February/March 2013 - Page 18
He attempted to kick me
Actually that is unfair. Basking in the warm glow of
my prior successes, I mistakenly thought this would
be easy. I trotted up to him, murmured some vaguely
soothing nonsensical baby talk, and ran my hand
down his leg. This was fine by Felix, but only until I
took his foot off the ground. He then panicked, jerked
the hoof out of my hand (and up a tad close to my
nose) swung his bum away, and promptly fell on his
bottom, that particular action requiring him to lift a
back foot while his front hoof was still only half-way
out of my hand. Horses don't balance well on only
two legs.
After that he did attempt to kick, but only with his
back legs. The front legs he put all his weight onto
and refused to budge an inch off the ground any time
my hands went near. Needless to say, this was not
going well. I didn't want to smack him with the crop
every time he kicked out, especially since my aim can
be poor and (as some of you might remember) I once
hit the poor lad in the goolies that way. Though, he
didn't kick out again after it until the foot lifting and
the falling.
I remembered Jenny, the breeder from whose lovely
stallion Mac, I got Felix. When attempting to get Felix
into the horse float to come home, you may remember
that Jenny looped a length of rope around one leg at
a time, quite literally walking him forward by lifting
his feet one at a time. I like to think of it as Extreme
Puppeteering. So, I got a rope of reasonable length.
Having learned from previous mistakes, I made sure
this time that it was longer than the general reach of
his legs.
I passed it carefully around a leg, with half a bread
bun in my back pocket to keep Felix occupied. Then
we practiced running the loop of rope, in full contact,
down his leg to his fetlock, whereupon I lifted my
end of the rope such that the loop put pressure on his
leg at the same spot my hand would be. I kept up the
pressure until Felix lifted his leg. Cue praises and a
stingy little amount of bread (I only had the half bun
left, Felix being a Piggy and me being soft). Then we
moved onto supporting his foot with the rope for two
He put all his weight onto his front legs and
refused to budge an inch off the ground any
time my hands went near his leg.