Teresa's Kerenza is now wearing her headcollar in advance of our Handling the Semi-Feral Pony course this weekend which means that she can go on to things like foot handling and leading with our two students.
And this little chap is called Ted. I was contacted about him just after Christmas via Facebook by his new owner, Louise. At the time she said:
"I don't know if you can help me but I have purchased the little blue roan colt in the picture from the guy who bought him at the sales, they had him for approx. 6 weeks and decided they didn't want him, I have had him for 6 days and he is extremely nervous around people, not wanting to be caught etc, previous owners had him in a muddy pen and dont think they gave him much attention except for chasing him around to catch him! just wondering if you could give me any advice on best way forward with him." LI wrote back and said:
"I would go back to the very beginning with him and re-halter train him rather than battle with him...The best starting point is probably my book No Fear, No Force - it explains how to get the pony to accept touch more easily and the headcollar itself and how to use clicker training if you need something extra to help with that. You'll need somewhere safe and reasonably enclosed to make a good start and a feather duster(!) is helpful too. Another small tip with these little ponies is to get down low so that they're not always looking at your knees!"On Tuesday I received this message:
"Have received my book and read it cover to cover, has really helped with Ted, we are now able to catch him without problems, groom him and have started picking his feet up."
