Carly. My new horse. She is a Percheron. That meant nothing to me, either...until I saw one for myself. They are a draft horse. What's that, right! Well, let's call her a work horse. A carriage horse. Not quite a Clydsdale, but not far from it. She is dappled, white and grey...a real beauty. She stands about 18+ hands at her withers (shoulders) which makes her about 6 feet tall at her shoulder and according to Eric, add another two feet on for her head and she stands at her tallest point, about 8 feet tall. Her feet are the size of luncheon plates - literally. To put it all into perspective, a normal horses foot is the size of a tea cup saucer. So, with her proportion described, I will tell my story.
I have spent the better part of the last couple weeks trying to befriend Carly. At first I would just go out to the field and stand there with my hands behind my back (always with treats in my pockets) and wait for her to come to me. Let her smell me, size me up and then I would offer her a treat. If I reached to pet her she would back up...very timid. But as the days passed, she stayed a little longer each time, came a little quicker and spent more time looking at my eyes and resting her head on my head (it is quite a heavy head, but if she was willing to use me for a head rest, I was willing to let her). A few days ago when I reached out to pet her, she let me. As a matter of fact, she let me for more than 15 minutes before she began to back away. When I returned the next day, again after some time, I reached out to pet her and she again allowed me to. Now mind you, if you want to befriend a horse, you need three things...1) love 2) patience and 3) treats and lots of them. I reward her for coming to me. I reward her for looking when I call her name. I reward her for allowing me to pet her...and if she goes away and I call her AND she returns, she gets treats for that. Essentially she is associating me with kindness and treats. Both of which she needs.
Tonight, I went there and took her halter, which is the thing you put over their head to lead them around, and went out to the pasture. She came right to me....reward. I tried to get the halter on her and she turned away...no reward. She came back to me...reward. I tried again and she backed away...no reward. The third time I tried she allowed me to do it, but a problem that I hadn't considered arose. Her head is taller than I can reach at a full arm stretch so I couldn't get the thing OVER her big head. I pushed and shoved it back over her ears until it slipped into place....BIG rewards for her for that one! Then I led her out of the pasture for the first time (she has been out of the pasture, but never with me). We tied her on cross ties in the barn which was pretty funny in itself. She took up the entire barn...front to back and darn near side to side! More rewards. Now Buddy is in the stall in the barn so now, simply by virtue of my being there and having treats, each time Carly earned one, Buddy got one. Which made him so happy! I was grooming her. She has fungus on her right back leg which was bleeding so I treated that. I groomed her and honest to Betsy, I could not groom her mane or back so I had to get a step stool and stand on that to groom her. But the whole point of this blog was to describe what happened when we gave her treats...which apparently I hadn't noticed out at pasture ever before. She dreuls....BAD. I went out to my car to get a mane comb and when I got back to the barn it looked like someone threw up. I said to Raechyl, "Did Carly throw up?" (for any horse lover out there you see the idiotic question here!). Rae says "Mom, horses can't throw up". So I said, "Did someone else throw up?" Rae says, "No, it is Carly dreuling!"....NO WAY! It was like three PUDDLES of I swear, throw up! Yellowish, slimy, puddled and splattered like throw up. Carly did it! The owners son was there and Justin says, "Carly is girgitating"... I said, "Don't you mean, regirgitating?" He laughs and says, "No, I mean girgitating!"...I finally got it and laughed. Carly is like a Newfoundland dog. The bigger the breed of dog, the bigger the jowel and the bigger the jowel, the more they dreul. I guess the same holds true with horses. Man, Carly is a complete slob! It was unbelievable. So, now Raechyl and her friends will not give Carly treats. "No, thank you, Mrs. Thieringer" they say. As for me, ah, what's a little spit between horse and owner!
Until next time...
