Yesterday, Julie and I went to see Prince - the pony one - in order to establishing his ability to pick up his hooves for humans. For Ruth, this was the first time she had had an audience of more than one while she put the headcollar on and of course she did it with alacrity.
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| It is so important to support the hoof itself. This enables the pony to balance. |
For Prince it was the first time he had worked with three people and yet, once he had checked Julie out, he settled to letting each of us take it in turns to pick up and to start holding up his hooves. Happily, Ruth had clearly established the difference between having your leg touched and being asked to lift the hoof up. This is something that most horses have missed and this was borne out when I was asked to check for a digital pulse on another pony but couldn't get her to leave her foot down for long enough.
There's always a little bit of wafting as the pony questions whether it is a good idea to let a predator hold his foot. However, with a loose arm it's possible to go with the flow and find a moment of stillness to click and place the hoof down again.
In no time at all, Prince learned to balance himself as soon as he felt the signal to pick his foot up, allowing it to be held up nicely for three to five seconds before it was put down again. This will be gradually extended over the days to come and then he will be able to have is hooves picked out. I have no doubt that this will not trouble him at all. Luckily, he has amazing hooves.
Even better, Prince generalised the information about one hoof to all four hooves and we were soon picking each of them up in turn.
"Prince was brilliant today with picking up his hooves," received from Ruth today.
Then it was back to my own ponies.
Jack and Henrietta still have a lot of moulting to do.
