Mousey - a little setback

One of our volunteers told me that she had tried, whilst offering beech leaves through the pen wire, to get the dock stalk out of Mousey's forelock (I must say my heart sank at this point) and that Mousey had jumped back. It was so innocently and helpfully meant, but I knew that this would be a setback.
About ten minutes later Paul went in to work with Mousey, unaware of what had happened. He offered her a twig of beech leaves but she ignored him. After a minute or two he was saying 'that's funny she was alright last night'. We then told him what had happened. Paul switched offerings to hogweed, which Mousey took very cautiously, neck outstretched. Then he did some neck stroking, which was OK. He could get to the back edge of her cheek, and her throat.

We talked about it over coffee - it is a hard lesson for someone who is so dedicated to doing her best for these ponies, but what a good thing that our volunteers tell us what's happening so that we can work out reasons for what we see.

Mousey saw the twig of leaves, and the human hand, and felt the snag as the dock was touched all simultaneously, and she associates it immediately with touches long ago and grabs, restraint and the cutting of her ears.

Paul said it's the trust thing; you are on a knife edge all the time; you have to work so hard for everything you get. We are trying to confirm to Mousey that we will never hurt her.
The temptation to touch a frightened pony can be quite strong if it is just the other side of a pen or stable door, and within reach. Never be tempted!

On the Billy Boy front, during the sessions today Paul worked up to scratching under his chin (BB's, I mean!)

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Billy Boy - slight progress - and Mousey

Yesterday Paul sat in Billy Boy's pen, offering him carrots. Little bits, so that he would have to nuzzle at Paul's hand to get it. When the carrots had all gone, Paul continued to sit there.

Billy Boy was clearly irritated that there was suddenly nothing in the hand. He reached forward and looked several times, with ears back a little on approach (not too seriously) and then went to walk past Paul who immediately blocked him with a raised hand. BB tried this again, and again he was blocked. He then accepted the situation, backed off, licked and chewed a bit and settled to wait - I felt that his demeanor had changed. Paul waited a minute and then came out. It was definitely a session playing 'mind games' and we felt that it was positive.
Today, Paul did the carrots again, two handed, and was able to stroke the side of BB's muzzle briefly as he took them.
Mousey went out on the 'lawn' today. She came in with her forelock decorated with dead dock stalks - goodness knows when we'll be able to get them out. Also, she has discovered a good scratching place on the low branches of the apple tree so there is now a patch of churned up mud beneath it where she has been swaying backwards and forwards.
She now copes with touching the hand that offers food without panicking.

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High jinks on the new grass

We gave Frodo a couple of hours in the 'new' field yesterday. He has been confined to the little paddock for a couple of years because it seems to be the only place he can't escape from. The ponies all know each other from chatting over the fence, but there has to be a real good run round and a sort out of the pecking order once they're in together. Frodo wasn't too bothered by the chase and Muddy's attempts to send him away, and he got his own back with several thuds on Muddy's chest before going. They all settled down (interestingly) into pairs, now that there were 6 - Frodo with Jeremy, Muddy and Basil, and older boys Bobby and Dan together.

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people4hamsters?

Our rescue hamster visited the kitchen table recently (whatever next!) and I took this really sweet picture after we gave him half a digestive biscuit. Had to share it with the blog fans.....

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Pastures new

A better day weatherwise with some warm sunny spells between the showers. We decided to move the electric fence to give the 5 ponies in the big field all the pasture that has been denied them since April. Paul has gradually accustomed them to it over the past fortnight by moving the fence a few inches every day.

It is a wonderful mixture of grasses and herbs and we arranged the new fenceline in such a way as to enclose some scrubby willow and oak for scratching or browsing on. First of all we had to move the ponies into the little paddock - Paul tempted them in with some hay. All except Bobby - he only came out of there a week ago and is well aware that it is a 'starvation' paddock and not worth revisiting! So he stayed out, unaware that we had all the outside fence down, and moved over to graze the new bit.

We had to join some tape up to get enough for two lines all round. Vikki and Sam went up to let the ponies back in (they had been watching us carefully). They came out of the gate so fast! Muddy in the lead, closely followed by Jeremy, with Basil and Dan behind. It was a flat out gallop to the new grass with a slight pause at the point where the fence had been, just to check.

It will be difficult to find the manure now and to pick it up out of the long grass. However we probably won't need to feed hay in there for some time yet, maybe not until after Christmas.
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More Billy and Mousey

Paul sat under the shelter today (steady rain) with tempting greenery held for Billy Boy in such a way that he would have to get touched on the side of his muzzle or under his chin as he took it. BB had taken some bits as normal but suddenly as he leaned in to get more he lunged forward, ears back, teeth bared. Paul raised one hand from his sitting position, fingers spread - BB backed off. It happened again, just the same, a moment later. But after that things returned to 'normal' and the session was finished, as always, on a positive note.

It's quite depressing and neither of us can imagine at the moment that it might be possible to approach Billy Boy and headcollar him. There's no quick fix for this - Billy Boy is expecting us to hurt him and we have to prove to him that we won't. It is not necessary for him to be like this; it's caused by ignorance; if a pony like this has a problem requiring veterinary assistance the chances are that it will simply be shot. It's lucky for Billy that he is now owned by someone who understands this issue - we hope we can help him for them.

Mousey is more accepting of a hand scratching under her throat and will brush her muzzle against our fingers now without panicking. Also she's not so bothered about people near her left hand side. So, small steps.

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Wet ponies

Billy Boy and Mousey have both done well today. We had frequent heavy showers so they were confined to pen and stable. Neither of them are handleable yet so they can't go out in either paddock - Mousey usually spends some time on our lawn but it just couldn't have coped with her today. Because we had more people here today what with volunteers and visitors both ponies had a lot of attention and Billy Boy became quite blase (I tried to put an accent on the e and it wouldn't let me!!) about people walking past him, hands coming in with leaves and all the other 7 ponies coming into the yard.
Talking of which, they were so desperate to come in (because of the rain) and Jeremy couldn't decide whether to eat his lunch first or have a roll, and he went to take a mouthful of lunch and changed his mind, rolled quickly on the tarmac, remembered about the food, took a mouthful, rolled again and this went on for about 6 rolls, all accomplished on the lead and interspersed with nibbles and a great deal of tail swishing - don't worry he didn't have colic! just a very wet back.



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Mousey's ears

Mousey is now taking food from our hands whilst we are close to her, inside the stable. We are gradually introducing contact with her muzzle by having part of the offering hand in the way of the food, which is a variety of relished greenery - sedge, grass, dandelion, hazel, hogweed, ash leaves etc.

She has to become used to two hands at her head and we should be able to work up to this as well using the same method.

You may be able to see her poor ears in this picture. The right ear has had the top cut off and the left one has a plastic tag in it. Undoubtedly
this, and the handling she experienced at the time of the procedure, is the cause of her fear.

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Billy has been testing the boundaries today. He tried a little rear-end threat on Paul and got a 'send away' in return - (have to be very careful with dominating body language on frightened ponies because you can overdo it and frighten them too much at this early stage) - then later he tried a head bite on a volunteer who was allowing him a sniff of her hat. She sent him back too. Both times he came back more mannerly.
Paul sat in the pen with a loosely-held handful of grass. Billy had a think about it, then stretched to take some. He progressed to daring to pull at it when it was held more tightly. He also had a good sniff at Paul's head, and tested it with his teeth. Like they do to each other; not an agressive bite.
We are trying to build Billy's confidence but there must be boundaries. He's a stallion, and his experiences of humans in the past have not been good as he has been through the inspection and branding process.

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Billy, Mousey and Frodo

We used the new pen for Mousey this morning while I mucked her out. She was quite comfortable in it, in fact she seems more relaxed than a week ago. Paul says she is not being disgusted anymore when he holds out his hand for her to sniff!

Billy Boy and Frodo ate hay from the same net, and had a bit of a chat and a nibble at each other. No squealing or snapping. In the picture, Billy is dithering about coming to the haynet; Frodo is already there and calmly eating, despite the presence of the 'dreaded human'. To Billy, it feels safer in the pen space outside. Anyway he did come - he watched me stroking Frodo's mane - this will not mean we are allowed to touch his! but he will be positively affected by Frodo's calm energy; Frodo is completely comfortable in his surroundings and with us. A little breakthrough - Billy took leaves from Paul with him INSIDE the stable.

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