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- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!ae361
- From: ae361@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Sonya Paetzel)
- Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
- Subject: Re: horse doesn't like to be groomed
- Date: 23 Nov 1992 20:29:13 GMT
- Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
- Lines: 25
- Message-ID: <1ereupINNp7n@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: slc4.ins.cwru.edu
-
-
- The horse I used to have, Col.Rags (aka Robin) used to HATE
- being brushed. He would pin his ears and try to bit me
- while I tried to brush him. He had had a very bad life until
- I bought him (from what I heard from others and various scars
- on him). First thing I did was go to the tack store and buy
- every kind of soft brush I could find (most were with black bristles)..
- Then I slowly started working with him. Because he was a show
- horse, he spent most of his time blanketed, so he usually wasn't
- extremely dirty (and he wasn't much of a "roller" (thank goodness)).
- I always kept small pieces of carrots in my pockets and then
- while I would brush him and he would try to bite me, I'd stick
- a carrot peice in his mouth. Eventually I was able to brush
- him without getting bit. After a while he just made faces at me
- but didn't try to hurt me. He never was completely cured of
- hating being brushed but I did discover that he LOVED having
- his face brushed with a really tiny black bristled brush I
- bought him so after our daily grooming I rewarded him by doing
- his face. I guess the "carrot trick" might be dangerous
- with horses that get nippy, but it worked for me (maybe because
- he hated being brushed baecause he had been abused and not
- because of a moody personality). I also had access to a vacuum
- cleaner and he didn't mind being vacuumed.
-
- Sonja
-