Twosox: Getting used to eagles.

Twosox has some sort of an eye infection and so I have to spray antibiotic in his eye. It seems to be working and just for the record, he doesn't appear to be in any pain what so ever. So for almost a week now, two times a day I have to spray this stuff into his eye. Now even humans don't like having stuff put in their eyes so I knew that I had to find a way to do this while not expecting Twosox to just stand there and take it.

I have been trying lots of different things and finally today, after praying about it a lot and trying to figure out the best way to help Twosox I found a way that I think will work. It was totally God because I was out of arrows :) The phrase "If you want then used to blackbirds, get them used to eagles" came to mind and that made a world of difference.

What I was doing was simulating the sound and such, like you would do with fly spray, and then when I actually did spray the stuff I would keep going with just the sound afterward until Twosox lowered his head and stopped moving. That was working but it wasn't working well enough I guess because Twosox was getting worse (behaviour wise).

Today what I discovered was that when I was making the noise it was quieter than the actual noise when it sprayed so Twosox knew the difference. So this morning I took about 25 minutes and got Twosox used to an even louder sound than what the actual sound would be.

This worked wonders and when I did actually spray Twosox gently in the eye his reaction wasn't nearly as extreme and I was actually able to keep the rhythm and he lowered his head a lot sooner. Afterward I did it a couple more times without actually spraying anything just until Twosox was able to stand still and be somewhat relaxed.

So the proof will be in when I do it again this afternoon. Needless to say I have been spending a lot of time with Twosox :) But unfortunately less time with the other horses.

Naturally,
~Keri