Mojo Week 2

Week 2

Monday

The podiatrist came today to do Mojo’s feet, he is very sensitive to having his feathers touched but obviously I haven’t had time to do anything about that yet. The podiatrist is very gentle and takes whatever time it takes to get Mojo calm and relaxed – I stood by his head and at one point he almost fell asleep.
I had spent some time with him in the stable grooming and getting him to stand and touch his headcollar before putting it on, I will have to desensitise and counter condition haltering too – he does tend to turn his back when he doesn’t want something. I just stood in the stable – ignored the turning round and held out the halter. Bridged and treated him touching it a few times, I would have liked to take longer with more small sessions but had to halter him to take him out to the podiatrist. Therefore I had to put on the halter sooner than I would have liked but he was calm about it and did get a jackpot.
He stood nicely for the podiatrist who was pleased with him, I need to also teach him to pick up his feet on a verbal cue, I am glad I had Benny to train before Mojo as I did teach him to pick up his feet on a cue.
 Previous horses have always picked up there own feet, I have no idea how I taught it but I would think it was just classically conditioned. Likewise with haltering and bridling – I was at a loss when I got Benny as he didn’t seek the halter or bridle like my previous horses.
So much to learn and get right!

Tuesday

This morning I just went and groomed him in the stable – no treats or bridging. He was sleepy as had just come in for breakfast so he let me touch him all over and groom all his legs, and put on the cream on his scabby bits (mallenders) with out any fuss.
I picked up 3 of his feet to clean them but the 4th remained firmly planted. More work is needed in getting him to pick them up voluntarily but I will wait until I have watched Jo Hughe’s new video and know I am conditioning the clicker correctly.
He is OK now with the sound of the clicker – the quieter one – so that is all good.
The problem I have is that when he gets fed up with anything he turns his back on people in the stable. I just stood still until he decided to turn round again – I think it may be better to do much of his training in a larger space.
It is making me think though – I am determined to use as much positive reinforcement as possible but do feel at the moment it might be a mix of that and mild negative reinforcement.

This afternoon I have found something else that Mojo doesn’t like – fly spray! Plenty for me to do with him before even thinking of riding him. He likes grooming so the touching all over isn’t really an issue – just sudden movements seem to startle him. He does have a tendency to turn his rear end towards people when he has had enough attention. I think that must have been reinforced by people leaving. I just stood by the door – just incase I needed to exit quickly but it didn’t feel like he was going to do anything untoward. He soon turned round and came back for some more grooming.

Lots of systematic desensitisation and counter conditioning (classical conditioning) for me to do before training anything else.