Cob Jockey

Earlier in March, we put up top strand electric around Disco's field.

And unfortunately, the first morning it was electrified, as soon as the morning shift took off his halter, he marched straight up to it and...bit it.

Inspects things with his snoot

On the one hand, I'm not upset that my stud colt will well and truly respect the fence going forward, although I wish he'd become acquainted with it in a less dramatic fashion. On the other hand, he seems to think that the gate was somehow responsible for this atrocity, and he's now afraid of it.

He's starting to look more horse-shaped these days

So we've been working through that, slowly at first, because I assumed it would just dissipate with time, but I really doubled down last weekend since it hasn't. He's not even bad about it, he just stops, wide-eyed, as he approaches the gate, then tries to rush through it. But it's a polite rush, because it's Disco, and he's a 100% Grade A Good Boy.

So every time I bring him in or out, we go through the gate at least 3-4 times until he does it quietly. I give him time in between each repetition to stand and think, to process, to stare at the gate and hopefully realize it's not going to kill him. 

I've also just started bringing sugar cubes to the gate with me (even though he's still weirdly not treat motivated!) just to try to give him some positive associations there rather than negative.

Mary telling me how dirty my baby pony is, lol

It's just going to take time to get past this bad experience, and that's okay. On the positive side, it's great to see what his reaction is to something he genuinely fears - he stops, assesses the situation, but charges through anyway, even though he's scared, which I love.