Thesholds

Jet has lived on every side of Shiloh for over two years now, so I assumed hardly anything that goes on there would faze him.

Well, you know the old saying about assuming...

It was more than likely my own fault that Jet started getting antsy and prancy everytime he came out of his pasture. Our best fights happened outside his home base. The arena where he ran away with me. The manure pile where he threw countless tantrums. The area by the bushes where he got scared by some of the wandering horses. Any place Jill's beautiful Fresian, Tanis is (he is scared to death of him). The barn where Farrier Torture takes place. And the most nerve-rattling place of all - the wash rack. Where Jet goes from Half Dead Peanut Roller to Savion Glover, tap dancing extradonaire, and throws in some rock eating for added entertainment. Every wash rack at Shiloh we have brought him to has caused me nothing but anxiety and frustration. It's not that he freaks out and pulls back. He just WON'T STAND STILL. He becomes a total jerk about his feet, newest trick being he "falls down" in a dramatic heap when we lift a hoof. Since there is no history of him acting like this prior to us adopting him my guess can only be he picks up on whatever anticipation I have of what trials and tribulations MAY occur at the wash rack. In essence, I worry he's going to be a right-brained clown, so he turns into a right-brained clown.

So, as he was playing his, "Oh, I Just CAN'T Stay Balanced Because I Have Native Dancer Feet!" sob story while Mom cleaned his hooved yesterday, I stood there and pondered, "How on earth can we make this horse as well behaved out here as he starts out in the pasture?" And it hit me like a mack truck - DON'T TAKE HIM OUT OF THE PASTURE.

At least not for right now, and not for long periods of time. For weeks now, I have been thinking, everytime Jet does something RB, "What are you trying to tell me?" Each time so far, the nail has been hit on the head. I knew it didn't sound right to do his maintenence and even play the games in his pasture. He needs to learn how to stand politely at the wash rack and he needs to not be scared of the barn because that's where the farrier is. My reasoning was, yes, this will happen, but why not set it up for success by starting off in the pasture, where he is comfortable? Approach and retreat is a HUGE thing with Jet. He's basically confident, happy and playful, but pushed beyond his thresholds, he turns into a big chicken. This brainchild was in part created by other blogs and posts on the Forum about people who do most of their playtime in their horses' pastures and slowly take them back out in small increments before they are comfortable and quiet around the whole farm.

Jet had been trying to "tell" me this for awhile. Yesterday, I heard him. When we put him back in the pasture (a reward for standing still a whole two minutes), Mom tried lifting his feet again. No dramatic collapses. HMMM...How interesting! Today, for the official "test" we went in. I cleaned out his feet this time. He had one bouncy moment, where I actually said to him, "Figure it out, get your balance," and he instantly stopped moving. Then I tried some Porcupine on the forequarters. Jet moved on PHASE ONE!!!!!
That wasn't the best part, though. The feet cleaning and the porcupining was done...at liberty.
Three months of this horse in our life and we are picking his feet up at liberty...if you ask me, that ain't bad.

But the day wasn't over yet. Right as we were getting ready to leave, Leo, one of the ranch hands, came into the pasture with the tractor. It's just a Gator with a little plow in the back, but as he drove around to even out the dirt, the horses all ran for their lives. This occurs every day and may explain why Jet is terrified of the Gators and golf carts driving around the ranch. It's not like Leo's CHASING the horses with it, but you know prey animals...

I stood under one of the awnings as the horses tore away from the scary Gator monster. Jet was right in the thick of it, biting and herding the horse in front of him to get out of his way. He rounded the back, galloping at full speed, and as Leo turned again toward the gate, Jet made a sharp turn to the right and zig-zagged to slide to a dead stop RIGHT BEHIND ME. While he watched the Gator drive in our direction in terror, I casually rubbed his neck and looked the opposite direction. A moment later, Jet put his head on my shoulder, looking the same direction I was. Each time after that, when the Gator rolled toward us, Jet and Blahnik stood behind me and looked with concern, but did not run away. By Leo's last round, they had wandered off to a hay pile, and could have cared less when he drove right behind them.

My heart swelled. Jet got scared and ran to ME for protection.
We've got to be doing SOMETHING right :-)