Not much going on.....

 Doesn't he look good in purple?  No clue what kind of flower that is lol.

I tweaked my back the other day, so I haven't been doing anything except taking care of the animals.  By the time I've hauled hay I have to lay down and let my back relax.  It's starting to feel better though so I'll try to get back to Couch to 5k with Chrome and clicker training with Zep.  For now here's some quick pictures I took of Chrome.  He is looking so handsome in his summer coat!  :)

 I was sitting, watching the ducks and soaking up some sun, when Chrome came to see what I was doing.

 He dropped hay in my hair and then walked by, pausing to watch the ducks.

 And got a drink before going back to grazing.

I'll post tomorrow with Chrome's progress report.  I totally forgot to do last month's.  I can't wait to get him groomed up and looking gorgeous for his pictures.  I might even give him a bath.  :)

Donkey Day (and Chrome's stifle update)

 First a Chrome update.  As you can see in the above photo he is back to his old self.  :D I have just been walking him, letting him graze in the yard (he walks around a lot while grazing), backing up in a relaxed posture and walking him over the hay bales.  Tomorrow I'm going to start over on our Couch to 5k workouts, but I guess I'm going to try running with him so he's not on longe circles.... yuck.  Wish me luck lol.

 And now on to Donkey Day!!  As you can see in these pictures I let Zep out of the round pen because we had bad weather for a few days.  I'll probably put him back in as soon as we can build him a lean-to.  If I could find Faran a home I would just train Zep out in the pasture since I could easily put Chrome in the round pen or out in the yard to graze while I worked with him.

Zep tries to help me out and bites Faran trying to get him to go away.... but little donkey teeth don't make much of an impression on the Hulk lol.  

These pictures weren't taken during a training session.  I was actually guarding Chrome while he ate his supper because he eats soooo much slower than the other two and they try to steal it from him.  They were totally mugging me lol.

 We want FOOD!!

 So anyway, on to the training.  Even though I wasn't training when I took these pictures I took pictures of what we've been working on so you could see.  I just snitched handfuls of Chrome's food to reward Zep for cooperating.  :)

 Petting him on the nose.

The first day I took my target (tennis ball stuck to the end of a dowel rod) out and worked on touch.  He quickly remembered the work we'd done with that.  In the first session I was able to get him to transfer and target my hand!!!  :D

 Holding my palm out flat so he can touch it with his nose.  I'm so excited for him to learn the hand target because that teaches him that my hands are good.  :)

In a later session I started holding my hand up toward his face.  His natural reaction was to turn his face away, but I just left my hand in the air.  When he turned back to face me without moving away I clicked and gave him a treat.  It took no time at all before I was brushing my fingers down his forehead and then putting my whole palm on his face.  :D  I can tell he remembers all of this, it will just take time to gain his confidence again.  Hopefully we will have better weather next week and I will be able to work with him more.  We only had three clicker sessions this last week.  The exciting part was that when he was in the round pen he was walking over to where I sit to train him before I could even get in the pen lol.  He loves it!

  As you can see by his total mugging of the camera he is definitely finding his confidence again.  :D

Zep says bye until next week!!

Stifle Exercises

I'm trying a new stifle exercise with Chrome that I had read about, forget about and then read about again in my Equine Fitness book by Jec Aristotle Ballou.  Using a square bale of hay I have to walk him over it, trying to keep him as straight and as slow as possible. Going slow is what helps build up those muscles that support the stifle.  At first he would step over with his front legs and swing his haunches around the side of it, but I did eventually get him to walk over it straight by halting him after stepping over with his front feet so that it was under him, having him stand a second and then asking him to step his rear hooves over.  Here's a video of some of our better attempts...



He's definitely feeling better.  His perky, pesky personality is back lol.  I didn't even realize he was acting different until today.  A friend of mine suggested having a chiropractor look at him since this could be a back issue as well.  I'm in the process of trying to find one.... I hate moving!!  I miss all my old equine contacts lol.  I'm just glad my farrier is willing to travel so far to keep trimming him.  :)

Anyway one reason I know he was feeling better is because he was galloping around and doing his floaty trot this evening.  :D  Yay!  His stifle stills locks occasionally, but it doesn't seem as sticky as the past three days.  Since he was trotting fine today I'm going to start his Couch to 5k tomorrow again.  I've decided I'm going to go out and walk him twice a day for at least ten minutes even on his days off since he's not moving around as much as he did on the thirty acres.  Keeping him moving seems to be making the biggest difference.  Hopefully with these stifle strengthening exercises I'll be able to prevent this getting so bad again.  I have several other exercises to try, but I'll share them later when I can get pictures or video.

Thank you everyone for your support and advice.  I was feeling really sad about all of this coming back, but you guys helped to make me feel better.  I'm so happy to have all of my blogging buddies.  Night everyone!