February March 2013 - Page 19
Continued
But the third time?
Oh, the third time!
He was wonderful!
He was angelic!
seconds, then ten, thirty, and sixty seconds. Then I
tried with my hand, and got a much better result.
It still took the better part of twelve weeks and two
disastrous Farrier visits before Felix would stand still
and consent to let the poor woman fiddle with his feet.
The first time, he attempted to rear up to get away
from her, nearly knocking the poor girl's nose off.
That earned him a good earful. He was quite contrite
afterwards, though he sulked for some days. I think
of him more and more as a sulky, lazy teenager. The
second time was better, until she pulled out the hoof
stand. Then he played silly beggars, which resulted in
his tripping over the hoof stand. It took me longer to
re-catch him after that one than it did to file his nails,
the big girl's blouse.
Over twelve weeks of resting his hoof on my knees
or stretching his leg out forward. Twelve weeks of
Felix leaning on me with all his weight, convinced
he couldn't stand on three legs. Over twelve weeks
of patiently picking up hooves and picking them out,
brushing them off, getting mud and grass and poo on
my hands, and finally, finally a result.
The hoof pick threw him for a loop. He'd just about
gotten used to me fiddling about with his feet when I
introduced that one. I have one which has a brush on
one side and the pick on the other. It is bright blue,
and it used to look very fetching before the mud, and
the grass, and the occasional poop when Felix hasn't
watched where he is putting his feet. I don't normally
buy that kind of hoof pick, but it came with the set of
brushes that I bought for him (matching blue glittery
brushes). I shall definitely be buying one again!
Felix didn't like the pick, but he would let me brush.
So I started taking him for walks; I'd get him out,
groom him, pick up his feet and brush off the dirt as
best I could, and then we'd go for a little walk up
and down the road. Once this was normal and okay,
I started using the pick. By then Felix was so used to
me messing about I don't think he even noticed I was
doing something different!
The walking proved useful too. On our road there
is everything, from Alpacas and Deer to Donkeys,
Cows and Clydesdale horses. Despite being A-okay
with our donkey Murphy, Felix finds the Jennies next
door quite intimidating. He attempted to hide behind
me, which mostly just resulted in his shoving me out
into the road thanks Felix and ditto with the Deer.
I expected him to be troublesome with traffic to
Felix's first encounter
with traffic was a ute
with a trailer. He hid
behind me.
Nothing I do can
convince him to
accept the neighbour's
peacocks, however, and
the daft birds don't
respond to `shoo'.