Eclipse is doing great

I haven't posted for a while but mainly because I've been spending all free time out with my horses.

I haven't done alot more with Eclipse since the lesson with David but he will now stand completely free and let me touch him everywhere, I can pick up all four feet from one side at liberty and he now leads nicely at the walk but we haven't mastered the trot yet. He is first over when we enter the feild and basically he is a pleasure to be around but mainly i'm just leaving him to learn from the others and I'm focusing more on developing my partnership with Mel further and taking what Jazz already knows a step further.

Please see my link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8wdt-Tb8S8

What a busy couple of weeks

Ok lots have happened since my last post.

I was away for a 4 days to go to Festival of the horse and then the Parelli gold summit. Whilst there I arranged for David Zuend 3* instructor and horse specialist to assist me with Eclipse both on haltering and I had noticed he would sometimes head towards me with his ears back so I hoped he could help me with this too.

On Tuesday 13th I drove 2hrs to Hartland Devon and had a fantastic session with David, where he really helped me understand how to put my heart in my hand and feel of my horse when I played the friendly game, and just how easily it was then to move this to steady pressure of the porcupine.

He also showed me the steps for haltering and Eclipse seemed alot happier after this session. On the 2 hour drive home he was wondering around the box exploring before finally laying down next to his dam.

I then left him again on the wednesday and Thursday as I was away for my sisters graduation. Friday & Saturday I was supporting Alison Jones 3* and David Zuend 3* at there demos in Devon and Somerset so I never got much chance to play with Eclipse on the Friday.

On Saturday we played some more with the friendly and with haltering and on Sunday we did our first water crossing. He chose not to follow his dam through the water intially but went through when my father lead him, after that he was quite happy to go through the water following Mel.

I will post some photos on here soon of the water crossing and the session with David Zuend.

Undemanding time

Eclipse is now 11 days old. We've just been spending the last few days mainly just chiiling out with me giving him itches. I've also been spending alot of time inside looking out to see how he relates to the other horses, he seems very dominant with our coloured pony, Jazz Ofcrouse she can move him but he usually bites or kicks her until she tells him off then he goes trotting back to his mother and she very rarely puts him in his place. He's still coming out each day to the front living area and following his mother into the horsebox where she eats her daily feed. Yesterday I did take Mel and Eclipse out to see a friend who live about 1/4 of a mile from me. Eclipse seemed particulary curious this time out alot more so than last time.

1 week and 1 day

This morning I was going to walk to our local shops to get a news paper. As I often take the horses with me I decided to take Eclipes and Mel (my father leading Mel).

It was very intersting to see all of the new sites and how he reacted to them, there are some large rocks along the side of the road that his mother used to be scared of and he went up to them and licked them. We went under the subway and he never batted an eye lid at it, when we came out in a housing estate whilst still being calm he decided to stay closed to his mother as until then when she stopped for grass he just carried on (and I was just staying with him walking beside him).

The only moment he spooked atall was when a car went past quite fast but the next time a car went past he was fine. At the stop a little kid came over to say high and stroked him whilst Mel enjoyed her recently bought Polos.

When we returned home I thought he would have been tired with all of the excitment from the outing but instead when I came in I watched him having races out back by himself, boy is he fast!

I went back out this evening to stroke him and noticed his ears were back alot, and then I had a BFO (Blinding flash of the obvious) I had somehow in the last week rather than wait for permission to enter his space / touch him I had got wrapped up in him being "cuddly" and had with out meaning to stopped respecting him properly. My PNH instructor had said to me years ago that I should respect the horse first as a Prey animal, then as a horse, then a breed of horse and lastly as "Mel" or whatever the horse in question is called. I have realised that whilst I did this to begin with and he was ok with me, I seem to have made an assumption that because I "own" him and I love him it must be reciprocal and I had somehow stopped respecting his views as a horse and a prey animal. I had failed to uphold my responsiblity to think like a horse, and he was there for not acting like a partner. Well I'm on a journey to be a horseman and I guess this is all part of the route ;-).

1 week old.

When I woke up this morning to let Eclipse and Mel in to the front "living area/ garden" I saw Eclipse drinking from the water bucket for the first time, he certainly is growing up quick.

He really is the most curios horse I've ever came across, he found an old plastic bag that had blown out of the feedbox and thought it was the greatest fun to hold it in his mouth and wave it around. I somehow thought horses had a natural fear of these, but apparently not to Clips ;-)

A bit later I had to pop out to the shops, Eclipse was right next to the motor when I started it up but he didn't bat an eye lid and on the way back in he was in the middle of our drive so I beeped the horn at him to get him to move but he just looked at me so I had to hop out of the car to move him on. He sure is brave.

When I arrived back from the shops I noticed his main and face was full of horse poo, as it seems his mother pooped on him. So as it was attracting alot of flys I thought it was a good time to sponge him down. I started to do this but he got up and ran away, so I put the lead on him and he accepted it fine and even gave me an itch back whislt I was sponging him. However, (I'm sure some of you more experience in these matters may have seen this coming) when I went to wash him further back I wasn't paying enough attention to the kick range and he whacked me with his back leg. Thankfully it didn't hurt much atall, but it has made me take abit more notice of him. I then proceeded to wash him but also had lots of hindquarter yeilds by swinging the rope, when he stepped towards me.

He is now getting very playful with everything including his mother who he ran and reared up on so that he had two front hooves over the other side of his mothers neck, as she raised her head i thought he was going to go over backwards as he kept getting higher but thankfully Mel then turned her head away from him so he landed back down on all fours.

I introduced them to an umberala again today but Mel who used to be a massive scaredy cat, but thanks to parelli is now quite calm, seemed to be a bit cautious of it. Mel does seem more aware of things since having the foal. But little clips was still very curious and infact his mother was only approaching the umberella as he was and she wanted to stay close to him.

With the kicking episode this morning I came back in to watch some more smart 7 DVDs to see if I could get any more pointers. It was nice to see we had already done alot of the stuff including backwards porcupine, of which he is unbeleivable light. However a couple of things I no I haven't been doing up to now politley discouraging him from grooming me, and I hadn't done any barbwire training. In the Smart Seven dvd Pat does this by puting the leadrope around the back legs so that seven learns to yeild backwards to pressure from the hind legs.

I attempted this but he seemed to panick and kick and buck. I held the line and I released when he stopped bucking for a second but we didn't actually learn to yield backwards. I tried it again with a lead rope around his front to stop him from going forwards but we still had bucking and again I released when he stood still. So I think perhaps we need more friendly in this zone before we progress to porcupine. So this session I didn't feel went very well as he was now a little nervous around me. So I didn't want to leave on a negative note so I got an old sleeping bag that was not much good now following Glastonbury and put it down next to where he had layed down and we laid there and I stroked him before we both dosed off together.

6 days old. Eclipse uses my legs as a pillow!

I'm afaid there are no pictures from Eclipses 6th day as my phone battery died i think due to the over use of photographing everything Eclipse does.

This morning Eclipse was already trying to establish his place in the pecking order and was rearing up ontop of our little coloured pony Jazz, Eclipse is almost as tall as and her already and he has been pulling her mane. When Mel seen that Jazz was not best pleased by this she called Clips back.

My main aim today, whilse still thinking about the amazing mirroring I seen yesterday was to get in harmony with Eclipse so I did lots of mirroing, but with me trying to mirror him. This took me on some very interesting adventures, I wish i had photos you would have laughed, I ended up walking bent over in between gaps in trees you never would have thought was there It really was like being a kid again! we left mel for a long time and wondered into the horse box which I've just been leaving open when they are out. I tried to copy bucking but just ended up in hysterics laughing atmyself and then we went for a gallop but at 6 days old he can alreay out run me but bless him when he realised I couldn't keep up he turned around and looked at me like why are you back there?.

He then had some milk from his Mel (I decided not to mirror this lol) and then looked sleepy so I let them back into the feild with the stable/Feild shelter. I layed down into there to watch him and his mum and once he'd had another drink he layed down next to me to sleep, as his drifted off to sleep his head kept going towards my legs but when it hit my legs he went to jump up, I gently restrained him by stroking him but in a way that didn't allow him to rise and after about 5 seconds of wanting to get up he gave up on the idea and laid down completely with his head on my legs. We laid like that for half an hour until he decided to get up and drink agian. What a truley wonderful feeling having him sleep on me like that.

* If you have already read day 3 you might want to take another look as I've now uploaded a video of the horses playing ball with us.

Jumping 5 days old.

Today when I woke up I looked out and my jaw dropped, Eclipse and Mel were about 5 feet apart mirroring each other doing perfectly straight backwards steps after about 5 or 6 backwards steps they turned ran down to the other end of the field again in perfect harmony as if they were synchornised dancers and repeated the backwards steps before turning on the hindquaters and cantering off to the field shelter. It was one of the most remakable things I've seen, and although I had my phone with me I was in too much shock and intrigue to think to video it.

A bit later I noticed that Mel wasn't letting Eclipse suckle when he wanted to and I got concerned, I checked the mare over and she appeared fine and then when I went out and asked her to stand still she did let her foal drink, I asked my parents to keep an eye on the situation whilst I was at work and it appears that if he ran in too fast she wouldn't let him drink but when he went in politely she would. So it looks like she is teaching him manners too.

Anyhow this mornings mirroring I witnessed got me thinking so I decided to play some games with Mel and watch what Clips did. I thought it was so cute when I did the circling game and Mel jumped over the big barrels and Clips jumped over the little tyres next to her that I asked my dad to video it for the blog. Anyhow as you will see in this Video on this shoot little Clips decided to jump the big barrels, wich I really wasn't expecting!! Hope you enjoy.

Clip's first outing outside of our land. 4 days old

Today we had the vet out to check his Dam over as she wasn't cleansing as well as we would have liked so she is now on anti biotics. However, both Mel and Eclipse seem to look well. Today I led Clips over the tarp wich he seemed to be more curious about than when he chooses to cross it on his own accord. Then we went just hung out in our "garden" exploring where he met some tyres, he re-introduced himself to the rubber ball and tried eating plants despite not having any teeth and decided that a fold up chair was a great itching post. We went on our first ever outing outside of our own land into the neighbours fields the plans was to go on our first water crossing but the field with the water in now is fenced off with cows in it so we used this opportunity to see cows for the first time. Interestingly Mel, his Dam, seems less bothered if he is a few feet away from her now and today he has had the fun of meeting our little coloured mare Jazz who up until now his mother has stopped him from sniffing.

3 days old. Puddle crossing, trailer loading, Jumping tyres and playing with bouncy balls

Today I went out and again andwas just there to stroke Eclipse. However, when he got up today he was alot more lively than even yesterday and was playing buckaroo to himself. Yesterday I thought I may have a future eventer, now I'm trying to convince him being a bronc is not a good idea in England as we don't have Rodeos.

Whilst I was rubbing Eclipse I noticed he seemed to kick out if I stroked his back legs. I didn't do anything about it at this stage but I just made a mental note of it.

Later when I came out I hopped on Mel who was an absolute star to come over and let me ride her BB with no fuss after more than 3 months with out being ridden. Whilst riding Mel (only at walk) Clips followed us around his field. I had laid out some obstacles a plank of wood & some tyres laid flat in a row. When Mel came to the plank of wood she walked straight over it and Clips stopped for a couple of seconds before walking calmly over it following his Mam.

I then asked Mel to go sideways a couple of steps in Eclipse's direction and what do you know she porcupined (gently "pushed") him so he was going sideways too!! Sorry but to me that is too cool for words.

We rode to the tyres and Mel walked through them, Eclipse looked at them for a few seconds and then jumped them and galloped to catch back up with us. We did this again and the second time he never hesitated and did a more energy conserving pop over the tyres to stay with us. What a clever boy ;-) I then used my carrot stick to rub Clips on the rump and whilst he did try to kick out and run around to the other side of his mum from riding Mel I could just pass the stick from one hand to the other and hang in there until he accepted it, which he did in less than 5 min. I then left them for a much needed sleep, me and them!

When I came out that afternoon I brought them back out into our front garden again and I introduced Eclipse to an excersise ball. Mel will happily pass the ball backwards and forwards to you for treats (she knocks it with her head) So me and my dad and Mel played pass the ball and then she passed it to Eclipse, it bounced off of his front legs back to Mel so she passed it to him again 3 times, now what better introduction to bouncy balls could you wish for than for your own mam to play ball with you? Clips then went for a drink and I rolled the ball over his body and Mel's whilst he was nursing, again everything seemed to go very naturally.

I left them to graze and then was going to take Mel some feed when I had a thought of how to make feeding into a more educational experience. So I put Mels feed into the horsebox thinking Eclipse would follow her in; However, Jazz our coloured pony who lives in the field with them but so far Mel has not let actually touch Clips was at the gate. Clips found Jazz much more interesting than his mam so didn't go into the horsebox and kept running to the gate, which ment poor Mel had to keep running back getting him and then trying to eat her food. In the end she gave up on the food and just looked after Eclipse.

So I tried a different tacttic. This time I put the lead on Eclipse as I had yesterday and but I didn't lead him into the box, I let Mel go into the horsebox to eat and I just loosely held Eclipse's line, When he went wondering off to the gate he put pressure on himself as I didn't move and he soon realised that he couldn't wonder away far and being a very curious animal when he realised he couldn't go exploring on his own he decided to explore the ramp which he did for about 10 minutes, licking it standing on it hopping off it etc, before deciding to walk on up there and see what the inside was like, as soon as he started walking in I let go of his line to allow this. I am so proud of him so bravely going into "the cave on wheels".

Later in the evening whilst topping up their water buckets I got distracted by Clips frolicking and forgot to turn the hose pipe off so I used this moment to introduce Clips to the hose, which he wasn't to keen on so I just used approach and retreat and figured it could be something we work on gradually after all he is only 3 days old and we have plenty of time before we need to wash.
I then figured as we now had a muddy puddly area we could try our first puddle crossing so I lead Mel at liberty through it and sweet as you like Clips followed along. Now what a day we've had today!

* Below is a Video of a ball playing session that Dad took after Mel had passed the ball to Eclipse, sorry for the poor quality but to be fair to my Dad it is difficult to play ball and film things on a phone. Hope you enjoy it though.

2 days old and Eclipse goes outside his field for the first time

Eclipse is now 2 days old. Today i spent almost all day just hanging out with him. He likes having his ears stroked, it kind of makes him sleepy. I then came in and very carefully watched some more Smart Seven footage from the Parelli Savvy Club Vault. and then went out to try and help Eclipse learn the appropriate response to pressure and to follow me and my suggestions.

I have an old halter that the dogs chewed so I undid this and it now resembles an 11ft horsemans string, that I draped over Eclipse’s body as if it were a saddle/ girth and then forwards through the middle of his front legs. Then I slowly moved around to one side so I was off centre and by doing as close as I could to what Pat said on the Smart Seven DVD by releasing when his nose went over the line with in no time at all Eclipse was licking chewing and following me!! I never realised it could be so easy to teach a foal to lead and all with out a halter. Eclipsed also showed me he knew how to respond to my suggestion to move forwards, backwards and his front end around, when I gently “pushed” him around like his mother would. This Natural horsemanship really does seem to be what the horses already naturally know as he just learns everything so fast.

After the fun of that we had more sleep and this afternoon when I came out I let Eclipse and Mel out of there field in to our “garden” / living area. It’s not really much of a garden but that’s only because I let the horses out into it so much but it does have cars parked here and washing lines and rubbish bins, all sorts of places to cause mischief and Eclipse bravely explored every inch of it.

* This is the link to the parelli Savvy club footage i watched prior to todays play session. http://www.parellisavvyclub.com/watchMedia.faces?id=39

1 day old

I wasn't here to witness Eclipses second day of life but from all accounts he was having great fun galloping around the field and bucking.

Eclipses first day.

Mel foaled at 5.30am on the 26th June when I was away at Glastonbury Festival but thankfully my mother, father, Sister and our neighbour who owns a stud were all on hand to assist where needed and to photograph the event.

Upon waking up at Glastonbury I left the festival and rushed back to see the new addition to my herd. Initially he was still in the stable with Mel (his Mum) but once I opened the stable door he decided to go exploring, it was so funny his mum kept trying to round him back up and get him back in the field shelter but as soon as she turned around in there he ran out to explore again. I think it took her 6 attempts before she finally got him to go in and stay with her. I have laid a blue tarpaulin near the front of the field shelter so that he is getting lots of practice walking over them, he never seemed to even notice it was there. At one point whilst running about he found a bale of straw was in his way so pop he jumped over the bale. I'm so excited by this I think I might have a future eventer here ;-)

Whislt I was with him I rubbed him all over with a plastic bag but he didn't seem to take any notice of it at all and Mel just stood relaxed and made gentle throaty whickering noises at him.

The vet came out to check them all over and he had his first injection (tetnus) all is fine with both Mare and Foal so I returned to enjoy the rest of the festival.