Champ - day 2
Brought the clippers today so that I could fix up poor Champ's hacked up mane. He was a doofus about leaving the other horses again, so I brought him straight to the round pen and set to working him. For the first little bit he was more concerned with calling to the other horses, but every time he directed his attention to them I chased him on or made him change direction. He was very good about changing direction, almost immediately he was facing me as he turned. Even Lightning turned his butt to me more often than not the first time I round penned him. Champ only did so twice. He tried kicking at me and pitched a fit when I made him canter, but eventually he submitted and did it. He did the cutesy "join up" with me and followed me through patterns around the pen, but resisted giving to my space when I tried to turn him right. On we went for another round until he submitted more fully.
Since Guy was working with the Bobcat in the arena I got my grooming kit and clippers and went into the little barn, which is really a small garage with two stalls in it. I put Champ in the larger of the two - the one he spent the night in. I looked around and realized that there was nowhere to tie him up! Shit. I eventually decided to tie him to where the gate fastens to the wall. Not really smart, because if he decided to pull he would rip the entire gate off the wall, I'm sure. But I was confident that he would not resist it. That was one way in which he was well trained, at least.
But he was thoroughly panicking in the barn; pacing back and forth, pawing the ground. He kept shoving against the stall door - which was a 4 foot high grated gate that spanned the entire 10 foot width of the stall - every time I opened it to go in. I turned on the clippers and he didn't seem to care. I started at the base of his neck and worked my way up. I got him twice lower down on the neck when he fussed, so he has two little short patches in the rest of his coat. Oops! He was totally cool about the clippers though, even lowering his head while I did the crown of his head. Since he was being so good about it I decided to trim the feathers off of his pasterns and along the back of his legs.
In retrospect this was kind of a dumb idea. Here he is, stomping and pacing and carrying on about being inside (and admittedly, he's never really been in a barn before except that one night) and here I am "hmm, I bet it would be smart to clip his legs!"
Fortunately I didn't pay for my stupidity. He did try to kick my once while I was working on one of his back legs, but I managed to get them all done, though each of his legs looks massacred to a certain degree! I tried to follow along with the hair to just clip the long stuff, but with him continually fussing it was pretty hard to do, so I had to hold his feet up, and at that angle it was almost impossible to get a smooth trim. Oh well. It looks good until you're right up close, and he isn't going to any shows any time soon!
Dillan followed me around some today. He kind of reminds me of my brother in that he seems rather socially inept, though he is more outgoing than Phil is. But he's absolutely clueless when it comes to horses. He watched me in the round pen a little bit, then came in while I was clipping talking the whole while. He just rides for fun, and there's no problem with that, but that's the extend of his knowledge too. I'd sure like to see him ride, but his horse has got an enormous sore on his back right now - I forgot to ask what it's from, and I'm almost afraid to get the answer!
Since Guy was working with the Bobcat in the arena I got my grooming kit and clippers and went into the little barn, which is really a small garage with two stalls in it. I put Champ in the larger of the two - the one he spent the night in. I looked around and realized that there was nowhere to tie him up! Shit. I eventually decided to tie him to where the gate fastens to the wall. Not really smart, because if he decided to pull he would rip the entire gate off the wall, I'm sure. But I was confident that he would not resist it. That was one way in which he was well trained, at least.
But he was thoroughly panicking in the barn; pacing back and forth, pawing the ground. He kept shoving against the stall door - which was a 4 foot high grated gate that spanned the entire 10 foot width of the stall - every time I opened it to go in. I turned on the clippers and he didn't seem to care. I started at the base of his neck and worked my way up. I got him twice lower down on the neck when he fussed, so he has two little short patches in the rest of his coat. Oops! He was totally cool about the clippers though, even lowering his head while I did the crown of his head. Since he was being so good about it I decided to trim the feathers off of his pasterns and along the back of his legs.
In retrospect this was kind of a dumb idea. Here he is, stomping and pacing and carrying on about being inside (and admittedly, he's never really been in a barn before except that one night) and here I am "hmm, I bet it would be smart to clip his legs!"
Fortunately I didn't pay for my stupidity. He did try to kick my once while I was working on one of his back legs, but I managed to get them all done, though each of his legs looks massacred to a certain degree! I tried to follow along with the hair to just clip the long stuff, but with him continually fussing it was pretty hard to do, so I had to hold his feet up, and at that angle it was almost impossible to get a smooth trim. Oh well. It looks good until you're right up close, and he isn't going to any shows any time soon!
Dillan followed me around some today. He kind of reminds me of my brother in that he seems rather socially inept, though he is more outgoing than Phil is. But he's absolutely clueless when it comes to horses. He watched me in the round pen a little bit, then came in while I was clipping talking the whole while. He just rides for fun, and there's no problem with that, but that's the extend of his knowledge too. I'd sure like to see him ride, but his horse has got an enormous sore on his back right now - I forgot to ask what it's from, and I'm almost afraid to get the answer!