Won't let us catch hold of the head collar

We never got to the bottom of the mystery orange smear, I’m beginning to think it must just have been where she rubbed her nose and still had paddock lick on it.

I am opting for the catching BG in her shelter and then hopefully moving it (catching her) back out into the field again. It’s rained recently though so the field shelter entrance is starting to puddle up again. This morning we let her through and she trotted across to her shelter to wait by the door and I decided to try the penned off area in the field again. Once she figured out that was where her food was going she followed me in as good as gold and the head collar went straight on. You could tell she wasn’t 100% sure on it but she didn’t protest.

So she had her breakfast and then the issues started. She would not let us get hold of her head collar to lead her back out and take it off. Unfortunately in the morning we have a time limit as we need to get to work so this wasn’t a good time for her to start stubbornly swinging her bottom round at us. Eventually we had to get some hay, use that to lure her into her shelter and catch her in there (which we almost couldn’t do either). I wouldn’t want to leave her with the head collar on.

Sorry, I’ve just realised how dull this must sound on this blog, all about head collar this and head collar that. Not the most exciting subject. It is the biggest day to day battle in mine and BG’s life though, except when she is being very good.

Mystery orange smear - blood?

Since the wind we have been unable to get BG back into the good habit of being caught in the field. She almost doesn’t seem sure that she is allowed to eat from her bowl in her field. So we have a dilemma; do we let her eat in her field so she learns it’s okay and not to be nervous, or do we bring her across to the shelter so she still has to have the head collar on before every meal? We are leaning towards the latter, although she has so far been as good as gold in her field every day. We’ll start feeding her in the penned off area again soon and then move back out to the field.

For now we are letting her across to the field shelter and she charges over (sometimes we even get a canter). Last night she ran across in the dark once the fence was opened up for her and had her head collar on as good as gold and then I picked out her hooves. She was being a bit funny about this; shifting around her stall so she wasn’t balanced right for picking them up, holding her hind legs under her rather than stretching them back and stomping and pawing with her front right leg. It was almost like she was desperate to get back out or not happy about something. Then I noticed an orange tinge on the white coat above her front right hoof, like blood smeared in the coat. I searched and searched to see if I could find where it came from but couldn’t find anything. I checked all her legs both for blood and heat, and her nose too. I couldn’t find anything. The only other theory could be that her nose still had the colour of some of the paddock lick on it and maybe she rubbed that on her leg, but that wouldn’t tie in with why she was stomping (unless she was just in a bad mood). Although she ran across perfectly happily so can’t be feeling too sore.

This morning as we arrived she trotted up and down her fence line tossing her head at us, and when I went to let her through I got a hello (a neigh) which is always nice from a not very vocal pony. We got a canter across to the shelter too, and then she stood there sticking her head over the door whilst I caught up with her to let her in.

Head collar on no problem, and I went and cleaned her water bucket out whilst she ate her breakfast. Then I took another look at her leg and her nose but still couldn’t see anything. I used a wipe to clear up the remaining orange on her leg but there was nothing else there, it’s a complete mystery. When I asked her to lift her hoof up she did so very suddenly and almost knocked herself on her belly though, which isn’t like her.

Turned her back out and felt very guilty as we left for work and she stood watching us. I think this weekend we might need to move her onto another section of the field so she has some newer grass to keep her busy.

Weekend update

BG has started to enjoy her lick a little too much. I have been taking it off her but put it out last night and she’s now about half way through it, and it’s supposed to last a pony 30 days. So I think I will be keeping it hidden for a little while. Problem is she acts as though she is so hungry at the moment, but she’s not dropping weight at all and is still plenty active. Yesterday as I was mucking out I saw her trying to learn over the fence at one end of the field to eat the grass on the other side, really pushing against it and scrapping at the fence with her foot. I dug out some old electric posts and have put fencing up half a metre inside the field fence now. I can’t have her pushing the fence, especially as it is quite old and wobbly anyway. There is a hedge the other side to stop her going anywhere but I don’t want to risk it. Strange how should would touch the main fence though but won’t go near electric tape, I guess it’s because it flutters in the wind. It does mean she can’t get as close to the hedge for shelter now though.

It’s been a quiet week, it’s still too dark after work to do anything with BG, but I made sure on Sunday morning I spent plenty of time up there. I gave her a thorough groom; there is just the beginnings of her coat starting to come loose on her neck (the odd hair) so spring must be on it’s way and I can expect her to start moulting all her winter coat off soon. Then I lunged her, only quarter of an hour but she was very good. She was a bit keen on looking at other things (people walking past the field etc.) to begin with, but she then calmed down and listened. As she was doing so well at the end and it was a calm, quiet day I decided to take her out of the field for a little walk.

This is only the second time I have done this on my own. Walking along the road she was very alert peering in the bushes. Then we turned up the track that runs alongside her field. She was still very alert and trying all the time to eat grass. I didn’t take her very far. I was quite glad as walking her back she got very excited by the sight of some walkers on the other side of the hedge and then walking along the road she was looking at things and taking a bit of persuading to keep going.

I checked she hadn’t picked up any stones in her hooves, popped her over the tiny jump I’d set up in the field (I’m not convinced she’s a fan of jumping) and then turned her back out. Whilst I mucked out she followed me round the field, approaching me when I stopped. It was quite sweet, could it count as early join up because she trusted me when out on the walk? Probably not I guess. I need to dig out my two books I’ve got on working with horses and start reading them in earnest so I have lots of different things to do with her this summer to keep her interested and build trust.

Paddock lick - but where's it gone?

We had to go and get BG another bag of food at the weekend and I also wanted to pick her up some Apple Crunchies. I never used to give her any treats, it’s a bad habit I’ve got into, but she still knows her place and does not nip. Whilst there I also had a look at the paddock licks they had in the shop. I have been ummmming and ahhhing for ages over whether to get her one. As her hooves can get hot on the spring grass the sugars in them probably aren’t the best thing for her, but she does love them and I want to give her something more of interest in her field now she has no companions. P1’s owner put one in the field before and BG loved it, after her breakfast every morning she would go and lick and lick at it.

In the end I thought we’d give it a go. My main concern was that she would like it too much and it would be bad for her, in which case I would need to restrict her access to it. We took it up on Sunday night when it was a little windy, BG has been a bit jumpy in her section of the field recently. She had her tea and I got all the mud off her and then I put the lick down. She gave it one sniff, snorted in horror and flew up the field as fast as her legs would carry her! It smells like molasses to me so not sure why she didn’t like the smell of it. She wasn’t going to come anywhere near it though.

So I went home thinking ‘and we thought she was going to like it too much’ and that maybe she needs another horse to show her this blue box isn’t scary and is actually a tasty treat.

We got up there yesterday morning and she walked down the field to wait for her breakfast, and there she spotted the paddock lick. She was still very nervous of it, edging towards it, then back again, and finally when she dipped her nose in it she did a bit of a bobbing duck impression as if she still wasn’t totally convinced it wasn’t going to bop her on the nose.

I got her food ready and took that over and by then she had figured out it was tasty, I had to put her breakfast right next to her to get her to drag her attention away from the lick. When I left I had to remove the lick from the paddock as I was afraid she’d be there all day licking it other-wise, almost as if she felt duty bound to finish it since it was there. I don’t think she clicked that I had removed it as, as I walked away, she was looking round and round her sniffing the ground and hunting for it.

Last night after her tea we hung her evening hay net up and then put the lick back in the field across the other side so she didn’t see us do it. That way I hoped it would take her a while to find it and we wouldn’t get up there in the morning and find all she had done all night was lick it.

Got up there this morning and she started to move down the field to greet us before suddenly springing into a trot. I think she had only just noticed the lick despite it being there all night. She trotted down to it and her nose went straight in. Again she needed persuading to leave it for her breakfast and she returned straight to it afterwards whilst I poo-picked the field.

I think she feels a bit like she isn’t supposed to have it as she gets very nervous when we go near her as she’s licking it. Almost like she’s trying to hide that she’s having it, she’s not quite sure she’s allowed to.

I removed it again this morning to stop her having too much, I’m hoping eventually I can just leave it in the field and she’ll monitor her own in-take but I don’t want to risk it yet. Having said that I wonder if by removing it she’s going to feel that when it is there she has to have as much as possible.

She didn’t realised I’d taken it again so I left behind a very bewildered BG turning round and round on the spot looking for it.

The last couple of weeks

So a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. P1 left not last Friday but the Friday before and P2 left last Wednesday. BG is now on her own and I am feeling very sorry for her. The day P2 went we got up there in the evening to hear a loud neigh as we got out the car. She isn’t very vocal normally, and hasn’t been since, but it did make me feel she must be happy to see company. The funny thing is BG has such a deep neigh, you wouldn’t think she was a mare.

She seems to be reasonably happy on her own though, although obviously company would be preferable, I am hoping someone else might join us on the field. After P1 left P2 would follow me round the field as I mucked out with his nose on my leg – so I think he felt more abandoned than BG.

BG continued to be reasonably good with her head collar, except the night my husband put up the electric fencing so she could see him doing that faintly in the distance. A couple of times she has even let us put her head collar on her before I’ve got her food ready and every time she has been good about letting me catch her to take it back off.

The Sunday before last I spent a good couple of hours up with her. She had her breakfast first and then I took her in the field shelter to give her a thorough groom. She went and hid in the back, no idea why but she just didn’t want a groom that morning so I had to tie her up to groom her.

I also gave her a lunge but she wasn’t overly enthusiastic. I put out some poles as that normally perks her up but it didn’t really seem to do the trick.

My husband and I had put up electric fencing down the field ready for when P2 went so we can move BG onto a smaller section and rest the rest of the field. I was feeling reasonably confident about this until last Tuesday, since she had been so good with her head collar, but that day she wasn’t having it on.

She came running down when she saw us arrive and then she tried a couple of times to have her head collar on but each time just wasn’t quite confident enough. I popped her in the field shelter in the end and she had it on there first time, may be it was just the bitterly cold wind that morning. The reason I resorted to the shelter so quickly was I also had to give her her wormer that morning before work.

She didn’t want her wormer – I don’t blame her. I got my husband to hold her and try and use his body presence to block her in the corner, but even then we managed to do a full circuit of the field shelter some how with her throwing her head up in the air, I had a sore upper arm for the next couple of days from trying to hold her head still. She doesn’t help herself though, since she was being silly half the wormer ended up on the outside of the syringe so I had to give her slightly more to make sure she had it. She kept trying to snuggle up to my husbands shoulder too so I couldn’t reach her mouth. He went to work with wormer and slobber down his coat!

Luckily she has still never attempted to spit it out afterwards, and this time she even accepted a well done minty treat quite soon after without turning her nose up at it.

So P2 went the day after that and on Thursday morning we moved BG over to her fenced off area. She did let us put the head collar on over there, but then the wind really got up for quite a few days so we didn’t stand a chance. A couple of nights we let her back on the whole field so she would have access to her field shelter as the wind was so strong the hedge only did a half hearted job of blocking it.

We were determined to spend a fair chunk of time with her at the weekend to give her some interaction and stop her getting bored, but the wind limited what we could do. We caught her in her field shelter both mornings. Saturday my husband did some in-hand work with her (with her running round him because of the wind) and Sunday I was going to. After she had her breakfast though she decided she didn’t want to talk to me and hid in the back of her field shelter, swinging her bottom on me whenever I tried to approach her. It gave me a chance to catch up on the mucking out and tidying up.

When I did eventually get hold of her head collar and turn her out in her section of the field she went straight off to graze so at least I didn’t feel guilty like I do most mornings when she hangs around looking for treats.

Last night the wind finally died down, it felt so eerie up there. We tried the head collar in the field and poor BG did try several times but just couldn’t get her confidence up to put her nose all the way in. Eventually we resorted to the shelter again, at least that way she still has her food but has the head collar on first. This morning was all frosty and we tried again, but no luck in the field. We opened the fence to let her through to her shelter and you could tell she was hungry – she cantered across to her shelter. In there the head collar goes on first time without a fuss, it makes you wonder what makes it so scary outside.

She had a slight bit of dried on blood on her nose so we think she must have scratched herself on a bush, it all looked clean though. She also got spoilt with some hay this morning (she is still getting a net at night) since the ground was frozen.