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!

Twister and the Round Pen

Twister saw Daddy working in the round pen yesterday and watched from outside looking in. He really wanted to get in and see what it was about. The round pen is in the field they are in, so it is a part of what he knows. Well, this morning I look out and Twister and Butterscotch are both playing in the round pen. I love seeing him discover new things with a confidence.

Twister was pushing the barrels around with his nose and playing with the ball that is in there. So much confidence....now if Butterscotch our barrel- jumping pony will just teach him to jump it... :)

We also noticed that he has 2 new baby teeth. They are certainly helping him eat more hay, and not look so silly doing it!

We plan on working Sally in the round pen now that Twister is comfortable with it. She needs to be "led". Without a leader stronger than her, she is getting to be a bit spoiled and bratty without the confidence and stability that training gives her. She needs a good brushing out too! I think she is shedding her whole coat again!

When I grow up....I want to be a cutting horse!

Twister was off playing with Butterscotch and wandered away from Mom. Now this is still great with him..if it is his idea. Mom left him and went over to eat hay and he proceded to play some dominance games with Butterscotch that he quickly again realized that he might not win. He had to run the full length of the field to get to Mom before Butterscotch got to him! Look at the dust when he was running around the round pen. He ran the whole way neighing to his Mommy. He does have some speed on him though!

Such a little pest.....

Now, we all know how cute our little Twister is, he has really perfected his gait and does not look quite as clumsy. He plays with the ponies and is even eating hay, but he has developed a fun new game. This game is "bite the big horses ears while they graze".
First, let me say that Twister does not realize how very lucky he is. He loves to play this game with Lightning and Lightning is being way more patient than most horses would be. When he drops his head to graze, Little Twister comes up and bites his ear...Lightning lifts his head above Twisters' and then drops his head to graze and the game is repeated. Twister does not grow bored of the game for quite some time. After about 10 minutes Lightning gently lifts his neck and and pushes Twister gently off to the side with a gentle driving game.
Twister then moves on to the other horses, though Mom is not at all patient with the game...he gets in one, maybe two quick bites before he gets a quick bite on the hiney. He is a lucky horse to have such a great Dad.

Meeting the rest of the herd....hmm this could be fun!

Today when Sally and Lightning were in the barn eating their evening feed, we put the two ponies back into the field. We did this because Butterscotch is a pony with a lot of "go". We knew that as she entered the field she would have to run a few laps and buck and roll. She did all of the above. I don't think she stopped for a good 10 minutes. Then she grazed for a bit and started all over again! She had most of this out of her system by the time that Mom, Twister and Dad came out of the barn.

Twister became instantly intrigued. Now to give you a picture...since I of course did not have my camera...the ponies are a little over 40 inches (10 hands) at the withers (base of the neck). If I were to take a guess Twister is about 9 hands at the withers, so the size is about the same. There were a few curious "I'm not looking at you" sideways glances, but then he realized that they were not a threat. He then proceded to drive Butterscotch. What he did not know is that his Mom was behind him at first and was giving Twister the backup he needed to be in charge of the poor pony, but soon he was able to do this on his own.

He was able to drive her several more times and in between she was really showing off as well. (They may actually be made for each other!) Mom was generally OK with this, until he took out at a full sprint at Butterscotch....Mom felt like maybe he was getting a bit big for his britches at that point and cut him off and drove him back towards the barn a few steps.

I think he may have finally found someone with as much play drive as he has! I bet he will sleep well tonight!