I’m so pleased to tell you that I found a way to play with Perdita at liberty! (No halter & no line on) I thought it through, a sited horse would check in visually to make turns or change their direction to stay with you. She can’t check in visually, so I simply needed to substitute another sense for her vision and  give her a way to “check in” with that. Right? 

I turned her loose in the aisle of the barn. I offered her my hand to “check in” with. I would reach out and hold my hand where she could find it. She figured it out right away. I would tell her to “touch” and she would search for my hand. Of course, she can smell it. She also could follow my voice a bit, so she might have an indication that I was turning.  Then she would move until she touched my hand using her whiskers to find me. We were able to walk figure 8s that way! I got her back to her grain dish in her stall. 

We changed some electric fences around here tonight. Tim set it up so that Perdita can have a paddock with no electric fences. The other horses can’t approach her paddock, because her paddock is protected by external electric fences. We placed them about 5 feet from her paddock rails. She gets to try her paddock tomorrow. 

Can you believe that liberty works for us?! Thoughts/comments?

She’s in heat. She stands in front of the window “looking” up at him. I guess she is listening for him. It’s funny though, she looks like she’s staring up at him all dreamy eyed.

I wonder if he can tell she is blind? Does the communication between horses change when one can’t see? It must in some ways.

Cayin doesn’t like Perdita because when she snake ears her and tries to drive her away, she doesn’t repond. That must be both surprising and confusing at first.

Perdita, Safe After the Storm

The wind howled here all day yesterday. The rain and sleet started around dark. The wind damage during the night caused us to loose power. 

Perdita was in the barn, in her normal stall. My stallion was in last night as my vet removed a a skin tag this week, and he has to stay in his stall for five days. His stitches come out in ten days. So Perdita and Caleb were both in the barn. There was one empty stall between them. 

As I walked down the hill to the barn this morning to feed, something looked wrong. One of the windows in Perdita’s stall looked different. 

The storm had broken the window. 

I ran inside, threw open her door, dreading what I might find. Perdita lifted her head from her hay pile and turned to face me. She turns her head as if she expects to see me, it’s odd to realize that she can’t. She was fine. Not a cut, not a mark. 

The bars in the window had blocked the big pieces of glass from falling into the stall. There were just a couple of chunks of glass on the floor. Luckily Perdy spends 90%+ of each day eating hay. She still trying to get her body condition back. Her hay feeder is opposite of the window. Her hay obsession kept her safe. 

I immediately moved her. We have two stalls that we have removed all of the water bucket hooks, etc. Her normal stall has a lowered hay feeder. The “alternative” stall is Callie’s, so it has a horse height hay feeder. I moved Perdita into Callie’s stall. 

The added perk is that Callie’s stall has a tease window into the stallion stall. Perdy can reach the bottom of the window. She was able to talk to Caleb all day today. They could touch noses through the bars, but stay safely seperated by a wall. I’m sure he was happy to focus on something other than his stitches and she was glad for a distraction from Marbles. 

ps. Dr Mary was here for Spring shots. She thought Perdita was looking great! That made my day!

Marbles April 2009

All is well in pony land! Marbles is now staying out all night with the big horses, not just all day. His Mom is less and less concerned about his location. Once weaning is truly complete we will be sure to pasture them together.

We found out that he was letting himself out by walking through a ditch at the back of the arena. We have never met a horse short enough to fit in the ditch. It was loaded full of pony prints, suspiciously all headed the same direction. To Mom. 

He is quite pleasant to handle now. He’s easy to catch and pretty polite on line. Weaning has matured him.

Callie and Marbles

First the fencer wasn’t working. The big solar one. It had been sent away for repairs, but the tester showed no electric charge just 5 feet from the fencer. We put the smaller solar fencer on the perimeter, it’s one that was one the back paddock. It worked fine on the paddock, but not on the perimeter. Ok, so the perimeter is a lot more fence, but….

We got frustrated after almost a week of messing with these fencers. Marbles kept getting out and taking himself back to his Mom in the barn. Our kids were sick with the flu, and so was my husband. cayin was strumming the perimeter fence like a guitar! We went out and bought a standard plug in electric fence unit. THe sales person said it’s the one all of the cow guys use….that’s all we needed to hear, sold!

Get the thing up, no charge. Tim worked all day on Easter trying to get the fence hot. No luck.

His Dad is an engineer and pretty good with electrical mysteries. He came up. After hours of work they decided that the ground on the barn was in a much drier spot than the ground for the fence. The in-balance of charges was causing the fence not to work. The sank a new ground rod for the barn and….it worked!

So I was surprised to pull in yesterday and find Marbles walking up to the barn.

Even though the fence was quite strong, he is super fast and just jumps through. Tim worked until dark last night adding a third hot strand to the perimeter. He put it between the bottom and middle strands. Today is the day. We’ll see if we can keep Marbles in.

Marbles in Pasture

Marbles is getting along well with the “big” horses in the back pasture. After a while he starts missing his Mom, and we put him in the barn where they can hear each other. 

Perdita Is Getting A Topline Back!

I’m so pleased with the improvement in Perdita’s body score! Her topline is much better! I can still feel all of her ribs, but the improvement in her topline is fantastic. 

She is improving in her behavior as well. Initially, she was pushing right through pressure, whether it was steady or rythmic. Now, she can be quite responsive and to either type of pressure, if I have her full attention. I’m still stuggling to be able to successfully interupt her pattern if she is in a worry or a frenzy. If I can’t interupt the pattern, I can’t get her to yield to pressure of any type again.

The good news is that her worry seems to be foal related. Once weaning is complete, I suspect these issues will be easy to resolve. The problem is, until then, if she is upset, chances are she’ll try to run her handler over. She seems to know where the handler is, and she tries to push right through! She reminds me of another appaloosa I once knew. When she is calm, she gets HUGE rewards for being responsive and listening to pressure ques. She particularly likes scatches under her chin, so I’ve been using that to teach her. She’s very smart.

She had trouble with the grain bucket this morning. She could smell the grain, but she kept missing and getting her nose on the outside of the bucket. I waited until she lifted her nose to try again, after three tries, I got the trajectory just right and her nose landed in the pail! She loves a little grain!

Marbles will not answer his Mom. He can be two feet from her, she is bellowing like a bull, and he stands there Silent! Frustrating. If he would just answer her, or walk around so that she could hear him, she would settle right down. I’ve started leaving a radio on near her so that she doesn’t try to get an answer from him. If she only knew, I’m sure she would think he was naughty. 

The weather and the fencer problems are really annoying me this week. Tim moved the fencer from the back paddock and put it on the perimeter fence today. The big perimeter fencer is not working, so he switched it. The smaller fencer was working a few days ago, because I personally turned it on. Today, it’s battery was dead too! Tim thinks it’s because we have had so many stormy day in a row. He thinks the solar fencers can’t work in the rain day after day. 

Tonight we decided to switch away from solar fencers. If we can’t rely on them, they really aren’t worth owning. It’s a shame because the big one was expensive, but we’ve sent it back to Gallagher a number of times. When it works, it’s great. But, it’s just not reliable enough for us. So much for a great idea!

Caleb and the ponies staid in the barn today…it was snowing! Cayin, Max and Callie were supposed to be shut in Caleb’s section. Cayin and Max spent the day jumping in and out of that area. They don’t mess with the perimeter fence, so they were just free in all of the paddocks! Callie was a good horse and she staid in the original paddock. She was mad that her kids were out, but she staid in. 

Is it Spring yet?

Marbles joined the big horses for breakfast. They had been out all night. At first he was nibbling at a hay pile, but then he started wandering away from the herd. I was in the barn comforting Perdy when I saw him hanging by the gate. The perimeter fence battery was not working. Tim had taken it to work with him to charge it. I assumed that it wouldn’t be long before Marbles was back at the barn.

Sure enough, he made me late this morning! I saw that he was out so IU waited until he made his way into the barn. I closed the overhead door, then guided him into a stall. The stalls were all clean and hay was out for tonight, so I just gave him some water.

He was in the stallion’s stall all day. The weather is so rainy and cold that all of the horses needed to come in tonight. The challenge is that we only have 5 stalls, but 6 horses. Marbles and Perdita have been sharing a stall, but that doesn’t work for weaning. The stallion can’t share for obvious reasons. Normally I would put my mares in together, as mother and daughter, they are used to it. But Cayin, the daughter, still has winter shoes on with ice studs. If she steps on or kicks her mother, it will mean a serious injury. We decided that Callie should share a stall with Max, gelding son. Marbles has Callie’s stall.

We checked, and Max and Callie are getting along fine. They have share close quarters before. Perdita is really upset because Marbles is not answering her. He is literally 2 feet from her, but he won’t answer! He’s a brat!

Tim will fix the fencer tomorrow, and we’ll try again with “big boy” turn out!

Please leave comments!

She is loud, but it’s not as bad as I expected. 

We brought Marbles into the barn Sunday night and put him into a stall next to her. They were able to touch noses. As soon as she heard him, she settled right down. 

Let’s hope today goes as well.