Clowning around

Today, I hung out with Cirro and Lily for a while. I have a few odds and ends in the paddock for toys. There is the standard jolly ball, plastic apple that you can hang and a rubber boat bumper with ropes tied to the ends.

Then there is the Hula Hoop.

I got it for fun to see if it would be useful for desensitizing the horses. One thing it was useful for was getting them to move for good photos! It has the standard rattles in it, you see. Paisano would barely tolerate being touched by it. Lily was a little more accepting, but Cirro… Cirro let me put it over his head the first time I showed it to him. In a couple of minutes, I was leading him around with it. He’ll be trained to neck rein before he ever knows a bit. These two photos are from that session over a month ago.

He's not quite sure about it yet.

My daughter was videotaping. She said, “Put it around his neck.” I didn’t really intend to go that far, (I had visions of him tearing around with it on his neck and not being able to get it off…) but he was fine with it, so I did. No photo of that though. Maybe I’ll get the video edited and put it on youtube sometime.

More interested, after it was moved away from him.

I use advance and retreat type of movements when introducing new stuff like this. I watch carefully to see that the horse isn’t pushed too far from their comfort zone, just a little. Then I back off. When they see that nothing has eaten them, they become more brave and curious about exploring the new thing.

Today I fiddled with him and the hula hoop for the second time. As usual, he was crusted in mud, but today it was dry. Ah, just ready for some grooming! I held up the hula hoop and let him nibble on it. Whenever he touched it, I rubbed him. Pretty soon he was holding it in his mouth. Every time it fell, I stopped scratching and rubbing him immediately.

In a few minutes, he figured out that picking it up got him praise, scratches and made me laugh. What a way to get some grooming done! He ended up holding it and shaking his head to make it rattle. After about 5 minutes or so, we took a break. Soon after, he went back to it on his own. It is somewhat flattened from being out there for the last year, so he had some difficulty at first. When he tried picking it up on his own, it would flip up. He got it over his head a couple of times, then figured out how to get it straight in his mouth. Oh, then he went to go wave it at Lily! That really made me laugh! I thought that he might spook her, but she stood her ground. No way that the pipsqueak was going to tell the boss mare where to stand!

After that, he carried it around a little. A few times, he put his head to the ground and stepped into the hoop, while still holding onto it. Did he let go? Did he freak out? No… He pulled on it and pulled on it. I could practically see the wheels turning as he tried to figure things out. Needless to say, I was also laughing the whole time. It was dusk and not worth running to get the camera. I will try to get it on video next time. He did eventually figure out how to get his feet free, while still holding on with his teeth.

What a clown!

Update…. I caught him yesterday at lunch time.

This is his, "Aren't I smart?" look.