I've been riding Gussie, working on her lateral moves and just reminding her of all the things she did before she had time off to raise a foal. Today was a very hot day, so after I rode Gussie I took her and Peppy up to the barn and gave them baths. You can see in this picture how the sweat was running down her sides. Gussie loves the water, and was quite content to get hosed down and get her mane and tail shampooed. I decided to give Peppy his first bath, too.
He did quite well, only jumped around a little bit- he takes after Beamer in that he hates getting his face wet. His colour looks great wet!
This was taken before his bath. I'm liking the Blueboy Quincy/Mr. San Peppy cross in him! It's going to be hard to part with these two horses; if I didn't have Beamer, I'd be keeping Peppy.
I've been riding Gussie, working on her lateral moves and just reminding her of all the things she did before she had time off to raise a foal. Today was a very hot day, so after I rode Gussie I took her and Peppy up to the barn and gave them baths. You can see in this picture how the sweat was running down her sides. Gussie loves the water, and was quite content to get hosed down and get her mane and tail shampooed. I decided to give Peppy his first bath, too.
4 comments:
jingles (my cat) isn't fond of the hot weather at all. she has a solid black coat. rather than camp out downstairs where its 10 degrees cooler, she comes upstairs and lays right next to the window where all the hot sun comes in with the curtains and door closed. i don't get why she lays next to a boiling hot window. especially considering her fur is black. black fur attracts heat. *sigh*... life is strange!
Great pics! Love them both! I would snag them up if you didn't live so far away!
That Peppy is a cutie I tell ya!
Mine love the water as well!
I'm curious for more information on how you gave Peppy his first bath. Was he tied to that post in the picture, or did you have him in a bath rack? How did you approach him? By spraying the legs or dripping a little down his back? It took me a long time to get my horses to settle down during baths. I don't have a rack, so I have to tie them to a post.
Hi NuzMuz! Yes, I tied him to the post- he learned to stand tied at an early age.I put the hose nozzle on a soft spray and started on his lower legs. I am not tentative when I do this; I'm very matter-of-fact, and just continue the spray, even if he jumps around-which he did, a little. The trick is to reward the behaviour that you are seeking- in this case the goal is to have him stand still and accept the spray. So as soon as he stood still, I rewarded by stopping the spray. Then I started spraying again, just going with him as he moved around, and stopping when he stood still. By the way, I moved from his legs to his sides and back fairly quickly, I didn't just stay in one spot as the goal is to accept the spray no matter where it is.So he started figuring out that I wanted him to stand still, and then when I sprayed he stood still for longer periods of time. The thing to remember at this point is not to stop spraying when he moves, but only when he stands still.There usually comes a point when you think they have it all figured out, and they regress to a point that they are worse than when you started- but keep up the program and then they seem to give up and everything really clicks. This method works for anything you want to train your horse to accept whether it be baths, flyspray, ropes,tarps, or whatever you can imagine.
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