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henny1129 said:
Yeah, I understand. :) Wizards arthritis is mild, and indeed he is in pain at times. However, he's an extremely intelligent horse and has learned behaviors he can do that get people off of him. They've had many people come and look at him and they believed that he was faking his pain at times. This was a couple years back, but he still acts a brat all the time. Not trying to argue with anyone, that's the last thing I want to do, I just want to explain the situation. :)
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Its okay, i dont think you were arguing, and i definitely think there are some situations where it's possible. I mean, they can learn other behaviors and tricks so why not that?
 
. . . . aannnd then there are those that persist in exhibiting behaviors that are of no benefit to anyone.
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If you have seen me on other threads, you may have seen posts about our local fair. This is a 10 day affair that my minis have attended every year that I have had them (and Syd has been to every year that she's been alive, the first time as a foal). Lots and lots of people, activity, noise; it's a lot of stimulation, but none of it is in any way dangerous. You'd think Syd would be an old hand at this, right?
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Thursday evening, they had an event they called a Parade of Breeds; a chance to demonstrate what you do with your horse and tell a bit about it and/or its breed. When the livestock superintendent heard about my work with Syd, she thought it might be fun for me to demonstrate how Syd helps out around here:

This is my "training rig" for Syd. It's one of those garden carts that are sort of like a kid's wagon; I pulled the handle off and put a singletree in its place. Unfortunately, it rolls a little too well, and can come up on her heels when she stops, so I made the fork to keep it back where it belongs (yes, in this pic, I hadn't hooked up the breeching because I was in a little bit of a hurry that day). But the point is, she looks pretty calm about the whole business here, right?

Knowing "Wig Out First Ask Questions Later Syd," I had my doubts, but I thought I'd give it a try. Thursday afternoon, I put the harness on Syd, and longlined her all over the parking lot for an hour or so. She kinda "leaned" toward the barn most of the time, but she did what she was asked at least 90% of the time, so I decided to chance it.

Thursday evening, I pulled Syd out of the stall, and took her to one side and harnessed her up. So far, so good - BB2K was right there, with Betsy on the lead, too. Hitched Syd to the cart, and put a couple of bales of hay on the cart. She was looking around a lot, but standing still as asked. I led her over to where she could see what was going on, but was well out of it, and she was pretty antsy at first. When she seemed to have calmed down, I moved her closer to the other horses and people, and that's when she lost it. Just couldn't stand still. I led her back to where we had harnessed up, but she was in full wig-out mode by then; I decided I had to get her unhitched because I was genuinely afraid she'd flip over or find some other way to hurt herself and possibly others. Once we dumped the wagon, we rejoined the others, but Syd still wanted to dance and fret and spook at nothing and do anything besides what she was being asked to do, which was stand still. BB2K and I switched animals (she and Betsy don't really "click," and she had the energy to deal with Syd's antics). Syd got lunged on the lead a lot . . . . sigh. But she did stand still enough to say hello to a bunch of folks, and I'm the only one that got stepped on. When we finally had our turn in the ring (which I was thinking about pulling out right up until the moment we walked through the gate!) BB2K basically kept Syd at a run while I tried to think of things to say.
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Not quite an auspicious moment, but there wasn't exactly a crowd to witness the mess by then, anyway.
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I think it's Clinton Anderson who says, "the more you scare a horse, the less it's scared of." Or to put it the way BB2K's drama teacher phrased it, "the more you get pushed outside of your comfort zone, the more your comfort zone expands." So, with the idea of expanding Syd's comfort zone, BB2K and I arranged to have the use of the ring for the last couple of nights of the fair. We took a couple of props from the obstacle course, and went over things that we had done with the minis a year and more ago. Some things went well, some things not so much, but I think we made good progress on "ignore the atmosphere, just do what you are told." I didn't risk the cart, but on Sunday night, among other things, Syd pulled the drag around the ring for a least 10 minutes without any drama. I was so proud of her.
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(BB2K was kinda proud of me, too. That afternoon, we had been riding bareback in the yard, when a cat dashed off practically under Sunny's nose, which caused Sunny to spook, which caused Latte to spook, which caused me to fall off. I've often said that horse has so many fast-twitch muscle fibers she can jump right out from under you, and that's what she did to me. I landed on my cell phone, which survived unscathed. While it's nice to know that I can still take a fall like that without breaking something, I have some nice bruising, and I was in a fair amount of pain Sunday night. But we do what we must, right? And I felt that taking advantage of the chance to work the minis in the crazy conditions of the fair was important enough to put the pain aside - I'd have been hurting anyway, even if I'd just sat at home.
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)
 
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Horses, I swear. I took June on that 3 mile trail ride the other day, and it was fairly rough, and her first trail ride, and she was perfect. But when we walk past my garden, which she walks past ALL the time, she spooks so hard I about fall out of the saddle (and I did that one day). Crazy logic they've got goin on up there.
Also, we've worked on her backing herself out of the trailer for two days and she's already awesome at it! I have a farm page on Facebook called "golden spurs farm" and there's a video of it
 
@Bunnylady, it's unfortunate Syd freaked out like that, but at least you got the chance to practice with her.

@abigalerose, they certainly can have some weird stuff going on in that brain of theirs!
 
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Sadly, that has always been Syd's M.O. She has always been what some call 'forward,' in the worst possible sense of the word. I remember one time trying to lunge her, and all she wanted to do was run, run, run away!. I was actually flicking her on the chest with the lunging whip, and still, all she would do was go forward, faster. I finally moved over until the circles she was running began to intersect with the side of the barn; I had to get so far in that direction that she had to choose between stopping or running into the wall or running smack into me before she really engaged the brain and started paying attention to what she was being asked to do. She can be wonderful when she is actually listening, beautifully and delicately responsive; but it can be extremely frustrating trying to get her to that point. sometimes, it just ain't happening. Of our 5 equines, she is the most reactive, and the worst possible candidate for a driving horse. Turning her into a bombproof pony ranks along with the labors of Hercules, but that's what I have to do.
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@abigalerose Marvelous news on the trail ride! You can never be sure how they will do when around strange horses in a strange environment, you have good reason to be proud of your girl!
 

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