more Harry fun

I spent about an hour with Harry the other day trying to get him to realise that fly spray is not going to kill him!

First I thought I would try food association, so had some nuts and was feeding him them and spraying him at the same time, unfortunately he's not THAT greedy so he just decided the nuts weren't worth it.

Then I started just brushing it on, and realised it must be the noise he doesn't like (this is a really quiet spray!!) because whilst I sprayed it on the brush away from him then brushed it on he didnt mind, but if I stood next to him and sprayed it he had a flid.

So I thought he does like getting scratched and started scratching him with the bottle so he realised the bottle wasn't an evil monster.

Once he got used to that I just kept spraying him and scratching him and every time he moved away I stopped scratching but carried on spraying.

He eventually realised if he stood still the spray stopped and the scratching continued. By this time I'd used up nearly a whole bottle of spray, but there were no flies on Harry!

And then yesterday I took him over a trotting pole, which Harry could not see the point of at all, he walked upto it then stopped and looked at me as if to say "there's a pole in the way!" However with a handful of mollichaff in front of his nose he could see the point of stepping over a pole, but he wasn't so keen on trotting. I tried running in front with chaff and Harry would jog a bit then go "no actually I don't want to" I managed to get him trotting by standing just behind his shoulder and waving my hand at his bum. Once Harry realised that "oh you wanted me to TROT! This is fun!" and we had quite a bit of trotting round the field and even managed to trot over the pole once :)

I have also taught him to bow, he's such a smart boy!

So today he travelled with one of the other ponies, again something new he's always gone on his own before. nothing remarkable about it just another new experience, and in a different field yet again. It's so nice having an easy loader, traveller and unloader :)

Harry is being a very happy dopey boy, haven't done much with him just hanging out giving him grooms etc which he loves! Doesn't need tying up or anything he will stand for ages while I brush out his mane and tail which is getting thicker by the day, he has definitely taken after his dad and is becoming more like a gypsy cob every day (I was hoping for him to take after his dam, her mane grows a normal length and then stop, her tail is a normal thickness for a native and she has a little bit of feather on her heels) But no Harry is definitely a daddys boy! His tail is nearly full grown already I always thought it took 2 years? Hmm.

Anyway the other day I was playing around with one of the other ponies attempting to lunge (pony said NO) and as Harry was standing there in the way I decided to tack him up, then stood him next to the handy bench that's there and stood on it so he gets used to having people above him, leaned over him and was giving him a good scratch and kept leaning over then standing back up and patting the saddle for a while, he wasn't bothered so I leaned right over and took my feet off the bench! Just for a second he took my whole weight, then quickly stood back on the bench and carried on scratching, he is such a dream pony he's not bothered by anything. It's very hard to leave the field as he just comes and stands there begging you to love him!

He still hates fly spray, I think it's more the smell than the spray, it is rather stinky. I've been spraying it on a brush and brushing it on him, it certainly works! The flies hate it, wish Harry would make the connection

Skinny monster

Harry and friends have moved back to Rimpton as their field was suffering from lack of grass, and while the other two being small ponies actually look in fantastic shape, Harry I feel is still looking ribby, and although two separate farriers have both said he's fine and just growing, I feel much happier now he has grass to eat again.

He still hasn't put on any weight though, he's just growing! Not up so much, but just getting all muscly, looks like he's on steroids, all his veins are sticking out! I suppose it's his testosterone finally kicking in, fortunately he still hasn't realised he's male and remains the nicest colt I've ever had to the pleasure of meeting, no nipping, no rearing, nothing really.

So new plans for Harry! We are going to attempt to walk over tarpaulin. I put some out in his field and while his mates snorted at it very suspiciously at first, the minute I stood in the middle with some nuts they decided it was safe.

But poor Harry being the bottom of the pecking order (even though he's now the biggest) was getting chased away from the tarpaulin, so I then thought I would try leading him across the tarpaulin, but he didn't want too and we got closer and closer slowly and then he finally put one foot on the tarpaulin and decided that was enough, I wanted to do more but he wanted to go to sleep. Which is what he did.

I suppose the lesson here is to not be too greedy and stop once the smallest progress has been made. So I shall go back today and my aim is for him to get one foot on the tarpaulin and that's it!