Poor Griffin is lonely in his pen.
Standing on top of the hill in the pasture here, this is the place where Kachina went through the fence that first day. You can see how she would have difficulty seeing it without the yellow and teal tape as she was galloping over hill looking for Griffin.
Griffin (and Kachina too when she was with him) are so neat about their poop. Neither of them would poop in the front pen where I feed them hay.
Instead, they poop in a big pile in the back pen. Silly ponies. It's kind of nice, but it means that their poo pile is a frozen mound at least a foot thick at this point in the winter.
I want Griffin to face up to me when I enter his pen. What he does now is sidle himself up against the fence and keep his head straight. He will look at me if I don't put too much pressure on him, but if I do anything that he feels makes him uncomfortable, he will straighten out, look at me with only one eye, and sometimes even move off while snorting. If I catch him and halter him, he's actually pretty good about facing up and leading, but when left to his own devices, it's still his first instinct to sort of distrust me. If I'm deliberate about approaching him, he will stand and wait for me and let me do pretty much anything to him, but he's still so unsure if I move too fast, especially if I jump up and down.
Today, I worked with him on basics. I did tons of desensitizing. He is completely fine with me throwing a rope and stick and string at him, but if I jump up and down, he'll snort and move away. So I worked with him on that, and toward the end, he wasn't flinching hardly at all when I would randomly jump. I also did some refresher work on moving his hindquarters away when I asked and moving his shoulders away when I asked. I haven't done any of this in a while so it took some coaxing. Griffin is so unafraid of objects, that he is not worried when I tap him with the stick. This does create problems getting him to move when I want him to. I try to really make sure my body language is asking him to move, but he's not tuned into that yet. I also use clucking to signal I want him to move and that helps him get it quicker.
I ended our session with putting a fleece blanket on him just for fun. He's never worn anything before (accept for my shirt last summer), and he took this very well. He was a bit snorty about it at first, but quickly got over it. He is so unspooky that when I lead him around and the wind caught the blanket making it flutter all over, he didn't worry about it at all! I do have high hopes for this horse. I think he will be a fabulous trail horse, but he needs to like me more.
4 comments:
I think it's cute how you said you want Griffin to like you more! :) It appears he is just a cautious horse. He is really making you work for his trust and friendship. Once you have it, I think he'll be yours. I see him being a one-person horse. And it sounds like he'll be a great trail horse!
He is really handsome and filling out so nice.
Wow he really is a good looking boy. And very fancy looking in his blanket. :) Sounds like he's coming along just fine. Is your dad still thinking of keeping him as his horse? Or am I remembering that wrong?
My dad was originally pretty into the mustangs, but the reality of life is that he just doesn't ride enough to warrant having his own horse. He can ride Cody if he gets the urge, which is not very often. Last time he rode was over a year ago (but he did also have shoulder surgery in that year). And especially, I don't think he's into riding a green horse. He's getting older and I'd feel awful if one of my young horses caused him some sort of injury. My dad is a good rider, he just doesn't do it enough. So, Griffin's future is uncertain. I might keep him if I can get him trained this summer (or next summer), or I might be able to convince a friend of mine that she needs a 3rd horse (only if he turns out well - I'd not want to set her up with another horse requiring a lot of work), or well, we'll see. I do like him, but I like all my horses too! I just want more time to spend with them all!
HI Kara! Great to see that you own two Sulphurs! Here is my website: www.spanishsulphurs.org
There is a registry neutral forum attached to the website as well and you are more than welcome to join in and post about your Sulphurs!
My name is Kimberlee Jones and I own one Sulphur mare. I will be breeding her to a purebred Spanish Sulphur this year. His name is Mestene's Pueblo (Sulphur's Chance x Mestene). I am expecting a fantastic foall from this cross! One more Sulphur to preserve our historical Spanish California horse breed. My website dives into history, genetics, as well as conformation of our special breed of horse. Hope to see you on the board!
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