Today was Whiskey’s official first day of life. Honestly, he did WAY better than I expected! Morning feed. I dumped his grain into his bucket last. Last out of six horses. He waited. After I had put all the buckets up, I decided to go in the round pen with him so I could get his hay bag and see what he did with me in there. What did he do? He stopped eating and came to me!!! Followed me around the round pen like a puppy. For being a food aggressive horse, I was simply SHOCKED.
I decided to push him around the pen a little before leaving. He followed me to the gate and watched me walk away before going back to his grain. Ok then. Good boy! My lesson showed up and luckily, she is to the point where riding is fun (Kathrine is an adult) and she rode around while watching me work with the “baby”. My two goals were to get him to step over something and to get him to move off my body language. He did both!!!
He finally realized that I wanted him to go around the round pen. Now he did bypass the trot over poles a few times then realized that was the long way around. Frankly, he is a tad lazy. So he finally trotted over them then flat jumped them. It took about 45 minutes to get him to whoa on command and face. When he did that, I loved all over him. I know he was expecting a treat but all he got was love and seemed happy. I asked him to back and it was super easy. I guess the little bit of backing up in the trailer stuck with him! So after we did a little lead rope and body movement work, I turned him back loose.
Next, we had to apply treatment to his rash. Not sure if it’s an allergic reaction or a fungus so I treated for both. Shocking, he was not afraid of the sprays at all. I decided it was time to tie him up. Guess what? He did that too!
All in all, it was a good day for Whiskey!
Rachael's Equine Services 