I am so exhausted lately. The horses are taking everything out of me. I don't know what's been up with them lately, but Artemis and Jimmy have been horrible to be around. It's really discouraging, just when it finally felt we were getting somewhere with them, it now seems like we're back to square one. To make everything worse, my mom has been injured by both of them. Jimmy managed to rip the skin off one of her fingers with his lead rope (which is exactly why it's important to wear gloves around horses) and Artemis, not on purpose, managed to kick her in the thumb. Artemis decided she wanted to nurse while we were walking back to her pen, and when my mom didn't let her she start kicking up her heels. By total fluke she managed to get my mom's thumb, on the hand furthest away from her. And today Artemis bit me. I just happened to be moving my arm when she did, so her she didn't manage to actually get a good grip on me so it didn't really hurt but honestly it made me angry. I'm sure she had a reason for it but I can't see what it was. I was leading her out of the pen when she did it. It was the first time she's bitten anyone and hopeful when I disciplined her, she got the message not to do it again.
She hasn't been that great with leading latey either. She walks as slowly as she can, and then if you tug enough, she leaps forward and tries to run past you. If you don't let her then she starts prancing beside you until she walks slow again. As she gets worse about that, she's gotten better about standing while tied and to have her hooves picked out. And as much as she's been a headache lately, she's been nothing compared to Jimmy. He lost his mind today when I dewormed him. I've done it many times before with any problems, but today he freaked. I managed to get most of it into his mouth but it wasn't easy and I ended up with some on my face, which was kind of gross.
I don't know what I'm going to do...
3 comments:
Wow, you have a rough go. I wonder what's got under Jimmy's skin... I am not sure of your set up, but perhaps there are critters around that are making the horses uneasy. This is the time of year when baby animals start wandering out of dens. We have wild turkeys where I am and even as babies, those birds are big and jump out of bushes! Or maybe a broken tooth?
With regards to Artemis' bad behaviour, would a squirt bottle help?? The touch of the invisible water on the nose breaks the crazy thought process. I used one on Gem to stop him mouthing and pushing me. Squirting and saying NO! worked like a charm. And, you can use it at a distance. :-)
Hope things come about for you soon. Happy Canada Day!!!
Hi Cjay - thought you might be interested in this: http://horsedayzblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/posting-challenge-i-need-feedback.html
Thanks Wolfie! I'll definitly check that out!
I don't think it's animals. Where they were before there was a lot of wild animals. We've had cougars right in the front yard and bears pass through all the time. We have tons of coyotes and deer too, and Jimmy has always been calm about them.
I was wondering if it was a tooth too. I think I'm going to make plans and see if I can get the vet to come out if I can't get him to relax so I can look at his mouth.
I really like the idea of the squirt bottle so thanks! We used it with the cats before but I never thought of it for horses.
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