KEEP CALM & CARRY ON! Lesson 1 of many I'm sure

[charliefar]

Well its official Jet is definately a dales, I've had a fairly hectic week all in all.
I've had my 1st difference of opinion with Jet over when he decided he'd done enough walking around looking at spooky things and stopped!! Stubbon is a phase I would use but had totally forgotten about.
We'd done a bit (not a lot) of looking around the farm at various spooky objects, blue barrels, feed troughs tractor buckets etc , the main objective is to get him to lead properly, he would follow anywhere but not walk alongside. All this he was very good with and he was allowed to take his time and work things out up until
He suddenly decided that he was fed up on the left rein and would just stand. :
It took a lot of self control and time may I add to convince him that this is not allowed but I'm pleased to say eventually using a feed barrier as leverage I conviced him that planting himself is not in his best interest!!
I won the arguement without upsetting him and am relived to say that he hasn't done that again (YET)
Trailer practice has gone well , rearing when confused he is learning is not required (definately progress) and I'm pleased to say despite living in an orchard without proper grass he is putting on weight!! ;D
Hes definately a work in progress as I think he's got quite used to being rewarded for behaving by giving food ( he'd go anywhere for a bucket) but thats not much use when you have no food or you riding!!
Still haven't put out with the other boys yet but will try and do that at the weekend.. On a more positive note (non dales related) my TB Fatty won both his classes at the retrainied racehorse show on Sat and was in hand supreme champion!!!

[valerie n scout]

congratulations Fatty XXX

ha ha ha yes Dales do have the tendency to "discuss" things, then decide NOT to do it anyway X

[harveydales]

lol yes this all sounds very familiar.

Well done Fatty.

[Deleted]

Very interesting. I am very new to Dales ownership and in my wisdom I decided that my daughter and I should take him to a fairly large local show. I add my 2 yr old had not yet mastered trotting being led! He has been little handled really in terms of being led etc. Well he let himself be washed and boxed like an old hand.
We had a solid hour of him standing on his back legs and fly bucking (that was scary as he's chunky and already 14.2hh) at the tractors towing horseboxes through the mud and teh sea of horses. A great learning experience, which put my blood pressure through the roof. He behaved ok and trotted fine in the class but fidgeted in the line up. The Dales do seem to learn quickly thankfully.

[maggie]

The thing about a Dales - and in this they are quite different to hem, hem, ....Highlands! - is that they do give in eventually.

Mind you, eventually may be far beyond any reasonable person's patience horizon.

Well done with Fatty

[mickey]

Stubborn is a word used to describe Lu's mare, Patience. Who is very well named as you need bucket loads of patience!!

[harveydales]

Aug 2, 2012 7:07:28 GMT -1 mickey said:

Stubborn is a word used to describe Lu's mare, Patience. Who is very well named as you need bucket loads of patience!!

[charliefar]

Yes Maggie they are definately diferent to highlands, he was lovely to have for a few weeks but think I'd have aged rapidly if he's stayed much longer !
It does seem to have cheered him up a bit so he can definately come again next year!