Wednesday, July 04, 2007

I cannot believe he is 16 weeks old


The past few weeks have been quite a trial with Troy. Since the weather became colder and wetter he has turned into ASBO Troy! He is spooky, bargy and very nippy. The other night he would not have his head collar put on in the field and kept running off with all four feet off the ground, so I decided enough was enough.

Since Richard Maxwell has been out, Troy has been a pleasure to handle. But I have to admit I have become a little lax with his teaching because he has been so good. So, on Monday night I put Hannah in their stable and kept Troy outside. I made him do lots of moving away from me, and then encouraged him to move into the pressure rather than pull away from it. He put up a bit of a fight at first, but by the end he was listening to me, respecting my space and doing as he was asked.

The teaching seemed to have truly hit home because he has been very good again. Yesterday the driveway had flooded and there was one area where the water was past my ankles. Hannah walked straight through it without a second glance, but Troy was really frightened and just wouldn’t come near to it. Because I still lead him on the long rope, I stood with Hannah on the other side of the Troy eating water, and let him figure it out for himself. He was running from side to side for about 5 minutes, but I did not put any pressure on him because I knew this was a pretty big thing for him. All of a sudden he stopped, looked at me and then leapt into the water! Once he was in, he just stood there as if to say, “Is that all it is? No problem, I can handle this!”

Troy also had his feet trimmed and filed a few weeks ago… he was a bit of a handful, but the farrier was very patient with him and Troy eventually stood still and allowed him to take some length off his feet. Since then I have been picking them out every morning, just so he gets used to having his feet handled every day.

We are now learning how to trot up in hand, so hopefully I will get some footage of his trot because in my opinion he has a lovely elevated action. I am just hoping and praying that it is a sign of things to come!