Raimey trefft der Emu
Raimey, the old rope horse turned driving horse, finally reunited with the source of his problem. After several weeks of good, confident drives we set out to take a shot at driving past the emu.
Back in December he spooked badly and essentially bolted when he came across it the first time in harness, which is why Christy started looking for someone to help her with him. The incident messed with hs general confidence in harness and he was no fun to drive. We rebuilt his confidence as well as Christy's and got them cruising confidently together around their neighborhood.
She hauled Raimey over to Sue's since it was conveniently down the road from the emu and Sue said it was fine if we took up some of her driveway instead of blocking the street.
Raimey was alert and once tacked up went into a ground-eating power walk. At least until we got to the grate in the road, which took some moments to persuade him that going over it was the better idea than going around it.
We got down to the emu and were initially greeted by some mini donkeys and ponies. Where was the emu? Raimey was unperturbed by smaller equines, even if they had big ears. It took the second pass to see the walking shrub chilling in a corner. We went back and forth and Raimey finally caught an eyefull of it. He was Very Aware and got a little quick, but nothing too terrible.
And then it started making noises. It took me a minute to realize where theybwere coming from. They were low and croaking growly noises. Not really something you would expect out of a nearly five foot bird.
Raimey kept giving it a bit of an eye when it was in sight, but didn't do anything too terrible until I said "one more and we're good!" He then decided it was a Big Deal and jumped forward and sideways a bit and I had to redirect his energy and work until he was able to pass in a relaxed manner.
We did call it quits pretty early and, truth be told, the grate was more bothersome than the emu. Heading out I just got him over it, but heading back with time to burn we worked over it in earnest until he could walk over with half a glance rather than thinking of jumping it or darting across it.
Next week we'll be hooking to the cart and driving over and see how that goes. He should be fine and after a few repeats of that we will focus on getting her paint mare broke to drive.
Back in December he spooked badly and essentially bolted when he came across it the first time in harness, which is why Christy started looking for someone to help her with him. The incident messed with hs general confidence in harness and he was no fun to drive. We rebuilt his confidence as well as Christy's and got them cruising confidently together around their neighborhood.
She hauled Raimey over to Sue's since it was conveniently down the road from the emu and Sue said it was fine if we took up some of her driveway instead of blocking the street.
Raimey was alert and once tacked up went into a ground-eating power walk. At least until we got to the grate in the road, which took some moments to persuade him that going over it was the better idea than going around it.
We got down to the emu and were initially greeted by some mini donkeys and ponies. Where was the emu? Raimey was unperturbed by smaller equines, even if they had big ears. It took the second pass to see the walking shrub chilling in a corner. We went back and forth and Raimey finally caught an eyefull of it. He was Very Aware and got a little quick, but nothing too terrible.
And then it started making noises. It took me a minute to realize where theybwere coming from. They were low and croaking growly noises. Not really something you would expect out of a nearly five foot bird.
Raimey kept giving it a bit of an eye when it was in sight, but didn't do anything too terrible until I said "one more and we're good!" He then decided it was a Big Deal and jumped forward and sideways a bit and I had to redirect his energy and work until he was able to pass in a relaxed manner.
We did call it quits pretty early and, truth be told, the grate was more bothersome than the emu. Heading out I just got him over it, but heading back with time to burn we worked over it in earnest until he could walk over with half a glance rather than thinking of jumping it or darting across it.
Next week we'll be hooking to the cart and driving over and see how that goes. He should be fine and after a few repeats of that we will focus on getting her paint mare broke to drive.