M. R. JORDAN
  • Blog
  • Second Blog
  • About
  • Super Maleo
  • Meat Head the Worst Dog in the World
  • The Real Thing
  • Some Things Never Change
  • Boys As Nice as John
  • For You, Mother

My favorite horse today is....

3/9/2021

 
Picture
Picture
It's spring and my mood is improving as it always does this time of year. The horses are feeling the changes too. Tis the season of napping for them, and though spring is the time I start working everyone harder, I do my best to work around their naps. This isn't just they are spoiled. They are. But spring and fall are the time of year that they catch up on missed sleep. The bugs and cloying 100% humidity in the summer make naps restful and winter is just hard on everyone. That doesn't mean they don't nap year round these days they sleep and when they get done they sleep again.

This was the case with Thunder,  our gray mare, today. But I was mean and caught her before her second nap, groomed, saddled, ground work and rode her. She grumped and grumped. However, today is not about her, it's about Black Panther, my favorite horse today. Which is to say, they are all my favorite. Nevertheless, there are days like today, when I feel special affinity toward one.
Black Panther is our ex-stallion. He's a neat horse. Well, they all are... so there's that. Anyway,  normally our horses are in the pasture without a halter but Pan was gelded just last fall.
We have had some ex-stallion behavior. You know, the things that usually make people geld their horses.

But what to do about it was quite the  conundrum. If Pan stalled, Super would then chase Thunder for fun. Also, putting him in a stall didn't teach him anything. He just went right back to it as soon as he was loosed.

I wanted to train Pan that there was a line. That he could defend himself, keep herd order, and boss everybody. But that he couldn't bite and chase.

Picture
.First, I paired a voice warning he knows, showed him the muzzle and then put a  grazing muzzle on him. I repeated throughout the day and left it on overnight. At first he didn't understand, but about a week after I started, there was voice warning he chose to ignore and I carried the grazing muzzle out of the barn. For the first time, he was hard to muzzle. He understood at least, this was something he didn't want to happen.

Because he understood that much, I was then able to give the voice warning, then the warning and show him the muzzle. I only had to put it on him one more time after that. He stopped with my voice warning. Also, along the way I made a bid deal of inspecting all the horses for bites and and fussed when i found any. It's been about two months since we've had anything more than a minor nips.

Then about a month after the grazing muzzle, Pan started chasing but not biting. He ran Thor into the fence and one night we went to the farm after 10 pm, and saw him nearly running Super through the fence. Thunder was helping, because she could and also some payback for all the times Super chased her for entertainment.

Again, stalling was an option but not a long term solution. Thus, after way too much overthinking., I settled on the idea of a breakaway halter and a lead rope.  In theory this would allow Pan to do his bossing around but prevent him from too much chasing. Also, I thought if Thunder decided to help him harass Superman, she'd probably step on the rope too.

While the mental adjustment took about two weeks, the rope was a constant correction.. Then, during the days, I started taking it off and only putting it on if he got too aggressive.  A few days before I took it off both day and night, he snagged the hay net with the clip of his halter. It was one lonely loop of net and yet he stood tied for hours. he was so relieved when I let him loose. Poor baby, but now I know we can go overnight.

Anyway, today, I came out from the barn and he was standing in his stall holding his food bowl by the handle. I couldn't get my camera out to catch him holding his bowl like a dog. So I cleaned some manure and as I came back around the the side he was standing three hooves in his food bowl. Sadly, I only managed to catch him stepping out. If he could speak, he'd probably have said something like, "Just trying to communicate that this is where my food should be."


Below is a short clip of his recent favorite place to be petted. His gums and lip. What a silly boy.

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Advice
    Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
    Authonomy
    Author Interviews
    Awards
    Bear
    Cats
    Contests
    Contest Winners
    Getting Published
    Guest Posts
    ICANN
    Icon Not Find It
    I Learned Something New
    Kindle Scout
    Misc
    National Identity Crisis
    Observations
    People I Respect Very Much
    Pets
    Rejections
    Reviews
    Site Outage
    South Korea
    Web.com
    Weebly
    Weebly Woes
    WHOIS
    Words That Amuse Me
    Writing
    Writing Woes

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    May 2022
    February 2022
    June 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011


Photos used under Creative Commons from cotaroba, Juliana Coutinho, Dare*2*Dream, Brett Jordan, plasticrevolver, Elvert Barnes, Dan-Scape.co.uk, Camp of Champions, Rowdy Rider, timsamoff, TiffanyMichelle Photography, expertinfantry, stormwarning., VarsityLife, Instagram: Brunobrunan, woodleywonderworks, HotlantaVoyeur, Ally Mauro, eBomb716, kalleboo, 1la, DonkeyHotey, trekkyandy, Dita Margarita, ZeroOne, Marina Aguiar Araujo, You Have Reached The End of The Internet, InSapphoWeTrust, Nina J. G., One Way Stock, Ronnie Garcia, +Angst, Anika Malone, evolvingblue, porschelinn, Horia Varlan, Fred Jala, Dyl86, Cia de Foto, mootown, boolve, final gather, Hexidecimal, Arya Ziai, h.koppdelaney, Fan of Retail, (Domino), Celeste Vasconcelos, I .. C .. U, Nomadic Lass, Risager, taylorpad212, Benny(I am empty), Nomadic Lass, aloshbennett, Ben Mortimer Photography, Suedehead, Kyknoord, Lunar Logic, simononly, mike138, Tim Sheerman-Chase, Rusty Clark, papalars, rocketjim54, dno1967b, Tomasz Stasiuk, Robert S. Donovan, Merelymel13, Crystl, Tirso Lecointere, Leo Hidalgo (@yompyz), david_shankbone, gpatague online porfolio, petersejersen, wadem, mikecogh, ravijain_92, mynameisharsha, World Series Boxing, Jackie L Chan, greggman, saebaryo, All Kinds of New, Dwilliams851, cuatrok77, woodleywonderworks, Alex E. Proimos, Average Jane, gagilas, LifeSupercharger, Incase., Robin Hutton, THX0477, greenchartreuse, BrtinBoston, Trev Grant, CocteauBoy, dno1967b, Matt Erasmus, Tax Credits, Josh (broma), Phillip Pessar, MoToMo, barmala, Steve Snodgrass, Ross Elliott, cell105, Hunter-Desportes, *clairity*, fauxto_digit, Hugo90, tauben, rococohobo, Spencer Cross, alexliivet, HelloImNik, br1dotcom, Jorge Franganillo, علي - ali, olgaberrios, glennharper, kyeniz, cogito ergo imago, chris.corwin, BagoGames, brewbooks, ϟnapshot 19, Pop Culture Geek, rockmixer, jphilipg, qwrrty, noniq, e53, 'Playingwithbrushes', Marcus Q, lowjumpingfrog, ingermaaike2, Bob Jagendorf, allaboutgeorge, mgrybos, Images_of_Money, Tambako the Jaguar, Foxtongue, DBduo Photography, Beige Alert, DieselDemon, Five Furlongs, danicuki, CamEvans, arne h, electricnerve, -Tripp-, bigcityal, Tim Pierce, Vidbynäs Golf Club, Anomalous Productions, Dovecoté Avenue, Shannon Badiee, Modern Event Preparedness, Amydeanne, Arenamontanus, snowpea&bokchoi, H.Adam, Victor Bezrukov, wwootton1, Bulldog Pottery, M.Ryan Photography, thskyt, Muscle Dominator, Pinti 1, crimfants, Maarten_G / GreenPictures.nl, gematrium, Helga Weber, jon_a_ross, stevendepolo, Starar Band, UT Connewitz, brad_holt, Looking Glass, NatalieMaynor, flowerguy, Peter Huys, The Good Reverend Flash, PhoTones_TAKUMA, greyloch, faceleg, odonata98, Blyzz, sgd, Jeffrey Beall, anneh632, Roy Montgomery, Ivan Marianelli, Lel4nd, autumn_bliss, briggz5d, orsorama, zzkt, Chasqui (Luis Tamayo), gruntzooki, Walt Stoneburner, marc falardeau, karlnorling, john antoni, Kris Krug, aussiegall, CarbonNYC, pheαnix - off 6/29 - 7/8, wwward0, Philo Nordlund, myhsu, US Army Africa, mrsdkrebs, bratha, Veronique Debord, susivinh, Wesley Fryer, Rubyran, Cali4beach, plindberg, Flikkesteph, Paul and Jill, Pilot Theatre, JoeInSouthernCA
  • Blog
  • Second Blog
  • About
  • Super Maleo
  • Meat Head the Worst Dog in the World
  • The Real Thing
  • Some Things Never Change
  • Boys As Nice as John
  • For You, Mother