Since we hope to be able to eventually make an offer to our BO for Cheyanne, I decided to start a post about her. We have pretty much taken over her care and training anyway.
She and a young colt were purchased at auction almost 2 years ago. They were around 3 months old at the time. Cheyanne has been a member of our herd since she was old enough to be safely introduced to the herd.
I am very pleased with her progress. She ties, leads, is easy to catch, knows her name, will pick her feet up for the farrier, and stands in the cross ties for grooming. Tomorrow, to best of our knoweldge, she will be getting her first shots.
I plan on starting her in the round pen in a couple more months. Nothing difficult to start with, and I do not plan on having anybody back her until next year.

Shy-Anne is a little sweetie. (Same horse, different spelling. She was named Shy-Anne cuz she was so shy when she first got there, wouldn't let anyone near her.) The other day, I was burning a bunch of weeds out in the field. She kept staring at me to see what I was doing. Today, I watched her and Misty out at the hay. There was a horse between them at the feeder. That horse got chased off so they could be together.

She sounds like she is doing great! Pictures, you know how we are

Heidi

Now the fun starts! LOL! Have fun with her, and keep us posted on her progress...Pics would be wonderful!

No camera, and I doubt I'd be able to post them anyway w/the problems I'm having w/my computer.

Yes, she is a real cutie! I am dropping hints left and right that I need a camera! My sister wants me to decorate her wedding cake, I mentioned I was in desperate need of a digital camera.

I think Cheyanne will make a nice little hunter/jumper pony when she's old enough. She jumped a partially down fence last fall. She looked AWESOME!

SHYAnne was almost a good girl today. The vet was out for shots and coggins, so we had her give Shy her first shots. She didn't like them too much, but at least she didn't try to kill the vet. (Just get away from her.)

For the record, I like Cheyanne better.

Thank You!

Yes, she was a good girl, except when I went to catch her afterwards. I wanted to give her a little bute (vet thought she might be a little sore afterwards) and she wanted NO part of being caught. I guess she thought she was going to get stuck again . (Guess who's going in the round pen next week!)

The vet was also VERY pleased with her weight. When she had examined her nose a while back, CHEYanne was a little underweight. After that visit is when we started taking care of her. She came in at about a 5 (had the vet do a body score on all our charges).

You're welcome!

Y'all must be deef! It's SHYAnne

Uh-UH! YOU all must be blind. CHEY-anne is prettier!!

Hmmm, I thought it was Cheyenne!

Technically, you're correct. But I use the "a" as a compromise.

Today was Cheyanne's first day at "school". I had pushed up the time to start her in the round pen.
All we did today was forward movement. With all the distraction she had from the other horses coming over to check out what was going on, she did REALLY well. It wasn't long before she was moving off with the first "kiss". She was very attentive. The hardest part about working with her is going to be keeping MY mind on the lesson. She is just TOO CUTE!

MOMH, if you were closer I would happily take hundreds of pictures for you... I would love to see a pic of CHEYanne. By the way, I think the 'a' is a good idea. Pocahantis is spelt with an 'a' instead of an 'o', so I would be inclined to agree with you!

Bummer. But at least I can describe her to you all!
She is mostly white. She has a brown "mustache" with a little black running on the top edge. There is brown in almost the whole inside of one ear and she has black "eye liner" around the opposite eye. She has a "splash" of brown by her girth and another splash on the other side but down by her stifle. Her skin is very pink. She stands at around 13 hh. Her tail is already almost dragging the ground.

Mee toooo... I'd love to be the photographer...

When Oliver was "read" he said, "I like it that she has so many photographs of me." How wierd that he would pick up on that... anyway, I'd love to take photos.... and load them on my computer for you and gunk it all up even more...

Because of the weather yesterday, we didn't get to have our second lesson. So Cheyanne decided to celebrate by having a nice roll in the mud! (think she was trying to match Licky )

Today, the opportunity presented to teach Cheyanne about trailer loading. Misty was already on, so figured it would be easy to load her. She put 2 feet on the ramp easy enough, gave her a minute, then backed her out. Led her up the ramp again, this time a little further, then I backed her out. Got her all the way on, backed her out. Loaded her all the way on, hooked the butt strap, closed the ramp. She went for a little ride with Misty. When they got back, unloaded Misty first, then Cheyanne. Then, I loaded her one more time, let her stand there for a minute, then back out and put her away. She did really well! My goal for her is to teach her to load with just a point of the finger and not have to lead her on.

Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!! I can't tell you how many times I see or hear horror stories about trailer loading. Chey-anne did great! I am proud of her, but I'm also proud of you! Not many people realize you just need to take the time it takes. And I totally applaud the reload after the ride. Perfect!

I was talking to Cheyanne's owner last night (our BO). The woman who was with her when she bought Cheyanne and Timmy was asking how the "foals that you couldn't even touch" were doing. Apparently our BO was gushing at how well Cheyanne was doing under my training . Now that Timmy is gelded, maybe I can start to work with him.

MOMH that must have made you feel so good! I am very happy for you. I can't believe Cheyanne is only 6 months and she can tie, lead, catch, stand, pickup feet, and trailer! You have made great ground progress with her... which will help probably help with mounted lessons when she's old enough. Did Timmy have any training before he was gelded? And are Cheyanne and Timmy related? Just curious since they arrived at the same time... Again, I am really pleased for you. More often than not my training turns into a humbling experience... eventually I realize I'm making progress, because like DJ mentioned, I look back a year or 6 months even and we see improvement in our relationships! Really glad your's is coming along so quickly!

CBH, Cheyanne is 2 and a half years old or 3 now. MOMH has had her under her training for 6 months. Still great progress, but not a 6 month old filly.

She's not 6 months, and she's not 2.5 or 3. We figure she's around 2 now. The BO got her as a weanling 2 summers ago.

Timmy hasn't had as much trainer as Shy-Anne has. You can catch him, tie him and groom him, but I don't know how he does for the farrier. I know he's had hsi feet done b4, but his feet don't seem to grow as quickly, so he hasn't been worked w/too much on that. MOMH and I don't really have the time.

Thanks Kim. We figure she's about 2. Haven't taken the time to really look at her teeth to see if we can get a clearer idea on age. We were guessing that Cheyanne and Timmy were some where between 3-6 months old when they were at auction (leaning closer to 3). One of them (don't remember which one) was pulled from it's mother right there in the run. So no, they are not related.
Timmy has had some handling and training in tieing, leading, and picking up his feet. He is not as far along as Cheyanne who has had more handling.

Timmy was pulled off of his mother.

Ooopppsss... I guess I got that math test wrong!?!



Ladies... I hope we are at least agreeing on the filly's training program!

No worries! There's not too much we disagree on. And if the spelling of a filly's name is the only major dispute we have, I'd say we're good.
And besides, if our company does purchase her we may be changing her name to "Peppermint Patty".

Actually, the way we agree on stuff is kinda of scary. One of us will say, I just had an idea, and proceed to share it w/the other, only to have the other one say, I was just thinking the same thing!

My mistake, when you spoke about getting her as a weanling, I just assumed she was six months old. But I do know a lot of folks wean much younger, but I am always hoping that they don't and the foals get to weaning at around 5 to 6 months of age, rather than 3 months.

I feel the same way.

I agree MOMH and Kim, the later the weaning the better it seems. I posted this information on Mary's thread about babies, but thought you might also be interested. Abigail Hogg was probably one of the most helpful sources of information about natural horse relationships for rehabilitating horses that didn't know how to be horses. Based on the great results I got from her information, I would be inclined to try it the natural way.

Posting:
On another note, I would have to agree with Buckskin's assessment of weaning. A reknowned equine behaviourist in England who specializes in behaviour rehabilitation indicated that what we call weaning is in fact orphaning. The behaviourist likens it to removing a human toddler from his parents. The traumatic experience of being abruptly separated from the mother lays the foundation in some horses to crib-biting or weaving, which the foal may or may not resort to later in life. She likens the trauma of weaning for a foal to that of divorce or bereavement for humans.

In her experience, the mother generally separates the offspring between nine months and a year, especially if a newborn is due. The offspring continue to live with the herd, without any interruption in their equine social education, and without any permanent behavioral ramifications. The behaviourist cited instances where mothers lived with their female offspring until they were adults remaining friendly with them even though the mothers continued to have other offspring. And the offspring, when weaned by the mother formed other bonds, especially with their siblings. For myself I can attest to the last, as both my girls are born of the same mother but three years apart. When I visited the herd, the baby was attached to her mother but also had a strong bond with her sister, which helped immensely when both were relocated to my farm. JMHO.

Thanks for the information. my horse was orphaned at birth and he was affected by it... less and less now that he is older. I think the weaning can have a huge impact on the horses behavior.. JMHO.

Now that the weather has been decent and we are limited as to what we can do on our project right now, I took the time to put Cheyanne back in the round pen. School is now back in session!
Yesterday was our "refresher - review" lesson on forward movement. She did well, even with all the distractions.
Today, the focus was on walking all the way around the round pen and stopping when I told her to. We did this on one side only and ended when she did a nice stop and focus on me 3 times in a row. It didn't take her long to figure it out. I hope to be able to spend about 20 min./day with her.

A note here: I was careful to not make Cheyanne into a "pocket pony". You know, the type that has no clue about personal space and doesn't have a clue what you're talking about when you try to send them away. I can honestly say that she TOTALLY understands about personal space, I'm very proud of her .

Had a chance to work with Cheyanne before I went to work last night. Once she settles down to actually listen to me, she catches on pretty quick. I am getting a nice walk all around the rp with a nice stop. Worked on getting the step back, took her a little bit to figure out what I wanted, but she finally got it.

The real issue that I am having with her right now is that when we are done our lesson in the rp, she doesn't want to be caught. So we will be taking a slightly different focus the next time she's in school. She's fairly easy to catch in the pasture with the herd, but she is known to have her moments from time to time.

Please tell her when you are with her that we said hello and warm nudges of encouragement from me and toby and oliver to her success and training.

Will do, wish I had a camera to take her pic. She's a real cutie . She has this little gray spot on the corner of one side of her mouth, it makes her look like she is always smiling.

We really need to work w/her more. Today, I fly sprayed all the horses-except Shy. I haven't really worked w/her, and while she may have let MOMH put the spray on her, she was working. I felt so bad for her. The flies were really thick around everyone's eyes. Even Lance let me fly spray him, and wipe his face down.

Apparently, Cheyanne has taken a page out of Misty's book , she's afraid she's going to melt if she steps in a puddle!
I've been looking to put her in the rp in the early morning - no later than 7 - because of the hot spell we're going through right now. So far, we've done the walk, trott, walk, stop, and the other day I got a step back.
Since we had this HUGE storm last night, there was a puddle in the pasture that she avoided. And, as I suspected, there was a puddle in the rp. Since she obviously had an issue with puddles, our goal for today was to walk through the puddle and come out the other side in one piece. After the third time, she did it. Then we moved on to our next goal, stopping, standing, and allowing me to approach. This accomplished, we ended on a good note and was able to lead her through the gate.

You mean she won't melt in a puddle! I wish I could have gotten out there that early. It was so nice and cool early this morning, but got stinking hot later in the day.

Well, we still seem to be having an issue with puddles. Still had a bit of a puddle in the rp today, and Cheyanne STILL did not want to walk through it. So, what was her solution? She jumped it! I had to smile and laugh, which really doesn't help to get the lesson across.
Wish I had a camera with me today. When she stopped and looked at me, she was posed in the perfect conformation shot! She is one Fine looking pony!

We are making progress! Today when we entered the "class room" it seemed like her young mind was already working. I asked her to walk forward and she did so immediately, right through 2 puddles from last night's rain . I did not even detect any hesitation! However, there was a teeny tiny puddle on the opposite side that she felt she had to go around rather than through , I just had to laugh! We ended with a nice quiet walk all around the round pen, through puddles, past gates, and resisting the temptation to snatch at the grass growing through the sides.

Yesterday was day for feeling full of energy, apparently . My idea was that we were going to work on controlling her gaites. Cheyanne's idea was that she was going to show off her gallop! I know it was just her youthful energy, and I had to smile. But we did finally settle down to do our "serious" school work . We ended up with just a review of walking on the rail, all around the round pen, and stopping when I told her to. I think she is going to be an awesome hunter jumper pony if I can just find the right person to do the saddle work with her next year.

And last night when I went to feed Stormy, Caramel and Dixie, Shy-Anne had to take off for the other field at a gallop.

Yesterday was a good day. Not too much foolishness this time. We accomplished our walk, trot, walk, and stop without too much shinanigans. And even learned something new! Cheyanne learned to take a step back . It took her a couple of tries to figure out what I was asking for, but she got it! She is so much fun to work with.

Today we worked on the other side. Every time I stopped her and asked her to go forward, she would turn around and go the other direction . She eventually figured out that I didn't want her to turn around.
She is becoming more accustomed to human interaction. She is not as nervous about it as she used to be. When in the pasture at the end of my day there, I gave Cheyanne the signal to stop. She did so, turned and faced me. What a good girl!

At least w/us. She got out the other day, and the BO couldn't catch her. She saw me drive up on my bike, and came running. And, while she wouldn't let me catch her, she went right to the gate and stood there until I could get to it and open it.

Yesterday I thought I would give Cheyanne a bath and get her groomed up. She wasn't too bad for the bath, but when it came to combing out her badly knotted mane, that was another story ! She had this huge knot that had torn a section of her mane at the crest. I had to jump ahead and work on the grooming. She did NOT like the mane comb! We ended up having to move to the round pen to work on it. By time I had managed to get the knot all combed out, she was allowing me to comb her forelock while standing quietly.

Today Cheyanne was full of piss and vinegar! She was doing a bit of rearing up in her stall while I was turning the others back out after feeding. Showing a bit of impatience . Fetched a lead and my PB lead. She had a regular halter on and I wasn't about to take it off with the attitude she was showing. But, when I hooked the lead on to her halter, she immediately calmed down. Started to lead to the rp and had to get her to stop and back up a couple of steps a few times. Then she remembered herself and led quietly the rest of the way.
Once in the rp, she decided she was going to have a grand time just running around the class room. She was not going to have any part of doing things at a walk today. Fine then, I guessed it was about time to start with the inside turns. What fun!! Not so sure that the laps she was given weren't just more fun for her. In the end, she did 4 consecutive inside turns. She allowed be to walk up to her, remove her halter, and let me stroke her neck for a few minutes. Then she quietly followed me out of the rp and walked quietly over to the hay. She was a GOOD girl!