Tricking Horses Smarter than you
I've mentioned in the past that my pony is... quirky. And sometimes difficult to handle. This stems mainly from the fact that he has an animal's set of motivations and a frighteningly human like intelligence, specifically in the regions of memory, cognitive thinking and premeditated tactics. Add to this a set of bad experiences (prolonged exposure to vets, accidents with previous owners and my own blunders), a healthy dose of geriatric stubbornness, and you have a 500 kilo ball of "fuck you".
Don't misunderstand me. I love my pony, he's the epitome of awesomeness and sass contained in a cute, shiny (somewhat greying), graceful four legged body. He and the other animals are the bright spots on my horizon. But that doesn't mean he isn't an absolute bastard at times.
Recently Nick has been getting a lot of drenches for varying purposes, most of them are to calm him down. Of course, the effort of getting a drench into him counteracts this considerably, not to mention that Nick is stupidly resistent to sedatives (and natural calming agents) in the face of anything even remotely stressful.
So, taking Deb's advice (Horsewyse), I started dipping the tip of the drenches in molasses. This helps to a degree, but Nick's still got the "ZOMGSYRINGERUNAWAY" thought stuck firmly in his skull. So I got a little more cunning. I've started filling up empty syringes with molases, and slowly coaxing him into sniffing them and eventually licking them. It helps if I do it on the other side of the fence (in his mind it means I can't grab him that way), I also started dropping syringes dipped in molasses on the ground and letting him lick them, and also next to his feed. It seems to be working. He still makes a fuss when I go to drench him, but he's slowly becoming more cooperative, and will at least sniff the syringe before running away. The main problem is getting him used to the idea of things he hates being commonplace.
He's smart enough where he can tell a syringe isn't going to do something nasty if I'm not holding it with my thumb on the plunger, but the moment I hold it ready to squirt he panicks. If I hold it out to him with no advantage in ground he's happy to have a sniff.
The main problem with Nick is independent thought, even if he trusts me enough to come running for help when a bee attacks him, he still thinks on his own. Most horses do, but generally bonding and trust (or tricks) can override that. Nick is a little too smart/independent for that.
His issues have been made a great deal worse with having had so many things go wrong, accidents caused by idiots, needing the vets out so much, and having to do nasty things to him with needles and such. It's just made him one big ball of tension, so I'm working on building up trust again, since I feel like I've lost it. I'm hoping that training him for floating is doing that, and it seems to be helping. I need to do more with him over time, fun games to work on that bond as well as tackling different issues individually.
In any case, he seems to be enjoying his sugary treats each day, and trying to hold him while he charges around is giving me great upper body strength.