What is that thing again?

Twister and I began daily training last week. He is so funny about it. We really should have kept up with the halter as he has been growing but when he was about 3 months old he realized that the halter restricted him and did not like the feel of it on his nose. We were then so busy, I just did not work with him as I should, but he is so comfortable with us that it is not a big concern. Over the past month or so I have just allowed him to smell it, play with it and to just set on the end of his nose. I tied the halter after he got confidence with it being on the end of his nose.

Here is a photo I took with my phone while we were working. He was just trying to pretend not to see me. His horsenality is mostly left brained introvert, when learning he can go right brained, but he usually stays left brained or returns left brained quickly. I don't know if this might change as he gets older but it is pretty consistent so it leads me to believe that this is his horsenality. He reminds me so much of his Daddy, which is very good!

Ok...I know I am behind....way behind!

We finally have something new to report!  Twister is being weaned.  I had put it off for a bit, though he is still within the age range that is acceptable.  At four months he just still seemed young.  He was becoming more independent and we had to rotate fields with some of the horses to protect the field from over grazing as much as possible.  

It has not been the horror that I thought it would be, and we are on the second day.  He calls to Mom and she to him, but this morning was the only real fit we had and it was Mom, not Twister!  He has begun to realize that maybe Mom backed him up more than he realized.  He ran out to me in the field today when our pony would not let him in the stall to eat.  He hollered until I walked back up there with him and made her be nice to him.  It was funny becasue it was like he was tattling. He ran up to me, stopped and then started hollering!

He is becoming much more attatched to me as well and like to just walk the field with me and loves to get his neck scratched.  He is getting so big, he is bigger than our 10 month old colt and he is only at 5 months!  Here are the photos...doesn't he look sad?

OOh my! Poor little ducks...

I think that maybe Twister was just tired of being in the barn out of the rain. Although he has free access to the field, Mom doesn't like the rain, so he stays in during the rain. When he got out in a lull in the storms he saw the poor little ducks that were playing in the puddles in the field. They were a bit spread out and I guess he was just helping Mama duck out.He is so "cowy" he had them all in a circle and then was pushing them out of the field...until Daddy duck came out that is. He is so quick and has such power in those front legs! Such a big boy, It is hard to believe that he is over 2 months old!

School's Out!

We finally finished all the end of the school year activities and the long holiday weekend. Now we can take a break...at least until summer school starts next week!

Twister had a new experience yesteray. Our daughter had a campout in the backyard and put up a tent. He was a bit curious about this new thing in his yard. He spent a lot of the evening looking at it with curiosity. When I woke up this morning all of the horses were still looking at the tent, though I think at this point it was because they heard the girls and wanted to be fed!

Twister loves to be scratched between his ears and has really started developing a great "horsenality". He has a great level of curiosity. but also a fair level of confidence. Not overly confident, but just ready to experience new things.

I have also taught him how to make sure that he gets his own feed in his own feed bucket. I feed Mom and Dad in the barn and then feed the ponies in the field and he now waits patiently for me to bring him his bucket. He knows it is coming so doesn't follow me back and forth. He only gets a small amount of a high quality concentrated pelleted feed which means that he is finished long before the others! I am proud of his ability to learn quickly, I can't wait to translate this to ground skills training! We are excited about this sweet baby of ours!

Remember...he is not a baby, but a HORSE!

I have to keep reminding myself of this fact. I have been working with all of the horses and Twister has begun to really see my as a part of the herd, but he also sees me play with the horses. Now, in the play I use the Parelli Seven games which are really just ways to communicate with the horse,like a horse. Twister has really been watching this pretty intently...maybe a bit more intently than I was ready for. Twister was trying to play a little nipping game with me today, this is the same game he plays with the "big" horses. To protect my space (and my leg!) I drove him back, them allowed him to come back to me in a polite way.

This can be more tough than it seems. I see Twister as a little baby and I love that he comes up to me so easily. There was a part of me that hated to drive him, but it was done in a very gentle way using rhythmic pressure and really just moving the air around him. I did it is was successful and I was feeling pretty good about it, until.....Twister decided that when I had my back to him he might see if he could get me to move away from his pressure. Luckily I saw it coming and was able to drive him backwards again. I guess I am officially a "horse", a part of his herd in his eyes.

I will have to talk to the kids about protecting their space with this little playful one!

Feeding time at the Zoo!

Well, Twister's Mom Sally is getting a bit dominant at feeding time trying to eat everyone's feed so I have decided to regain my spot as the "alpha mare" of our little herd. I took my carrot stick and made it easier on her to do what I wanted instead of what she wanted! As long as she stayed with her overly generous feed bucket, I released all pressure. When she started pinning her ears, baring her teeth and going for someone elses bucket I not only drove her away. but had them go back to their bucket before I would allow her to go back to hers. After only a few attempts she realized that she was not getting ahead and instead just stayed at her bucket. Now the funny thing is that I also put a bucket there for my little boy with just a little of the feed , and he took his place at his own bucket....pretty cute!