Yay registration papers!

[which_chick]

Finn's papers got here in the mail today. He was born March 22, which is right in line with what I guessed for him, so he's just about seven months old. I need to complete the "buyer's" portion of the paperwork and send it back to the registry and then they'll issue me new papers for him.

He's doing well, this weekend he caught in under two minutes, very politely. We worked on grooming tools, picking up his feet, standing quietly in-hand for bot fly egg scraping-off, reviewed basic in-hand skills. It was all very pleasant and low-stress.

Comments

[adafrog]

Yay!

[velvetchamber]

You know, it constantly amazes me that not all horse-folks prioritise low-stress handling of their horses. I have such a hard time comprehending how people just continue fighting their creatures rather than figuring out how to do things better. A couple of years ago we had my two geldings and two yearling fillies in a stable in town. The fillies had just been removed from their mothers, and were stabled and around people for the first time in their lives. All four of our horses were calm and easily managed, even when two of them were really only just beginning to learn humans aren't very dangerous. The neighbours in the stable next door were professional horse folks, have bred high level competition horses, and run tour rides where each tour takes a couple of weeks (very common form of horsemanship in Iceland). Every time they interacted with the horses in the paddock, they just scattered to the winds. Fleeing their humans like the plague. And it was very easy to see why, the humans were really poor at reading horse body language and at modulating their own body language to smooth out interactions.

Good that a youngster is winding up on the pleasant and low-stress side of things!

[which_chick]

I do Arabs. As horses go, it's pretty fair to say that they're on the... more reactive side of the scale. For such horses, you either get better at your read and your handling or you decide that they are all crazy and unrideable spook machines and go buy something a little less... reactive. That said, Finn is, at heart, a pretty good guy. Like most Arabs, he wears his feelings on his sleeve but ALSO learns at light speed. Positive learning experiences, for these sorts of horses, bring along buckets of confidence and calmness. Finn is still learning about me and about how I want things to work. He is not 100% confident of the rules yet, but each time we do stuff and he is exposed to the rules, he gets more confident and calm that it's gonna be OK, that this game is not rigged, and that I will do my very best to play fair with him.

Arabs do not thrive in uncertainty. They tend to explode under too much pressure. However, if you can get them to understand "the rules"... that

--they are being asked questions
--each question has a clear and definite answer
--each question is one the horse can (both mentally and physically) solve
--you allow them time to work the question as long as they are trying
--you correct but do not "punish" incorrect answers
--you clearly indicate the correct answer when they get it

(This stuff works with all horses, not just Arabs.)

Once the horse understands the rules, you have a horse whose "try" is quite durable and their approach to learning new stuff is pretty optimistic and "Yeah, let's do this thing!" It's a matter of putting in the time, consistently. He'll get there, I have no doubt.

[velvetchamber]

Preaching to the choir! : )

What a lovely way to describe Arabs! My impression is that they are quite emotive, and have what we'd call a mediterranean temperament if we'd be talking about people. With great range of emotion, expressed to the fullest without shyness, often involving quite a generous physical component.

Icelandic horses are on the other side. Not really emotive at all. They are like us Nordic folks: physically quiet and the outside does not readily reflect inner emotions unless a keen eye is cast to the signs. They are masters of suppressing the output of their concerns. The fact that Icelandic horses also grow up in large mixed groups in expansive pastures means that they are very fluent in "horse", compared to horses that grow up in small groups with frequent human contact. So they communicate with precision and nuance that's hard for humans to pick up. (For a reference point, our two youngest horses are currently growing up in a 60-80 horse herd that is in a 2-3 square kilometre open pasture. Prior to this herd the gelding was in a group of 25 stallions, 1-20 years old, pastured together until he was castrated at the age of two this summer.)

This quiet exterior of course means that it is quite easy to ignore what they are trying to communicate, and slowly wear down their patience with the numbskull human until the horse resents and distrusts people with a passion that they still don't show. With an emotive breed like Arabs you have to get good if you want to be safe, but with an Icelandic one can blithely be very ignorant of just how bad things are. But either type of horse will suffer in the hands of someone not willing to attempt honest communication. Regardless of the horse, they only really thrive with someone who is willing to read their expression, see where their limits lie, respect them. Gently show the horse that they can expand their limits, and that their human is willing to offer them safe space and encouragement to do so. That collaboration can lead to something more for the horse, and that humans do not automatically equate tension and discomfort.