Thursday, March 17 2011

Magic has no noticeable limp. I cleaned his hoof and packed the hole with iodine soaked cotton balls. I gave him a 12 cc shot of antibiotic. His mood is better and he nickers more now that his foot feels better.

I groomed and worked Newt in the round pen. It was very windy this morning which puts horses in a high alert and jumpy mood. It gave me a chance to handle Newt in a situation where he needed to trust and pay attention to me. He did not want to walk but he listened and finally did. It was a good workout. I did not get on him. No sense tempting fate.

My friend Robert Milner writes in one of his dog training books that we often end up testing the animal rather than training. His example is a Labrador pup that learns how to retrieve the dummy and the human keeps on throwing the dummy further and further until finally the pup cannot find it. The “trainer” just caused the dog to fail. Robert’s point is that in training we should always strive to make the trainee be successful.