Blind Ambition - September 2007

First Day Outside
September 1, 2007
We use portable panels for a small paddock, which are mostly smooth and round, and attached it to their barn. Our paddocks are a little distance from the barns .We felt that attempting to lead her and mom out to our paddocks could be risky and we felt that starting out in smaller paddock and eventually expanding it was the best way. After 2 days of being home we opened the stall doors. Mom was dying to get outside and roll. The filly did very well. She had little bumps on the fence but nothing major. We do not leave them out if we are not out with them or close by. I think I was more nervous then she was. When she stepped out and felt the soft dirt under her little feet she put her head down to sniff and proceeded to pick up 3 small rocks in her mouth.
After prying them out she resumed to muzzling her way around. She definitely can feel the different textures under foot and associates the feel with where she is. She turned her head up to the sun and felt it on her face. She stood there for a few minutes enjoying the warmth.

Another added feature...
September 10, 2007
We noticed a protrusion under her belly and called the Vet out to examine her. He informed us that our little girl has an umbilical hernia. Hernias are common in foals. There are different kinds some more serious then others. Hernias are measured by finger width. She has a 2 finger hernia meaning it is 2 fingers wide when you stick your fingers into the opening. Now when I say opening I do not mean she has an opening on her belly. The protrusion is skin and tissue then droops down where her belly button is. The treatment plan was to 3 times a day push the small intestine which can droop down into the opening or hernia back up inside. The opening will eventually close up. What you do not want is while the opening is closing, for the small intestine to get pinched in the hernia. She would need surgery if that happens.

So our foal hold has come in handy. I wrap my arms around her chest and rump and then I back her butt up to the stall wall. I wait until she relaxes then I move my rump hand down to her belly give her a few rubs and gently push my two fingers up into the hernia opening. I do not believe it hurts, maybe feels funny. She does not seem to mind much. Also by doing this I can monitor the size of the opening. It will get smaller in time and we want to make sure the intestine is up and in not hanging down in the hernia.

Supply and demand or is it demand and supply?
She is typical foal in a lot of ways. When she nurses and the milk does not come fast enough for her she turns her little butt towards her mom and starts bucking at her mom as if to say "hey le'ts go, I'm hungry!" Since she does this every time she nurses, I think she believes she has to do this to get the milk flowing.

More space please...
September 16, 2007
We have expanded their paddock area to double the original size. She has adjusted very well. She went to where the fence used to be and felt it was no longer there and walked until she found it. She keeps her nose and neck stretched out to feel her way. Since the paddock and stall is attached to their stall she has learned to go in and out. She uses her feet to feel where she is. She knows that there is a slight incline to get back into the stall and that the dirt feels a little different there. She feels the board at the threshold on the floor of the doorway. She knows the feel of the shavings in the stall and knows she is inside. She knows when there is a stall door open or closed without touching it. She can sense or feel the air. Mom wears a small cowbell, I braided it into her mane so she did not have to wear her halter all of the time. When the filly senses she is not close by, she listens for the bell and finds her.

Two Horses (unknown author)
Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it.
From a distance, each looks like every other horse.
But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing.
Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind.
His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him.
This alone is amazing.
If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell.
Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field.
Attached to her halter is a small bell.
It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her.
As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray.
When she returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges.
He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need. Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell.
of those who God places in our lives.
Other times we are the guide horse, helping others see.
Good friends are like this .........
You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.
Please listen for my bell and I'll listen for yours.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle"

No no little girl...
September 18, 2007
She has started to do some bucking and kicking. Discipline became the next thought. It is difficult to correct her with a slap when she can't see. But we also did not want a monster on our hands either. She is learning to respect us just like we would expect with any other youngster. Usually you can see it coming, when she is thinking about letting a kick fly so we will give her a little push or slap and say hey. She gets the message. Any cues are done with touch and verbally. We try to all use the same words and tone. She is catching on. None of it is mean she is just feeling like a little kid who wants to play.

Motherhood, no one told me it would be like this...
September 21, 2007
She has been eating grain since she was about 10 days old. At first trying to steal some of her mom's. She is also nibbling some hay and drinking some water out of the buckets. It was a good thing because we have come across a hurdle. Mom has decided motherhood is not exactly her cup of tea. She has begun to nip quite frequently and give little warning kicks at the foal. We contemplated weaning at 6 weeks of age. What was best, keeping them together so the foal could still nurse or weaning to escape any risk of her getting hurt? It also was causing the foal to become nervous.

Most horses will swish their tail when they kick. The foal would hear or feel mom's tail swish and think a kick was going to follow so she would scamper away. We consulted with a vet to make sure Mom was not ill or uncomfortable in any way. Sometimes foals will bite their udder and that hurts. We did feel it was more than a mom disciplining her foal. We continued to observe closely and inquired about milk replacer, supplements etc. We decided to try and make some adjustments to keep them together for a while so we hung a corner feeder for the foal and started her on about a cup of grain and Foal lac pellets twice a day. When I grain them I put Mom's halter on her and clip a lead to her so she cannot go down and eat the foal's grain. It has worked out very well. The foal actually knows when it is grain time and will go down and wait by her feed bucket. She is so smart.

A caution I will mention when Mom is tied, I keep watch to prevent the foal from becoming tangled in the lead. When they are both done eating I remove the lead. At this point Mom seems to be tolerant, so we will keep a watchful eye and prepare for an early weaning if necessary.

Be Prepared
September 22, 2007
I felt that we needed to begin some training. With her blindness I try to think ahead. What adjustments are we going to have to be working on to make sure she has all that she needs? We did not want them to have to stay in the stall and small paddock area forever so I thought that halter training and leading would be our first step. Since a lot of fears that horses have are visual, we obviously are able to skip that part. She became use to the halter very quickly. I want to mention that with foals I can't stress enough to imprint and continue to imprint. Imprinting is centered on the concept that when a foal is born, it very quickly formulates opinions about the world.

In the first few hours and days after birth, foals learn about 80% of what they need to survive as a horse in this world. What we do as the human imprinting the foal is to convince them early on that all the things we will be subjecting them to for the rest of their lives is just "a regular part of life," not things to fear. I imprint all of the foals I have worked with. I don't just imprint when they are born I continue to do it every day. My experience is that foals that are imprinted are more personable, much easier to handle and train. It also makes life less traumatic for them. Foals that are not handled until they are weaned are afraid and confused. So needless to say she is very comfortable being touched everywhere, ears, legs, belly, butt, mouth etc. So it makes training much more pleasant for all.

We want to make her comfortable leading so they can move out to the bigger paddocks. So I began using a verbal cue- kissing sound and snapping my fingers to get her to come to me. When she reaches me and touches me with her muzzle, I give her scratches, walk away and then repeat this. She picked it up very quickly. I can walk all over the stall and paddock and she will find me when I kiss and snap my fingers. I even try to trick her up but she finds me. I have sacked her out gently with a soft cotton lead rope (sacking out is a training tool one uses to desensitize the horses to different items and feelings).

We have been working on picking up her feet and using the word 'up' when she picks up a foot. Again not a big deal because she is used to us crawling all over her. I only hold it up for a moment, repeating with all 4 feet. With any training repetition and consistency is important. She was doing so well with the verbal cues of kissing and snapping my fingers I decided to put the lead on her halter. Using the verbal cues and slight pressure on the lead she moved forward very nicely. She did get a little confused and started to run off once or twice.

When she's afraid and I feel is at risk of getting hurt, I use the foal hold also as I am holding her around her butt and chest, my head becomes level with her back then I slowly blow out a long soothing breath. I repeat this breathing several times. She will bring her head around to her shoulder and immediately calms down. This breathing exercise is something similar to the Jeffery method of training. Kel Jeffery was an exponent of natural horsemanship practices long before the term was even coined.


Purpose | May/June 2008 | April 2008 | January 2008 | November 2007
October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | Home