Tag: training

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Progress

Update 18th October 2022

Mojo has been good with picking up his feet in the field and in the school, so it occurred to me that he may be sore on his front feet rather than the hinds.

The plan was then to take him in the school before the hoof trimmer came and do some pole work, then to use the play mats for him to stand on whilst he was having his hind feet done.

He was good with the fronts, so we then put down 3 mats for him to stand on, he was very calm and let Penny do both hind feet with no fuss and even putting them on the hoof stand didn’t trigger any bad reactions. I did click and treat each time he had his feet in the air.

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Mojo – Around a round pen

February 22nd 2021

Mojo had been got in by the yard – too muddy for me to get in the field. He seemed relaxed but did have his ears back, so may be there was some frustration creeping there. I tried to slow down and speed up my walking but there was no way he was going to trot.
Trot needs much more work – he will trot if I have his head collar and lead rope on. I will re-watch the videos with regard to getting trot on cue. He will trot over poles if I throw a frisbee or have him on line. Will try and video that next time.

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Around a round pen.

I am doing the Connection Trainings course on starting to lunge, this starts with going round a round pen.

We have done this before but Mojo was a little unsure what to do.

Around a round pen.

Mojo wasn’t too sure what to do as we haven’t done this for a while. He was a little distracted by the sand school mirror and the other liveries going down the drive.

The first video shows him following the longer target and he is a bit sticky and shows some frustration when it keeps moving.

The next video I tried a longer stick but he got totally confused by that, so we did some poles exercises and some cone targeting. He then seemed ready to have another go.

The last video I walked on the outside of the pen and he seemed more confident doing that, then I went back in the pen, and he followed my hand rather than the target stick. He is a little distracted as one of the other horses is going down the drive.

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Update on Mojo’s feet

November 4th 2019.

Mojo had his feet trimmed today, started with the hinds, got the left one done then he decided not to pick the right one up. So Penny did the fronts, he is perfect with them now and holds them for quite a long time. Eventually got the right one done with lots of rest along the way. Non of the horses were very settled in the horrendous rain so we were very pleased with him.
December 9th 2019

Update on Mojo’s feet. He needed them done as quite flared and cracked so the trimmer came a week early. He wasn’t at all settled or co-operative, so we decided on veterinary sedation. Fortunately we are close to the hospital and a vet came out straight away. Mojo was sedated and towards the end twitched. I felt a bit bad about twitching but he did need trimming. He also had an injection for feather mites and I trimmed and oiled his feathers whilst he was still sleepy. Hopefully he wont be so bad next time – he lets us pick out his feet and I have been trying to add duration but the vet thought the mites were making him extra sensitive.

Mojo update, 13th December.

Yesterday was the first time I got to see him since the trim under sedation, he picked up all four feet but wasn’t interested in any treats but took the grass pellets.
14th December 2019.

Today I groomed him, poked about at all four legs, to check his skin. He didn’t object to me brushing his feathers. Then I got him out on the yard and held a bucket of Readigrass whilst Liz picked out and brushed his hoofs. He didn’t object to her holding his left hind out behind him – as the trimmer would do. He was a little tense with the right hind and did snatch it just as she had finished and was putting it down. Big fuss for him when the feet were off the ground.

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Up-date 25th October

Update 25th October 2019, I had Sally Ede out to do some communication and healing Mojo, today was the second session and she said he was much more relaxed this time.
He still is protective of his hind legs but was better when I picked out his feet before Sally arrived. I did the fronts as they are near perfect now and he holds them up well. Liz did the hinds whilst I bridged and treated, he lifted the left one as soon as she bent down and touched it, the right he lifted as soon as she asked him, held it up with no snatching at all.
He has been on Cortaflex and Buteless for around 8 weeks now, and Sally says he need to strengthening exercises, I have been backing him over poles and trotting over them too.
Long reining is the next stage them Liz will have a few ridden lessons with Sally. Then I can hop on board and continue with the pole work too.
The trimmer is coming the first week in November so hopefully he will be happier to let her trim them all, as long as we go at his pace.
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Mojo’s New Trimmer

Mojo has a new hoof trimmer, she spent 2 hours with us and offered essential oils and red light therapy too. Mojo tolerated his fronts doing and they were done very well and he had spray and hoof clay too. By the time we got round to the hinds he had had enough, next time we will start with the feet and end with the esssential oils and red light.

Mojo’s feet 4th October 2019

Penny Thorpe ( the hoof trimmer) came again today to do Mojo’s hind feet. I got him in at 8 am to dry out and gave him a feed with cortaflex, buteless and some calming herbs. He also had some barley grass and a bucket with peppermint in – he wasn’t too keen last time but this time he licked the bowl clean, not sure whether he had the peppermint water. He had plain water too and some hay.

He seemed much less stressed when Penny arrived, she offered some tobacco essence and he seemed quite keen on that. Then she picked out his front feet and just tidied them up. Then on to his left hind – he lifted it well and it was trimmed and rasped, lots of breaks so he could rebalance. One of the other liveries gave me some readigrass for him to chew on – and he loved that along with some grass pellets and herb treats when he needed a bit of extra support.

Lots of praise and bridging when his feet were off the ground. He had both hinds done and then the sole cleanse spray and hoof clay was applied.

After the he had some red light therapy.

All booked in for 4 weeks time, I will continue to work on his foot lifting – which was very good on the fronts and is getting better on the hinds.

 

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Agility Training

May 11th 2019
We have been having a little trouble getting out of the field as there is a very friendly pony who always gets to the gate first.
Mojo was OK to get out of the field, I had Liz with me and she distracted the pony who keeps chasing Mojo away. I took him into the stable to groom and pick out feet. He offered all 4 feet with me just saying “lift”. This is the cue my yard owner has been using, so I need to keep the consistency. No kicking, snatching or putting them down before I had finished cleaning them. He was eating his lunch at the time but got a few more treats for being so good.

Then we went in the arena and I put out an L-shaped corridor. We did that one way and then he backed on cue a few steps with in the poles. I asked him to back over a pole which he did well but then I decided to try the corridor again but going the other way. He got a bit confused and thought I wanted him to walk over the poles.

https://youtu.be/C7ohsLZuSis
We ended with him standing on the tarp and getting a handful of treats. I left him in the school whilst I put a few things away. I had bunting tied to the fence as the yard owner wanted to do some obstacle training with her son and his pony in the afternoon. As i was unravelling it Mojo came to have a look, he was very eager to touch it.
IMG_3828
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April 2019

Well finally got Mojo in the school to do some pole work and short lining. We haven’t managed much recently apart from grooming and a little targeting on the yard. I used my new short lines from Whinny Reins – they were brilliant, very easy to hold and didn’t get all tangled up like the feather lines, I must take a photo next time.

Anyway Mojo was very good, he walked well over the poles from a “walk on” cue and stopped on a “whoa”. He went to the frisbee I threw for him and even had a little trot, must now get the trot on a reliable cue. Only did a few minutes and now must build it up so we do more and then some ridden sessions.

 

 

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Update 2019

Update 25th January 2019

Due to cataract surgery I haven’t done anything with Mojo – apart from pulling some twigs out of his mane. Today he was in for a rest from the wet fields, with a big pile of hay in his hay bar. He popped his head over the door and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. That is probably due to his unruly forelock blocking vision. I went in his stable and groomed him – well the bits that were dry, then put on my treat bag and loaded it with grass pellets. We went out into the yard and I groomed him a bit more, pulled the twigs out of his tail, sprayed it with “Mud Away” – not sure it does any good but we will see. He had a few pellets to nibble on in a bowl whilst I tidied up his tail and mane – scissors and a solo comb. I got the frisbee I use as a target and did his stretching exercises. He stood quietly whilst I switched on the small trimmers and just walked around the yard. We then did some targeting of an umbrella – just to make sure he hasn’t forgotten anything. It is amazing with these horses that even after doing nothing but being a horse in a field for nearly 2 months he was still enjoying touching a moving umbrella.

My plan in the next few weeks is to get him happy to go in the lorry and be driven around the block.

February 11th 2019

Mojo had a flu booster today, all was good the vet was superb, she hugged him and as he was wondering what she was doing the injection was done and he never even flinched. Plenty of treats followed.

Before the vet arrived I groomed him and did some stretching exercising with the target. Also I had the trimmers on and walked all round him, he even let me touch him with the back of my hand whilst the holding the trimmers which were on. The battery is dying so it wasn’t very loud but a few weeks ago he would had have just left.

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Mojo Ridden

A couple of snippets from our 2nd lesson with Sally Ede. Mojo was calm and relaxed and focused. I used my body and a slight open rein to turn. We used scratches as reinforcement and he was forward going so only a slight touch with the leg to indicate ‘yes” that is what I want.

I now want to add verbal cues to the rein cues but that will come after I get more confident riding. At the moment Mojo doesn’t seem bothered by my riding and as long as he is under his emotional threshold all is well.

I did feel a little guilty as I wanted to use more positive reinforcement in our ridden sessions but I also need to know he can be ridden  by anyone, as he will most probably out live me.