Table Manners

Skeeter got her first lesson today.

She's going to learn her table manners.  I had planned for yesterday and today to be a settling in day, and we'd start "work" tomorrow.  Last evening, when I went to check on her, I pushed a couple of flakes through her fence and noticed that she dove right in before I was even done.

It occurred to me that I might have a pushy eater at that point.  I let it be, but made a mental note.

This morning when I went over to feed, I threw the bale over the fence into the outer pen (Ranger's pen), which startled her, but she came immediately back to investigate.  I'm actually pleased with that.  She didn't spook hard or for long - she just jumped a bit, spun and moved about three strides before she realized that whatever thumped out of the sky didn't eat her and she turned to check it out.

I moved the bale to Ranger's preferred eating spot, split it into two and carried her half to her pen.  She met me at the gate.  Now, a lot of people would be pleased about this, but now I know her motivation.  She thought I was just her hay bitch.

Boy did she have another think coming.

She learned pretty quickly that the hay bitch has rules and that she will not be allowed to eat until *I* say so.  It took a couple of "ugly noises" and a pop on the nose for her to get the point, but when she backed off, she stayed a respectable distance until I stepped away from her hay pile and released the pressure.  Even then, she asked for permission to eat.

I know that for the past three and a half years she's been at Canon City that there haven't been any "human herd" rules, only "horse herd" rules.  The inmates drive the truck into the pens, use the pitchfork to dump hay into piles around the pen, and drive out.  She just doesn't know that there are rules for dinner time other than those set by the other horses, without other horses in the pen, she thought it would be okay to just dive in.

She's a smart girl, though, she'll get the rules sorted out in no time.  But, boy, was it a throw back to having young kids.  Set the rule and enforce, enforce, enforce.  It will be interesting to see how much of her first lesson in manners stuck when I go feed tomorrow.  I don't expect her to get it right away, but I know she'll pick up on it fast.

Tomorrow is Meet Skeeter Day - Nebalee and her family are coming over and my friend Jen is bringing her kids over.

Also, here's a super cute picture of the meeting between Ranger and Skeeter, just for an "awww" moment.

(She looks a lot taller than Ranger, but he's standing in a hole.  She's really only about two inches taller at the withers.)

Who's The Boss?

One of the episodes we filmed was about an ill-mannered horse and her submissive owner.  I don't think that this is an unusual problem, though it is a dangerous one.  One of the things that we were told in our crew meeting was that we weren't supposed to correct the horses and that it was best for the horse owners to do all of the handling.  At first, it seemed like kind of a silly directive, but it made perfect sense; not a single one of us on the crew would have tolerated this kind of behavior from a horse and would have made a correction without thinking twice about it.

I know several horse owners who are excellent riders, but not such great handlers.  Over the years, I've known several people who were injured by their horses because they've allowed their horse's manners to slip - or they've never instilled manners in their horses in the first place.

This is not to say that Estes is the best mannered mare on the planet.  She's got manners, but just like letting my kids slide once in a while with theirs, I've allowed hers to slip somewhat.  It's easy to do.  Little things like letting her stop shoulder-to-shoulder with me instead of behind me where she belongs.  She can be pushy on ocassion when I've fed her one too many treats and she gets it in her head that it's okay to start snuffling at my hands and pockets. 

Linda over at Beautiful Mustang has written a post on how easy it is to raise a monster.  Go read it, it's definitely worth your time.