Looking for horse donations for new police mounted unit - I wanted to pass along the following letter I received from a New Jersey police department in the hopes that some of you out there might be able to help:

I'm employed with the City of Asbury Park Police Department in New Jersey. We have recently formed a mounted unit and are looking for 1 to 2 horses for donation or adoption. What we are looking for is a gelding horse, approximately 15.3 to 16 hands, any dark color, between the ages of 9 & 15 years old. Any information you can forward to me by email at: Bel676@aol.com - or contact me by phone at 732-684-2339, will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-Anthony Butler

Please contact Anthony Butler directly if you feel you have an appropriate horse to offer to their fine program!

 _____________________________________

Calling on all horse-lovers! Support your local Equine Rescue Organizations - NOW!

 

As you may know, with this year's drought, there is a severe hay shortage. This will be difficult for anyone who owns horses, but it may impact our Rescue Agencies especially hard. Here's why:

 

1.  The price of hay is soaring/supply is very short (the price of feed will be going up, too). Rescue organizations are always on tight budgets anyway - and if they don't buy hay now, the price will only be higher later. Today we spoke with the owner of one agency. They are having to bring in a load of hay from out-of-state at $8 a bale (I bet they usually pay $2-$3), and are still needing more!

 

2. If they don't have storage space, they might need to rent containers to store what they need to get them through (e.g., a local G'ville company will rent a semi-trailer parked on your property, for storage use, for $100/month)

 

3.  It is possible they might have an influx of horses needing rescuing in the coming months, because...

A.  Soaring hay prices/limited supply

 

B.  Horses at Upstate SC auctions have been going for as little as $90-$150 in recent weeks! Not only that, but there have been several cases in which the Auctioneer asks if anyone will take the horse for free (in one case, a healthy, registered stud-colt) - and no one would take it! (Don't know if it's related, but remember, the TX slaughterhouse has been closed down, and the other one in IL was temporarily closed until recently)

 

C.  ASK YOURSELF - What might people be tempted to do:
- if they realize they will not be able to afford to feed their horse,
- if they can't sell it or even give it away,
- and it can cost a few hundred dollars even to humanely put down and dispose of/bury the animal?

WE PROPOSE that the horse community come together now to spread awareness among the general public of the IMMEDIATE need to support local Equine Welfare agencies. The "fallout" might not be obvious yet, but the time to act is now, when they need to buy and store up hay, to be prepared for what is coming.

 

TELL YOUR FRIENDS - if many people each give just a little bit, it ought to help volumes!

Spread the word!

The Power of Attitude Movie - Someone sent me the link to a wonderful, uplifting video you can watch online, entitled, "The Power of Attitude." Take the time to watch it in a free moment, as it contains inspiring messages we all should live by: CLICK HERE

Bob Claymier's Reply:

Hi B. You have taken on a really difficult mission and I applaud you for it. Getting a foal to learn to nurse or drink from something that is not natural for them is always a difficult problem to overcome. The nipple itself on the bottle is often a turn-off to the foal, and you must insure it is the correct size, shape and feel as you can get to that of a normal mare udder. Very often the nipple is just too large as mares teats are small themselves.

 

You might try some honey or syrup on your finger first and get the foal to lick or suckle it. If that occurs, you can then do the same thing with the nipple on the bottle. I've even heard of some folks rubbing the foal's urine or manure on the bottle just so it gets the impression it is something natural. Sometimes foals learn to drink from a bucket first rather than nurse from a bottle. That can even be a little easier on the handler as they don't have to hold the bottle all the time.

 

I presume there is no nurse mare that might be substituted for what you are doing, but that could even be problematic for one or both of them to accept each other. I really don't know of any methods other than this to try, so good luck with this.

 

On a related note, you are wise to begin discipline at this very young age, because what normally happens in situations like this is, while the foal may ultimately be saved, it turns into such a discipline case over the long term that it is nearly impossible to make it into a respectful, safe adult horse. You must at all times remain the "alpha mare" of the herd and try to duplicate what that mother (and other herd members) might do when disciplining her own foal. They usually don't take a lot off the babies especially when they become a bit larger and more rambunctious. The clicker training is a very good start, but ensure you reinforce that with body language, voice commands and the like that simply says to the foal that while you have empathy for its situation, it is still a horse, and do not substitute human feelings for the plight that it has. Do not let it crowd, run into you, strike, etc., and everything that occurs must be your idea.

 

Please stay in touch with us if we can be of any other assistance, particularly concerning foal behavior, if you are able to get over this feeding issue. Good luck!

 

-Bob

Moving Horse to New Location

Riding Straight - Horse can't ride straight

Saddle Fit - How to tell if horse's saddle fits well and what to know about pad

First...for on the ground:

Leading Problem - Horse gets stuck when asked to trot on lead rope

Then, for in saddle:

Horse Stops - Horse stops dead/refuses when asked to trot or canter

Hope this helps and let me know if I can be of any further help to you there.

Whispering Way™
12-Step Total Training System
Featuring Sylvia Scott

The Easy-To-Follow Foundation Training Program For Creating A Quieter, Safer, Happier, More Cooperative, Trusting and Compliant Horse!

Three DVD Set
The Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System is presented over three included DVD volumes:

• Volume 1: Developing Communication, Control and Confidence (1 hr, 13 min)
• Volume 2: Refining Ground Control and Preparing For The Ride (1 hr, 26 min)
• Volume 3: Developing A Solid Riding Partnership (1 hr, 6 min)

Total Running Time (3 DVDs): 3 Hours 45 Minutes

Question - Horse is afraid of blanket (rug): Hi Sylvia! I am having a little trouble trusting a new horse that I have. He is 2 years old, a gelding quarter horse and unbroken to date. He has a lovely abiding nature when in a halter and in ground work (sometimes cheeky), but when it comes time for his rug he has a tendency to cow kick. I put his rug on at feed time since that's the most suitable time, and I find I have to be very short and abrupt with him to be able to get it on him, and even then he makes me nervous.
 
I have never dealt with a horse so young before and I am now wondering if this was a good idea and I know he senses my uneasiness which makes it worse. Is there any way I can try and have him a little more obliging, or is this going to be something I need to work on when he is broken in?

I don't like being so aggressive in my manner towards him, but it seems to be the only thing he responds to and even then he may just swing or kick and it's not in my nature to be dominating either, so do you think this could be a problem?

He wasn't like this when I first dealt with him and he used to be the one at the end of the herd (group), but now it's himself and another (Shetland, which is just as bossy) and he's becoming rather big for his boots. So at present I'm a little unsure of what I should do or how to handle this. Can you suggest anything? Kind regards,

C. T. - Victoria- Australia

Sylvia's Answer: Hi C. Thanks for writing. I agree with you that you don't want to get aggressive there, that's never the answer. You just need the right methods put before you.
 
First, rather than jumping to such a big "obstacle" as the rug/blanket (and hitting a wall with that), break this down into smaller, digestible lessons. I would want to start with desensitizing him to plastic, then tarps, then the rug, in that order. This will more properly A-B-C him there learning-wise, rather than jumping "A to N" there. Horses don't learn well in A to N leaps and that's when people tend to get themselves in trouble with horses. Knowing how to gently A-B-C baby step them there actually, in the end, speeds them along the learning curve.
 
To start, I want to direct you to a link on my web site to show you how to first desensitize him to plastic, start with that:

Desensitizing Horse to Plastic

After he's surmounted all that, then desensitize him to tarps, baby step by baby step, and I go over here how to do that here:

Tarp Desensitizing - Horse is afraid of plastic tarps

By the time you surmount that, the rug (blanket) will be no big deal at all.
 
But I think you also need a "bigger plan" in place there, and I wanted to suggest you think about getting my Whispering Way™ 12-Step Total Training System DVD set, because I know it's going to help you multi directions there (including showing you visually how to do all the above, and much, much more, to build your horse's foundation, as well as increase your own confidence in handling him). I can see exactly what you need there, even from here, and after you watch the DVDs and implement my program with your horse, you are going to see a huge turnaround there, and all foundation holes closed up safely. Creating the quiet, cooperative, respectful horse that you envision having. And as you get going in my program you learn in my DVD set, if you ever have any questions as you go along, I'm always only an email away for backup support. Happy to help any way I can!

Additional Note: I like to take opportunities like this to point out that most healthy horses do not need to be blanketed. I go over that issue here:

Blanketing horses, hard keepers and more - Does my horse need blanketing?

And here:

Blanketing Shivering Horse? - Do I need to blanket my shivering/cold horse?

This is something we in the natural horsemanship training world are working hard to educate horse owners about, the unnecessary blanketing of normal, healthy horses.

Regardless, however, all horses should be desensitized to all of the above, even blankets, as part of your overall foundational training program.

________________________________________

Horse Whispering "Tricks of the Trade" - To relax horse, build trust & bond them to us

Leading Problems - Horse runs over human/How to teach horse back-up cue on ground

________________________________________