beejah the hoon
so, *interesting* day with beej today.
firstly, i totally forgot that karen was taking Raj to an endurance ride this weekend, so beej was all alone when i got there. not the only horse up the back, but no nearby neighbours.
he whinnied loudly when he saw me & was in my pocket once i got to his paddock - munching carrots. he had a try of some celery & sugarsnap beans, but liked neither of them, lol.
so he's following me around whilst i did poo duty, then decided it was all too boring. went to the gate of his paddock and GOT OUT. bastard. i was lazy and only strung the electric wiring across, rather than closing the whole metal gate. he just sent right under. he would have got a zap too, because it's got a good current thru it & there's A LOT of beej to fit under so the chances of him missing a shock are very slim.
so, he bolts down the end of the raceway. i kind of left him to entertain himself for a few minutes because he was not in a mood to stop. he stirred up both guinness & Buddy. i made my way down & he zoomed past me a few times before stopping and letting me catch him near guinness' yard.
went and put his rope halter on and got my BIG STICK. decided that if he was so keen to move, he could certainly do some moving in the round yard.
first tho, i tracked where he had gone - right thru poppy's old paddock and OVER the fence (which is a mass of wire on the ground as paul was pulling trees out and stuff - poppy is in the bush paddock in the meantime). chatted to paul for a while, then took beej to the roundyard.
did a bit of circling game & he was very soft & responsive. decided to go for a walk instead. went down the driveway, asking questions the whole time. a little bit of sideways game (fuck i am still so awkward with that) and then out on the road. got past the dogs with no hassle, but were almost at the end of the cul-de-sac when he had a bit of a zoom/shy, so i circled him a couple of times until he relaxed. then did our 'walk' route along the pines towards the back of paul's property.
he was wonderful. quite forward, but not worried about much. decided to cut thru a bit of bush... here he got quite spooky and worried. upon investigation i realised that the friendly neighbourhood KANGAROO (that regularly comes onto both paul & the neighbour's property) was about...25m away watching us. beej was BUGEYED.
kangaroo, rather than fuckingoff like every other kanga, decided to JUMP RIGHT PAST US (maybe 10m away) and over the fence into the grazing on the neighbours property (next to paul's). haha, beej's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
after the kanga had passed i gave him a few moments, than asked for some circling game. he was extremely stiff & worried in a certain spot so i had to use QUITE A LOT of energy to get him going, then he wouldn't go the other way, so again, quite a bit of energy. we did quite a lot of circling - i couldn't pass the rope behind my back because as soon as i stopped *chasing* him with my energy, he'd come to a dead stop. i'd already given him time to look, so he had to keep going. he got quite sweaty & had a fairly intense workout too - not my aim, but it took a while before he stopped being so erratic. i focused on keeping my core pointed at his haunches & watching his hind end, so it was less full on from me but UP at the same time so he was consistent. once we achieved nice, even circles in both directions (at a walk) we continued our way home.
he was a bit pushy & getting ahead of me (being his own leader) so i had to get in front of him & be quite big, especially once we came in the back gate.
then a hose down & some ground tying & some yielding haunches & shoulders. i notice when he yields his haunches he tends to take big strides with his front end, so we played with NOT SO MUCH THE MOVING.
anyway. i am VERY happy with him. 6 months ago a kangaroo would have sent him over the edge. and although he was agitated and distressed by lots of things - the absence of raj, bolting around the property, the kanga etc, he did not visit beejyland & was totally present and a part of the day's proceedings. very impressed.
phil is coming out at 9.30tomorrow to reattach his shoe. i'm also going to weigh up his feed to get accurate measurements & then post a "condition report" on stockyards & see what others think & any other suggestions with his feed.
firstly, i totally forgot that karen was taking Raj to an endurance ride this weekend, so beej was all alone when i got there. not the only horse up the back, but no nearby neighbours.
he whinnied loudly when he saw me & was in my pocket once i got to his paddock - munching carrots. he had a try of some celery & sugarsnap beans, but liked neither of them, lol.
so he's following me around whilst i did poo duty, then decided it was all too boring. went to the gate of his paddock and GOT OUT. bastard. i was lazy and only strung the electric wiring across, rather than closing the whole metal gate. he just sent right under. he would have got a zap too, because it's got a good current thru it & there's A LOT of beej to fit under so the chances of him missing a shock are very slim.
so, he bolts down the end of the raceway. i kind of left him to entertain himself for a few minutes because he was not in a mood to stop. he stirred up both guinness & Buddy. i made my way down & he zoomed past me a few times before stopping and letting me catch him near guinness' yard.
went and put his rope halter on and got my BIG STICK. decided that if he was so keen to move, he could certainly do some moving in the round yard.
first tho, i tracked where he had gone - right thru poppy's old paddock and OVER the fence (which is a mass of wire on the ground as paul was pulling trees out and stuff - poppy is in the bush paddock in the meantime). chatted to paul for a while, then took beej to the roundyard.
did a bit of circling game & he was very soft & responsive. decided to go for a walk instead. went down the driveway, asking questions the whole time. a little bit of sideways game (fuck i am still so awkward with that) and then out on the road. got past the dogs with no hassle, but were almost at the end of the cul-de-sac when he had a bit of a zoom/shy, so i circled him a couple of times until he relaxed. then did our 'walk' route along the pines towards the back of paul's property.
he was wonderful. quite forward, but not worried about much. decided to cut thru a bit of bush... here he got quite spooky and worried. upon investigation i realised that the friendly neighbourhood KANGAROO (that regularly comes onto both paul & the neighbour's property) was about...25m away watching us. beej was BUGEYED.
kangaroo, rather than fuckingoff like every other kanga, decided to JUMP RIGHT PAST US (maybe 10m away) and over the fence into the grazing on the neighbours property (next to paul's). haha, beej's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
after the kanga had passed i gave him a few moments, than asked for some circling game. he was extremely stiff & worried in a certain spot so i had to use QUITE A LOT of energy to get him going, then he wouldn't go the other way, so again, quite a bit of energy. we did quite a lot of circling - i couldn't pass the rope behind my back because as soon as i stopped *chasing* him with my energy, he'd come to a dead stop. i'd already given him time to look, so he had to keep going. he got quite sweaty & had a fairly intense workout too - not my aim, but it took a while before he stopped being so erratic. i focused on keeping my core pointed at his haunches & watching his hind end, so it was less full on from me but UP at the same time so he was consistent. once we achieved nice, even circles in both directions (at a walk) we continued our way home.
he was a bit pushy & getting ahead of me (being his own leader) so i had to get in front of him & be quite big, especially once we came in the back gate.
then a hose down & some ground tying & some yielding haunches & shoulders. i notice when he yields his haunches he tends to take big strides with his front end, so we played with NOT SO MUCH THE MOVING.
anyway. i am VERY happy with him. 6 months ago a kangaroo would have sent him over the edge. and although he was agitated and distressed by lots of things - the absence of raj, bolting around the property, the kanga etc, he did not visit beejyland & was totally present and a part of the day's proceedings. very impressed.
phil is coming out at 9.30tomorrow to reattach his shoe. i'm also going to weigh up his feed to get accurate measurements & then post a "condition report" on stockyards & see what others think & any other suggestions with his feed.