Horse Behavior – Page 4 – Virtual Brush Box

Taming the Feral Horse, Milton Goes Back To Work

Home Team It’s always interesting to see how horses respond to time off. Between horse shows (yes, plural, more on that tomorrow), weather, and the relapse to Standard – aka Stygian – time, Milton has been on vacation for the last two weeks. He’s had a few hand walks around the pasture, but seriousContinue reading “Taming the Feral Horse, Milton Goes Back To Work”

Lapping It Up

Home Team I ought to talk about our current schooling progress, or at least our current schooling efforts, but this is too cute. I had to share. Since Milton doesn’t drink away from home, we always offer water to him before he travels. On this day, he decided to lap like a dog.Continue reading “Lapping It Up”

I Will Take My Victories Where I Can Get Them

Home Team Milton: Grumble, grumble. Weave poles. Grumble grumble. Overgrown grass. Grumble, grumble. Sir Snowflake Cupcake does not like grass tips tickling his ankles. He made as much of a hash out of the weave pole exercise as possible. He finally knocked into one, tipping it over. Fortunately, I saw the pole moving, realizedContinue reading “I Will Take My Victories Where I Can Get Them”

Hoofprint

Random Snaps This is what happens when your roommate has a case of frolicking feet and you don’t duck fast enough. Update: This is the underside of Milton’s neck. Next time there is a body part involved, I will include a wide-angle shot of the whole horse for reference. Thank you for reading, Katherine Walcott

What’s Up With Milton

Getting back to SSF trips for Milton. In the small ring, he’s awesome: relaxed, rideable, unflappable. In other places, he is still awesome, but more dubious. He prefers the semi-enclosed, covered ring to the fenced-in, coverless big ring. He prefers both to being outside of a ring. This is problematic creates a learning opportunity forContinue reading “What’s Up With Milton”

Stall Rest Decisions

Milton has spoken: I do not drink bucket water. I only drink trough water. Please attend to me at regular intervals so that I may hydrate. I do not pee in my stall. I only pee in the field. Please attend to me at regular intervals so that I may unhydrate. In addition, IContinue reading “Stall Rest Decisions”

Switching Horses

Rodney -> Milton is no problem. Milton is perfectly happy for me to ride correctly [Rodney as Word Processing Software]. Milton -> Rodney is problem. Rodney is a subtle beast. I am not. Neither is Milton. Milton is not lazy, not school-horse lazy. Milton is … considerate. He wants to be sure that youContinue reading “Switching Horses”