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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Panama requests a snack

Panama makes some of the cutest sounds. One of my favorites is the deep nicker he uses when he is really excited about the prospect of getting fed.

If you turn up the sound on this video, you should be able to hear it, right after I ask (from out of sight of the camera) whether he wants some hay. The nicker is at about 16 seconds, if that helps at all:



There's also a little story about why I keep saying "Back," when I enter the stall. Soon after he switched to this barn, I found out he was virtually running over anyone who came into his stall with hay or grain, in his half-crazed attempt to get at it. Ever since, I've been giving him handfuls of hay when I'm there to teach him to step back and wait patiently for me to put it in his feeder.

There was a week or two when every time I entered his stall with the hay, I had to turn in circles and elbow him a lot in order to keep him from mauling me to get to the hay. As you can see, though, he now responds to the "Back" command and follows me quite respectfully to his feeder.

It's always such a good feeling to see the results of even minor training efforts!

7 comments:

Lori said...

He's a handsome lad, Katharine. I love horses, too. His nicker is just so cute!

Katharine Swan said...

Thanks, Lori!

I love his nicker too. It's very deep, we think probably because we gelded him so late -- he was about 26 months.

He also has a really adorable whinny that he uses to call to me, particularly when he doesn't want me to leave. I'm going to try to record that one, too!

So what's your background with horses? I learned to ride from a family friend as a preteen or young teen, but that was about it until I married into a horse family. :o) And as for getting Panama, we were just in the right place at the right time to rescue him!

Kathy@TheFlawlessWord said...

Awww, how cute! You can definitely hear the nicker if you turn the volume up. Looks like he's really starting to respond to your commands.

Katharine Swan said...

Kathy,

Thanks for watching. :o) Yes, he is smart and affection and seems to respond very well to direction from me.

I also braided his tail last night -- I should have taken a picture of that, too, because it was a great braid! I want his tail to be really long by summer, so I'm keeping it braided to prevent the hairs from snagging and breaking off.

Lori said...

I grew up on a farm, and we had ponies while my cousins had horses. They were everywhere, and what a great way to grow up. :)) I learned to ride on Lucky, my black pony. She was sort of a one-way pony - I'd lead her from the stall and ride her back. She and her colt, Pepper, weren't weaned, which made riding either of them within earshot of the other was impossible!

Kathy@TheFlawlessWord said...

I SO missed out. I grew up on a farm too, but we never had horses. As a kid, however, my brother did ride one of our cows. ;o)

Katharine Swan said...

Kathy -- how did that (the cow-riding thing) work out? LOL!

Lori,

That does sound like a fantastic way to grow up. Lucky you! :o)

Our kids won't have the whole farm thing, but they'll definitely be growing up around horses!

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