Filly had managed to stand on her own hoof and pulled one of the nails out of the front left hoof. So we asked our farrier, Nick, to come and sort out the damage she had caused.
He came today, took one look at the hoof and decided to remove the shoe, trim the hoof and put it back on. The test of my training with the farriers tripod was coming much much earlier than I anticipated !
To be fair the training had been going well. We had started with rewarding for just having the hoof on the tripod and got to the stage where we were rewarding for her actually balancing the tripod. In other words, if it started to rock over I would help her bring it upright again, click and treat. She soon got the hang of this and so I was working on extending the time the hoof was on the tripod.
Then the farrier came.
I explained to Nick that the cue for the tripod was "Filly, tripod" and point at the desired leg. She then at the least takes the weight of that leg and allows it to be place on the tripod. He tried this and was very impressed when it worked. He then commented that she was actively trying to balance the tripod as he worked on the hoof. This was a big turn around from our previous experiences where she had repeatedly knocked it over causing Nick real problems.
The best was yet to come. Nick decided to remove the other front shoe and trim the hoof as it had grown so well. This is the hoof we are trying to rebalance so that was really good news. So we came to the tripod with this hoof. He picked up the tripod and put it in front of her. Without even being asked she picked the hoof up and gave it to him. I think Nick was very impressed. As for, Filly she gave him a great big wet kiss around the back of his neck and into his left ear :) .
I now have visions of getting her to balance her hoof on a sawn off broom stick... just for fun.
He came today, took one look at the hoof and decided to remove the shoe, trim the hoof and put it back on. The test of my training with the farriers tripod was coming much much earlier than I anticipated !
To be fair the training had been going well. We had started with rewarding for just having the hoof on the tripod and got to the stage where we were rewarding for her actually balancing the tripod. In other words, if it started to rock over I would help her bring it upright again, click and treat. She soon got the hang of this and so I was working on extending the time the hoof was on the tripod.
Then the farrier came.
I explained to Nick that the cue for the tripod was "Filly, tripod" and point at the desired leg. She then at the least takes the weight of that leg and allows it to be place on the tripod. He tried this and was very impressed when it worked. He then commented that she was actively trying to balance the tripod as he worked on the hoof. This was a big turn around from our previous experiences where she had repeatedly knocked it over causing Nick real problems.
The best was yet to come. Nick decided to remove the other front shoe and trim the hoof as it had grown so well. This is the hoof we are trying to rebalance so that was really good news. So we came to the tripod with this hoof. He picked up the tripod and put it in front of her. Without even being asked she picked the hoof up and gave it to him. I think Nick was very impressed. As for, Filly she gave him a great big wet kiss around the back of his neck and into his left ear :) .
I now have visions of getting her to balance her hoof on a sawn off broom stick... just for fun.
2 comments:
Yay! Great to see your training working out for the best, isn't it? :)
Absolutely. It makes it all worthwhile and, just as importantly, fun :)
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