--- In IceHorses@yahoogroups.com, "Janice McDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > My 13 year old Icelandic gelding reads my mind for sure. I said this > > recently, he is fine, comes up for petting, but if I am going to take > > him to trim his hooves, or put him in a dry lot, good luck getting > > anywhere near him:) He does not like either of those things. > > > > Lets be analytical about this Kim :)
I don't want to be analytical:) You know, I can try to conceal the halter from him, or pretend I am going for another horse, or whatever, he still knows, I'm not that good. I really do believe they can read us, some of it is body language, it is very hard to conceal body language, but some of it is energy and feeling too. I have had experiences that have convinced me that anything is possible, we are not totally limited by our bodies, and there isn't a person who is going to convince me otherwise. >Some would say you need to go > thru the motions of feet trimming or taking him to the drylot a LOT so > he will get over it. What do you guys think? Look, Dari is mine forever, as long as I have any control over it. Number one, I don't have a drylot where I am. He lets me trim his hooves, in fact the day after he ran from me, I approached him more carefully and he let me do it totally unrestrained, no halter, no nothing, out in the pasture, that is how we do it many times. It's just that sometimes he gets something in his head, we have gone years in between where there is no problem catching him. One night the girl who cares for them called me because she thought something was wrong with Dari, he had freaked out and snorted and ran from her which she thought was totally out of character for him, I went out, he was fine then, he does this kind of thing periodically, and yes, it absolutely does coincide with being put in a dry lot, corral, and not really wanting to have his feet trimmed, but he puts up with it. I kept him at a facility where we could turn out in pasture for a while when we were there, what do you think happened when I went to get him to put him back in his not so small, but dry paddock? He's not stupid. Unfortunately Dari was stalled for a couple of years of his life, Burbank does that to a horse, and he doesn't like it, and insists he is not going back there. I can't really blame him. I respect him enough, that I couldn't care less about him asserting his wishes on this, I cannot blame him for not wanting these things, he is not a robot, he is a living breathing being, with likes and dislikes. I was just using it as an example of how they read us, not really wanting to change him. Kim
