The second issue for Dommitt was when it came to worming him. He simply flew to the back of his stable when I nonchalantly went in carrying the dreaded syringe. Being totally honest, before the 5 day course, I would have put a head collar on him and gone ahead with the worming regardless of him throwing his head up in the air and trying to get away - but just those 5 days started to change my thinking - I thought to myself that it didn't matter if
he was wormed today or in a few days time - so all I did was stroke him down his neck with the syringe, using the same technique with the worming syringe as we are taught with the plastic bags on a stick - taking it away when he stood still - gradually the strokes moved onto his cheek and finished down to the corner of his mouth and I left it at that for the first day. It only took two more of those sessions to get the worming job done and although on the third day he momentarily jerked his head up when the paste was squirted into his mouth, the process was totally stress-free and at no time did I force him to accept the syringe.
Finally clipping! This was the biggest challenge of the lot and so I have saved it to last. Dom was simply terrified of clippers. The first time I switched them on, he backed off from me with such a look in his eye as if I had got some weapon of death in my hands. I knew that this was going to take a lot of time, patience and trust. As Dom had already spent some time at Hartsop Farm, he was obviously listening to the dually halter very well but I did go through the process of a couple of join-ups and some schooling to the dually just to ask him to listen to me and follow me.
I proceeded to do a lot of de-sensitising with the plastic bags on a stick. He found this pretty spooky but soon settled down once he realised that standing still resulted in the bags going away. I was quickly able to rustle them all over his body, even up between his ears and down over his face. I decided to then try some small clippers, quieter and with less vibration than
my big shearing clippers. At first, he backed off but I continued to advance towards him and as soon as the clippers made contact with him he stood still and so I took them away. We quickly made good progress. The big clippers were a different story. The amount of vibration and noise made the others seem pathetic and as soon as I turned them on I knew I was not going to be able to make contact with him without putting my own safety at risk. I had to think of something different. How could I increase the noise and amount of vibration more gradually from the small to the large clippers? I don’t know why they came into my head (probably because three out of my four children are boys and I am constantly surrounded by smelly ones!) but I suddenly thought of rugby socks! I gathered as many as I could find and layered them one after another over the clippers. They certainly seemed to dull down the noise and vibration a little but was it going to be enough? I switched them on. As before, Dom backed off but using pressure on the dually he stopped and let me approach. Amazingly he allowed me to make contact! I stroked him only about half a dozen times, taking them away each time as he stood still, before finishing that session – he had done so well.
Next session I did only about two minutes with the plastic bags, again used the small clippers and then on to the large clippers covered with rugby socks. Gradually my plan wa
s to peel off the layers of socks one by one but I did not manage to this session as he was still only just accepting them.
It took two weeks but eventually he ‘accepted’ the big clippers and I was able to actually clip him. He is still not completely relaxed – I can see by his muscles that he braces himself as the clippers approach but he copes with it. I am so proud of him! One point to note – I had to take care to not let the clippers run for too long when covered in layers of socks for risk of them overheating.
I am so very thankful that I came across Intelligent Horsemanship. Without the skills that I am starting to learn, none of this would have been possible. So much of what Monty and Kelly say is constantly circulating in my head but probably the one thing that has helped me most with Dom is ‘incremental learning’. I have had to work with Dom one step at a time. Softly softly, step by step, building gradually on each session. Thank you Kelly, Linda, Ian, Rosie, Sandra and everyone else at Hartsop Farm and see you soon!
Click here to go back to part 1
he was wormed today or in a few days time - so all I did was stroke him down his neck with the syringe, using the same technique with the worming syringe as we are taught with the plastic bags on a stick - taking it away when he stood still - gradually the strokes moved onto his cheek and finished down to the corner of his mouth and I left it at that for the first day. It only took two more of those sessions to get the worming job done and although on the third day he momentarily jerked his head up when the paste was squirted into his mouth, the process was totally stress-free and at no time did I force him to accept the syringe.
Finally clipping! This was the biggest challenge of the lot and so I have saved it to last. Dom was simply terrified of clippers. The first time I switched them on, he backed off from me with such a look in his eye as if I had got some weapon of death in my hands. I knew that this was going to take a lot of time, patience and trust. As Dom had already spent some time at Hartsop Farm, he was obviously listening to the dually halter very well but I did go through the process of a couple of join-ups and some schooling to the dually just to ask him to listen to me and follow me.
I proceeded to do a lot of de-sensitising with the plastic bags on a stick. He found this pretty spooky but soon settled down once he realised that standing still resulted in the bags going away. I was quickly able to rustle them all over his body, even up between his ears and down over his face. I decided to then try some small clippers, quieter and with less vibration than
my big shearing clippers. At first, he backed off but I continued to advance towards him and as soon as the clippers made contact with him he stood still and so I took them away. We quickly made good progress. The big clippers were a different story. The amount of vibration and noise made the others seem pathetic and as soon as I turned them on I knew I was not going to be able to make contact with him without putting my own safety at risk. I had to think of something different. How could I increase the noise and amount of vibration more gradually from the small to the large clippers? I don’t know why they came into my head (probably because three out of my four children are boys and I am constantly surrounded by smelly ones!) but I suddenly thought of rugby socks! I gathered as many as I could find and layered them one after another over the clippers. They certainly seemed to dull down the noise and vibration a little but was it going to be enough? I switched them on. As before, Dom backed off but using pressure on the dually he stopped and let me approach. Amazingly he allowed me to make contact! I stroked him only about half a dozen times, taking them away each time as he stood still, before finishing that session – he had done so well.
Next session I did only about two minutes with the plastic bags, again used the small clippers and then on to the large clippers covered with rugby socks. Gradually my plan wa
s to peel off the layers of socks one by one but I did not manage to this session as he was still only just accepting them.
It took two weeks but eventually he ‘accepted’ the big clippers and I was able to actually clip him. He is still not completely relaxed – I can see by his muscles that he braces himself as the clippers approach but he copes with it. I am so proud of him! One point to note – I had to take care to not let the clippers run for too long when covered in layers of socks for risk of them overheating.
I am so very thankful that I came across Intelligent Horsemanship. Without the skills that I am starting to learn, none of this would have been possible. So much of what Monty and Kelly say is constantly circulating in my head but probably the one thing that has helped me most with Dom is ‘incremental learning’. I have had to work with Dom one step at a time. Softly softly, step by step, building gradually on each session. Thank you Kelly, Linda, Ian, Rosie, Sandra and everyone else at Hartsop Farm and see you soon! Click here to go back to part 1
This was clearly something that needed addressing, but how? I had in my mind that he had recently changed his home and probably needed time to settle in but also he has a history of jumping out anyway and so this worried, anxious behaviour was maybe partly his nature. As I saw it I had two choices: try to set up a scenario where he would graze separately from the others, thereby getting him used to being more independent, or let him be a part of the herd and manage the comings and goings at home by never moving him first or last and putting him somewhere safe (the roundpen) when taking the others away to pony club events.
My initial gut instinct was to separate him but I knew unless I had six foot fencing all round him, he would simply hop over the boundary. I needed to do this gradually, by degrees, almost so that he wouldn’t notice it had happened. I divided our paddock up into three sections with electric fencing; the left hand strip containing Alfie and Trigger and the middle and right hand strips, with a three foot gap in the electric fencing, containing Paddy and Dom. At times I noticed that Dom and Paddy were on the same side of the fencing but at other times they were on opposite sides - Dom didn't seem to mind this. After a few days with this set-up I turned them out as normal and kept an eye on where Paddy and Dom were in relation to each other. As they wandered onto opposite sides of the fencing, I sauntered out and closed up the gap. Dom didn’t seem to mind – I couldn’t believe it! A huge step forward for him.