October November 2012
apparently learning by observation doesn't work with horses,
because he continued to snort distrustfully at it even when the
others were all happily stuffing their faces in plain sight. In the
end he got the idea by you guessed it me tossing bits of bread
into bucket, while he hoovered them up.
So, bucket dilemma solved, but worming next step.
Mum and I mixed up delicious feeds with lucerne chaff, barley
and Fibre-pro, adding the worming paste in...and none would
eat it. Murphy the donkey very carefully picked out all the little
individual bits of chaff that had no wormer on them, while Toby
(the TB) simply overturned the bucket and tossed the feed all
over the floor. Felix promptly ignored it.
Attempt one, needless to say, was an abysmal failure and a waste
of money. So, I bought more wormer and some molasses in the
hope of making it more palatable, and in a fit of genius splashed
out for some proper horse treats for Felix instead of buying bread
by the bucket-load.
Apparently molasses is something that Felix likes. Admittedly I
had to practically drown the chaff and wormer in it before he'd
touch anything in the bucket, but he ate it. However, despite the
horse treats also being `molasses treats,' Felix systematically
turns up his nose at anything offered that isn't bread. I should
probably just buy shares in a bakery now!!!
Strip grazing was also somewhat a failure Felix looked at his
side of the fence, then at the other side of the fence, and clearly
decided that the grass was greener, walking straight through like
a bulldozer. So, after replacing the batteries in the fence unit, we
tried again and ZAP!! He got the message.
Seeing him prance about, tail high, and posture at a fence was
rather funny, as was watching him make submissive mouthy-
gestures at it when the tape failed to be intimidated. Nonetheless,
he and Murphy were staying put, so Mum and I decided to bring
Toby and Marley in from the next field and put them all together.
Being rather fond of Marley, Felix got very excited when he
saw him, but as I wasn't bringing Marley over fast enough, an
impatient Felix took matters into his own hands and solved the
issue of their separation in one simple step, jumping right over
the electric fence. In fact, I am almost certain he cleared it by a
good foot. I suppose the good news is that I'll have a good wee
jumping pony when he is old enough to ride.
The bad news, of course, is that electric tape means absolutely
nothing to him now. The grass is, after all, always greener on
the other side, a fact he proved two days later. Awaking to the
dogs whining and crying at the door, desperate to get out, I spied
Felix on the lawn munching away quite happily, ignoring my
efforts to get him back in the paddock where he belonged. I am
ashamed to admit that after the third time he jumped back over,
blatantly disregarding me, I just gave up and left him to it.
Pick your battles so they say. I may have to poop-a-scoop but at
least I won't have to mow the lawn.
About The Author - Katie Haggath
Katie Haggath (20) loves writing and horses. She lives in NZ on 10 acres with her parents and a petting zoo's worth of animals. When Katie's
article dropped into the email in-box in the office it was one of those `can't stop reading this' moments. Here was a young rider and writer who
publically admitted that she knew very little about handling a young horse, yet has the desire to learn and can see the humorous side of this
learning experience. All horsemen and women have had to go through the learning process at some stage in their lives...but not everyone
has the writing ability, humour and guts to share this journey with readers of a national equestrian magazine. Katie has recently taken on a
young horse, with the aim being to train him (from scratch) and to break him in herself next year so, be prepared to share all the errors and
the successes as we follow Katie and Felix over the next twelve months in their journey of learning horsemanship.
INTRODUCING Illustrator Kay Thornton, a very talented artist who was one of the many who responded to our Facebook enquiries for
someone to illustrate this series. See more of Kay's horse illustrations at her Funny-Horse-Cartoons page on Facebook.