sweating? should I blanket?

[cvb]

just want to share another (less painful -shakari thats a grim story ! hope she's getting better) personal experience

I have worked my mare loose - either in a round pen (where available) or arena since I got her. She has a high play drive and knows that it is ok to let off steam in certain ways, but once its work time, its work time.

But she seemed to think it might be "fun" to try the same sort of thing when we went to catch her out in the field. We've had to be very firm about this and NOT go after her as she just thinks its part of the game.

She is a lovely mare and also has a strong drive to please - but just wanted to test the limits a bit.

If we hadn't realised what was going on we'd have had a hard-to-catch mare in no time, AND she stirs the pther two up as well.

So even without the (clear) safety issues, there is some interesting "what are we training our horses to do" questions as well.

However - I would also say that none of us can SEE what subsectionx is doing, and words are often inadequate. I can't say whether subsectionx is teaching her horses clear body language, advanace and retreat, and giving them a chance to play and exercise as well - or not - without either being there or having an awful lot more detail. For example, how you "allow" them back in will have a big effect on the "hard to catch" risks I described above from my own experience.

I do think this is an interesting dialogue - but lets not make too many assumptions about what we can't see !

 

[chev]

cvb, I see your point about not judging what we can't see. But subsectionx has quite clearly stated that she does this with a group of four horses together - this group includes one gelding, two mares, and a stallion. That in itself is not a good idea. Anyone with any experience of handling stallions will agree that to work a stallion loose in a group with mares and geldings really is asking for trouble. Not only is she risking injury to the gelding should a fight break out, but also to the mares and herself, should herd politics take over. However good a relationship you have with your horses, stallion included, horses will be horses - and running a stallion loose in a mixed group is a really bad idea, regardless of what else is or isn't going on.

My issue with Megan's mum is allowing horses to play with a person around as they would with other horses. There have already been more than one story of how this can go horribly wrong. Horses must have good ground manners around people - and encouraging them to gallop, buck and kick (as MM stated hers do during thsi time with her) is just plain daft, however big the field is.

 

[Tootsie4U]

Originally posted by StormyJ
I don't beleive any harm is coming to them, and its a bit like monty robertsing them. None of his horses are scared of sash lines, are they?

Have you ever *seen* a Monty Robers demonstration? Dont get me started on that.....

For what its worth, A *predator* taking a noisy plastic bag into the *prey* animals territory, rattling it to get a *flight* reaction AND then allowing *three* animals run round like loonys in a relatively small enclosure is not good horse-sense. Whether the human does it for play or not! Too many things that could go wrong and of course there's the training issue as well. I'll admit it, I was a bit at first and reacted accordingly. However, the vet seems to think all is ok, and (s)he should know more than I do

Bottom line, if your horse is sweated and there is a chill in the air, blanket them up until they're cooled off. Dont leave the blanket on as it'll be damp with sweat. You can change the blanket with another later on.