Esther.D
14th Apr 2003, 09:42 PM
Sorry I know we seem to have a bit of an ongoing Rupert saga.....However we had another breakthrough today and photos this time to prove it :)
Today Rupert was in a funny mood again and took a few minutes and bribery to catch and was being a bit nippy too. When we had caught him my mum began to stroke his back, he slowly settled but then something startled him and we had the full Rupert treatment of rearing and bouncing about.... However we tried to ignore this and settle him again. He gradually settled with my mum massaging his back gently again and I was stroking his neck. Then, quite by accident, I found his itchy spot;) He has a small area just at the top of his mane, behind his ears, where he turns to jelly if you scratch it! Everytime I tried to stop he gave me his head back again and then began to groom me systematically from my boots up to my hair! Whenever I stopped he would nudge my hand and give me his neck to scratch - my hands were aching by the end as he liked being scratched hard with my fingernails:rolleyes: By the end he was staggering about with this dazed, soft expression in his eyes and a floppy lower lip. When I eventually stopped as it was getting dark he groomed my back while I was taking his headcollar off:D During the rubbing and fuss he had let me rub his poll and his ears and forehead that he is normally anxious about. As you can see from the photos he even let my mum take the camera out of my pocket and take photos (with the flash on) without getting distracted.
When I went off up the field he began to follow and watched us until we disappeared over the hill. Very pleased with him again - especially as he was so upset at the start - I thought we wouldn't get anywhere but we actually achieved more than we had before.
Anyway - here he is enjoying his scratch:D
Today Rupert was in a funny mood again and took a few minutes and bribery to catch and was being a bit nippy too. When we had caught him my mum began to stroke his back, he slowly settled but then something startled him and we had the full Rupert treatment of rearing and bouncing about.... However we tried to ignore this and settle him again. He gradually settled with my mum massaging his back gently again and I was stroking his neck. Then, quite by accident, I found his itchy spot;) He has a small area just at the top of his mane, behind his ears, where he turns to jelly if you scratch it! Everytime I tried to stop he gave me his head back again and then began to groom me systematically from my boots up to my hair! Whenever I stopped he would nudge my hand and give me his neck to scratch - my hands were aching by the end as he liked being scratched hard with my fingernails:rolleyes: By the end he was staggering about with this dazed, soft expression in his eyes and a floppy lower lip. When I eventually stopped as it was getting dark he groomed my back while I was taking his headcollar off:D During the rubbing and fuss he had let me rub his poll and his ears and forehead that he is normally anxious about. As you can see from the photos he even let my mum take the camera out of my pocket and take photos (with the flash on) without getting distracted.
When I went off up the field he began to follow and watched us until we disappeared over the hill. Very pleased with him again - especially as he was so upset at the start - I thought we wouldn't get anywhere but we actually achieved more than we had before.
Anyway - here he is enjoying his scratch:D