Good Days and Not so Good Days

Lately, Velvet has seemed very bored. The goats are very limited in playing the way she wants and the ground has been snow covered. Velvet is chewing on anything she can chew on, window frames, doors, you name it! She is becoming quite bold also, trying to walk all over me and trying to play rough horse games. What do I do? Well, first I decided she is not getting enough training attention. So for starters I took her out on a long lead rope and started teaching her to lunge only for about five minutes walking and trotting, bucking and jumping...she was not used to giving to the halter at a long distance and I now have a sore elbow from hanging on when she exploded. Still it was a good thing. We went to the barn for grooming and more training. Velvet is very good at backing and she is pretty good at moving her hind quarters away from me when I ask her, she even side passed a step when I applied light pressure to both her hindquarters and also her shoulder. I am very proud of her! She is also very good at stepping toward me when I say "step forward" while using a "come here" hand motion. Sounds silly, but she will be in great shape if she goes deaf! By the way, my not deaf Dalmatian also responds very well to hand signals. "whoa" is still fantastic even from a distance, once she starts saddle training "whoa" combined with seat pressure will make her a fine stopper!

Hooves are another story. She still has reservations about holding them up after she picks them up, but I see her improvements. Her front far side is the main trouble here. She is good all the way around until I get to the right front leg that is when she wants to take a step into me, but we are working on that. She is also learning to "stand", which to me and her is standing quietly and not chewing or playing. I found that snapping my fingers on her near side at her chin immediately stops any chewing activity. Funny, though, this has not worked from the far side, so when I am on her far side I simply reach under her chin and snap my fingers on the near side and she stops and stands quietly. I found that she learns much better from a small gesture such as snapping my fingers far more than a small swat on the neck as a matter of fact she gets cranky. I feel much better this way. Man handling is not an option, nor do I believe in it. She is approaching 14 hands starting her 9th month and I am 5'3". I am NO match for her! We are also working on tying. I have found a unique way to tie her and if she would become frighted she could easily pull free. I place her lead rope over the bottom of the dutch door and place it near the hinge end. This way she gets some tension when she pulls back, but if she gets frightened I can easily release the rope.

Overall she is doing very well with the somewhat limited time I have been able to spend with her. She is a giant cutie!