again. And after he fleetingly touched the flag by my insistence, I gave up and thought a better approach might be behind his front leg. That went better. He could handle it and over the front of the leg and even up to the wither and I even got him to walk forward. (around me). But he was ready to flee, waiting for me to stuff up.
If you were here you could berate and berate me into doing the right thing. Nah Nah Nah nah nah! ............ Since you are not....
QUESTION 1: do you think I should keep going to get Sunshine like Cowboy with the flag (and improve on that) or should I work on the going forward by the rope alone? WITH the rope alone, Sunshine follows, but not to the feel of the rope. As I go along the rope gets a drag in it. I have begun to pick up on this a bit better and am trying to tell him that if there is a drag in the rope there will be an unpleasant "tug". And then I will start again.
Sunshine can handle the rope between his front legs and will move each front leg. Tomorrow I am going to work on each back leg. I want to fix the "drag on the lead" before I begin float loading. I wanted to try and fix the drag thing before I started walking him around the farm yard. I thought I should get it better in the enclosed space first.(question 1b.: What do you think??
To get him to my place we used the rope around his bum to get him into the float. (His mum was in thew float and he would not go in with her.)
:question 2: To minimise risk when socialising filly and gelding weanlings Lucy and Sunshine, I want to put them in the roundyard as I feel if they play havoc they wont get caught in wire fences. But, Sunshine, laid into my dad's weanling gelding, Cheeky, really viciously (when the mares and foals) were in the same small enclosed yard too) and so I am nervous with a smallish area for the filly to run away. Maybe a large-ish paddock would be better.........
Any words of wisdom?
Comment: Who needs to take books on a clinic tour when you have "Gone With the Wind" email sagas to read!
Cheers,
Amanda
ps. Fantastic to see you have some younger bunnies to deal with!
Answers:
A1. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you get it better. It is neither here or there if you use the flag or the rope or Tom's stinky socks. If you are worried about getting him okay with the flag, don't use it. If you are confident then go for it.
A2. I don't know because I can't judge the personality of your horse from this far away. I would be nervous about letting them into a large paddock with wire fences because they could run through the wire out of sheer exuberance. My thought might be to make 2 yards side by side out of your round pen panels and stick one in each of them for a day or three. This way they can get familiar with each other without a lot of potential damage. Then re-build your round yard and put them together in there for a day or 3 before letting them out into a bigger paddock.
Hi Ross
Glad you are up and running again.
A background to my questions. (Don't feel you have to answer them if you are under the pump!)
iMy 1/3 share ownership foal is called Lucy. She and Vance (the mother separated yesterday). They were stalled for 24 hours together then Vance went to within eyesight, in a yard . Sunshine is 12 days ahead of Lucy in the "Get with the Souter program."
I moved "Sunshine" the gelded weanling that I am getting paid "to handle/wean" next door to Lucy to keep her company. Sunshine has now been off his mum for 10 days approx. I can catch him in the roundyard and he is becoming more settled.I can get him to step his shoulder over. He had a mow you down mentality. I want to put him in a small paddock by himself to test the catching til I am happy with that, but presently he has a job babysitting! I am confident he will be ok when I do the paddock thing.
Lucy is much easier to handle than him but now she is a little disconcerted with what I have done! She has had half hearted attempts at trying to climb/rear out of the stable. Sunshine did the same only much more forceful. He actually fell back down after getting his hooves up over the top. I think he stopped doing that once he fell.
Anyway. Sunshine has a little lack of forward ( he has been haltered for vet care on his back leg and a bit of "handling" from my Dad and his owner, Bob) and roped to be gelded about 3 weeks ago.) and I am not sure how to get it happening apart from scaring the "bejesus" out of him- which is not the aim of the game...
I wanted to use the flag and I new it would not go well but I had to try. So I started with walking Sunshine towards the flag and it ended ugly a couple of times, he reared and got the rope tangled around a front leg but I hung on and eventually it came free and somehow we went again. And after he fleetingly touched the flag by my insistence, I gave up and thought a better approach might be behind his front leg. That went better. He could handle it and over the front of the leg and even up to the wither and I even got him to walk forward. (around me). But he was ready to flee, waiting for me to stuff up.
If you were here you could berate and berate me into doing the right thing. Nah Nah Nah nah nah! ............ Since you are not....
QUESTION 1: do you think I should keep going to get Sunshine like Cowboy with the flag (and improve on that) or should I work on the going forward by the rope alone? WITH the rope alone, Sunshine follows, but not to the feel of the rope. As I go along the rope gets a drag in it. I have begun to pick up on this a bit better and am trying to tell him that if there is a drag in the rope there will be an unpleasant "tug". And then I will start again.
Sunshine can handle the rope between his front legs and will move each front leg. Tomorrow I am going to work on each back leg. I want to fix the "drag on the lead" before I begin float loading. I wanted to try and fix the drag thing before I started walking him around the farm yard. I thought I should get it better in the enclosed space first.(question 1b.: What do you think??
To get him to my place we used the rope around his bum to get him into the float. (His mum was in thew float and he would not go in with her.)
:question 2: To minimise risk when socialising filly and gelding weanlings Lucy and Sunshine, I want to put them in the roundyard as I feel if they play havoc they wont get caught in wire fences. But, Sunshine, laid into my dad's weanling gelding, Cheeky, really viciously (when the mares and foals) were in the same small enclosed yard too) and so I am nervous with a smallish area for the filly to run away. Maybe a large-ish paddock would be better.........
Any words of wisdom?
Comment: Who needs to take books on a clinic tour when you have "Gone With the Wind" email sagas to read!
Cheers,
Amanda
ps. Fantastic to see you have some younger bunnies to deal with!
Answers:
A1. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you get it better. It is neither here or there if you use the flag or the rope or Tom's stinky socks. If you are worried about getting him okay with the flag, don't use it. If you are confident then go for it.
A2. I don't know because I can't judge the personality of your horse from this far away. I would be nervous about letting them into a large paddock with wire fences because they could run through the wire out of sheer exuberance. My thought might be to make 2 yards side by side out of your round pen panels and stick one in each of them for a day or three. This way they can get familiar with each other without a lot of potential damage. Then re-build your round yard and put them together in there for a day or 3 before letting them out into a bigger paddock.