This is six month old, Felix, a son of For Romance out of a mare called Glossy. Yet another posh warmblood for us to work with. He isn't so happy about having his back legs touched although he accepted the feather duster on his body with very little trouble.
Touching his bottom was fine too - especially with the 'ironing' motion that we use. The feather duster has never seen a real cobweb.
Touching his leg resulted in an instant, non-thinking, instinctive, snatching up of the foot which he had been following up with a kick - or simply walking off in a circle.The art first of all is to teach him to keep his foot DOWN until he is given a signal to pick it up, and therefore the feather duster stays in place until he stops kicking or stops circling and puts his foot down on the floor.
Once he accepts that, we can move on to using hands.
Out in the fields Jacqui has three more Warmblood foals including this two year old gelding, JZ giving me an excellent opportunity for some much needed horse rubbing and kissing.
All being well I should be back and able to work after the weekend with a few interim appointments where Tracey or the owner can do all the physical bits.
