05/01/2023
UPDATE ON BEAU 💙
Tuesday
Beau is a sensitive little soul and he’s proven to straight away come out all guns blazing, ready to react at the slightest request from us.
He reacts before thinking and has been quite “explosive” for lack of a better word at times. He will use his body as a weapon wether that be rearing up and throwing the front legs out at you, running backwards a million miles an hour or just plain bowling through you, he’s tried it all.
On Tuesday we had quite the discussion after first giving us the run around for 20-30 minutes to try and catch him, we were just trying to get him to walk over to the tie up area to groom him, where he threw all of the above at us completely out of nowhere. We were forced to put a stud chain across his nose for our own safety as that is paramount. He quickly learnt that the chain isn’t fun at all and it actually made him start to think about his actions and wether or not what we were asking of him was worth the explosion or not.
I was quite hesitant to use the chain on him at first as in the wrong hands, it can very easily be used as a weapon but in this case, it’s proven to be very helpful.
Within 10 minutes we had a very different horse and the chain was there merely for precaution. Once we got him to stand at the tie up area quietly for a couple minutes, we moved on into the arena where we did some desensitising work and a little bit of pressure & release training as his number one trick when he isn’t being explosive is to plant the feet and not budge.
He handled this new task very well and within a few minutes he was really grasping the concept of when I apply a little pressure, I release as soon as he takes a step. He was starting to really think about his actions and take in what was being asked, rather than just exploding at the mere thought of something new.
Wednesday
Yesterday we started without the chain just to see what he would do when being brought in from the paddock. He thought about planting the feet but the pressure and release training from the day before was very helpful. Once we got over to the tie ups he started to become explosive again and nearly flipped himself over whilst rearing up so we then put the chain back on him for precaution, and he instantly calmed down and was thinking about what was being asked.
We managed to get him walking into the cross ties, again using that pressure & release training from the day before. I didn’t want to push it and ask him to turn around, so I was happy with having him stand quietly in them and then asking him to calmly back out after a minute or so. We did this a few times and he remained calm throughout.
Next we went back into the arena where we did a little more desensitising. He was so unbelievably calm that we decided to try and sit a saddle on him (normally I wouldn’t go straight for the saddle, however his owner has told us that they’ve had a saddle and bridle on him before). We placed the saddle on and did it up very slowly. I asked him to walk on, expecting a massive explosion and to my surprise he walked off extremely calmly. We lunged for a while with the saddle on, then tightened the girth a little and he still couldn’t care less.
We then decided to put a bridle on to see how he would handle that. Once the bridle was on, he mouthed it a little bit then he was all good.
I was extremely over the moon with this as going from the day before, I was thinking he was nearly going to be too much for me to handle and I’m happy to admit that when that’s the case. But I’ve began to peel off those defensive layers and underneath I think is going to be a very lovey, sweet natured little pony. He just has some issues that he needs us to help him through and I look forward to being able to bring the best out in him and show him that not everything is out to hurt him! And to hopefully be able to get rid of the chain in our next session!
💙💙💙
