#prfiona

[thefriendlyminis-blog]

So a little more info because i feel like my intro posts were a little vague.

So I’ll start with Fiona. I found her through an ad at Tractor Supply. The guy selling her also had another one for sale so those where the two i looked at that day. Funny enough this guy also works for Tractior supply. So i get there and i see the two standing in the barn tied, and instantly i was drawn to the taller of the two (Fiona).We stood there and talked to the guy, looked at his show horses in the barn, then finally i was able to to see the two for sale. I went to her first. A scared little sweetheart that didnt understand why so many people were around and why they were petting her. She hated being touched. She was a pasture “pet” they really didnt do anything with her cause they didnt get along with her. They used her as a broodmare once then left her to pasture. I untied her and took her outside and was letting her graze and get used to me as much as she would (which wasnt much). Then my mom kept nagging me to go look at the gelding. His name was scooter. I wasnt to thrilled with him. we just didnt click like fiona and i did. He was already “trained” and everything. My mom told me to pick up his foot, bc the guy said he was very good about that and scooter tried biting my knee. So my mom came and tried it and he bit her. So we stood ther for a while and the mans wife/girlfriend took scooter and was showing us what he knew, like lunging, but all he did was run around like a lunatic. There was no structure to it. he was just frantically running in a circle, kicking at the woman and the man who was just off to the side, any chance he got. I went back to fiona in the barn and was standing there as close as she would let me and was petting her neck and shoulders. Then i sat down infront of her against the wall and boy did that change a lot about her. She became more curious, more willing to explore me and realize that i wasnt going to hurt her and that was something that translated toafter i got her home. I became her size, so i became less scary. They we went to look at the horses in the pasture, and thats when i saw ruger. A scared cute little gelding with the sweetest eyes, but he couldnt get close because the stallion in the pen (his dad) would chase everyone away from us. Ruger wasnt for sale at that time because the guy was trying to turn him into a show horse. 

Then came deciding time. I told my mom i wanted the little mare (fiona) and she said, “I dont know, i think she might be a little to much horse for your first one. Maybe we should keep looking.” but i wasnt giving up on her. She needed someone she could trust that was going to build her up not tear her down. I was determined to be that person. Finally i convinced my mom that i could handle her, with a little help from my brother occasionaly. So on the 29th of August 2016, i paid for and brought home my little mare. The first few weeks were a little chanllenging because i was only seeing her on the weekends and she would revert right back through the week. Then we got into a car accident around septmber 12th, and i hit my head really hard on the back window of the pickup we were in. That messed up my speach really bad, and im still suffering from that but the medics said i was fine. All i wanted after that was the comfort of my horse. After that i started going to the barn in the afternoons after school 3 days a week and we started seeing better results, but i should have never ever let my brother or my mother do parts of her training. They were far to rough with her and all they did was scare her more, but i couldnt speak up because “they know more than i do. they watched more videos than i have” I call bs. I didnt like the trainer that he watched and whose methodsd they used. he is FAR too rough with horses in my opinion. I just did what felt natural to me and that worked really well. 

like you couldnt blanket her. she was scared of blankets. So you know what my mom did? threw it on her with no warning. She was so terrified, and i was so mad that she did that. My brother tried the method he used with his horse, to no avail. So i sat there for a minute and thought, “ Okay shes scared of the blanket when its big, but what about when its small?” So i folded it up as small as i could get it, and she wasnt so scared any more. I would set the folded up blanket on her back for a few seconds and remove it when she was calm, and i would extend the time is was on there each session. Then i started un-folding it one fold per session. Soon enough i had her wearing that blanket with out a melt down. Slow and stead wins the race. She loved playing. We would run around that pasture for hours. Happy ears and eyes, and her tail flipped up, racing around having a blast. 

Then my brother taught her the basics of lunging and desensitizing her to the training stick, and i worked on getting her to slow down while lunging cause all she would do was run like scooter did. I did a lot of desenitizing with her. i can now swing a training stick at full force around her with out her halter on and she doesnt even bat an eye. I cant do that with Ruger because of that man. He beat ruger with a whip and scarred him so badly.

I did a lot of liberty work with her in the begining and she thrived. After about a year, i found soemthing she really enjoys. Driving. You could ground drive her all day if she didnt get tired. Im hoping to maybe teach her to jump because she likes to jump ditches, and im working on training her to be hitched to a cart. 

i didnt proof read this bc im insanely tired so  if there are mistakes im sorry 

[thefriendlyminis-blog]

I think it is time for some introductions. This is Fiona, also know commonly as merrylegs (will explain later). She is the first horse I’ve ever owned. She was pretty much completely unhandled when i bought her. She had be haltered trained to a point. There where somethings she didnt know when in halter. She was difficult to catch, scared, basically everything in the book. She was my blank slate to turn her into what i wanted. it has taken two years to get her into what i wanted, and we still have work to do. She is willingly going up to people to ask for attention, she is so so so much calmer about things. I couldnt touch her body without her halter on her, you couldnt walk behind her at all, even when she was tied. she hated brushes, and being brushed, she still doesnt like fly spray and standing for it, and thats okay. We are getting there, at least she doesnt try to rip my arm off trying to get away from it now. i have found out that she is got so used to being haltered in the mornings when being fed (started bc i had to keep her away from the big horses food) that if i dont do that, she reverts to how she was. She is in training to be a driving mini. She loves ground driving, although if she finds something scary she does not have the confidence yet to walk up to it with me behind her. i have to move up to her shoulder to be her support system bc then she can see my reaction to said scary thing and if im not freaking out then she calms down and approaches scary thing with me. Hopefully soon i can get her pulling a tire or something of the sorts.

We call  her merrylegs because before she used to run away from me to avoid being caught and she always had the most merry little legs just prancing awway from you. So thats how she got the nickname merrylegs.

I used primarily +R training with a clicker for her now. she was started with tradtional methods because that was all i knew then i started exploring the depths of instagram and found a user called thewillingequine whos post made me switch to +R training with a clicker for Fionas sake. She took to that type of training like a duck to water. Tradtional methods confused her and made her resentful because she was never getting a clear answer. I taught her to target in a day and had her following a hand target within two days. I can easliy move her with a hand target. I just have to teach her to follow the actual target now. She is so much more happy with +R training because she is getting a clear answer of what IS wanted. 

Ive been majorly slacking with her training lately bc its been quite hot and ive been working a lot which doesnt leave a lot of pleasant working time, but i have the next four days off so lets see what i can accomplish with her. 

also she is the best girl ever, a little moody but still the best girl

[thefriendlyminis-blog]

We noticed something small yesterday that we’ve been blind to about Fiona. She reaches her nose out to you, but if she accidentally touches you, she recoils like she is going to be hit, so he had to of hit her before. I don’t think its something she’s ever going to get over either. If its stuck with her this long i don’t think its leaving.

I hate that any horse has to ever go through that.. I just don’t understand how you can hit a horse for no reason, or just because they did do want YOU wanted exactly how you wanted, or because they didn’t win in the show ring. I can understand a whack if they bit you really hard because I’ve done that. I was standing there talking and they come up and bit me, whether it be my hand, arm, neck, or leg. But to just mindlessly beat a  horse. I don’t get it.