Keeping it in the Family

Posted at September 25, 2009 // Artwork

Boomerang

Last weekend was a busy painting weekend as Minnow created lots of new works and Blitz took to painting his first masterpiece with ease. But what about Boomerang? Younger brother to Blitz by a year and devoted follower/watcher of King Minnow – Boomer has the least amount of trick training (or training in general) out of all the Trick Ponies. But that didn’t stop Boomer from picking up the paint brush just like the others.

I mentioned a few days ago that I basically taught Blitz how to paint by allowing him to watch Minnow create his own masterpieces. But Blitz had already had some basic training on how to pick up objects and had already steadily been practicing holding the paintbrush. So when I decided to let Boomer give it a try, I wasn’t sure how he would do. Boomer knows one “mouth” trick and thats to play fetch. He successfully retrieves a fetch toy with his mouth – a trick that he really only learned this summer and has yet to have much practice with it. So I had a lot of doubts that he would even hold the brush considering I had never showed it to him before.

Boomer playing with the tuff ball

But Boomer is not your typical horse. I’m not kidding when I say I have YET to find a single thing that Boomer is afraid of or won’t do. Odd for a newly turned 6 year old that doesn’t have much life experience. In fact before I bought him last summer his only true experiences were ring work and a few hunter shows. He’d never even been out on a trail – something that can be quite scary for a horse the first time. Scary rocks, tall trees, rustlings in the bushes. So on the day that I purchased him in Virginia I was amazed when he went out on a trail with me, walked over a bridge, and let pool noodles smack him in the face with not so much as a bat of the eye. I knew then that Boomer was a special kind of horse. Since then I’ve exposed him to countless things that never seem faze him.

Just this Wednesday I had an 11 year old boy stop by my farm. I popped him on Boomer and told him to run through the obstacle course I had set up in my ring. The obstacles consisted of the giant ball, a tarp, some strange flags, a bicycle, and a bunch of soccer balls among many other things. Boomer had seen some of the stuff…never the soccer balls. Boomer kicked the ball around with the boy on his back, he tamped over the tarp, picked up the flags, let a pair of jingle bells flap all over his face, let the child ride the bicycle while leading him and trotted through the cluster of soccer balls. Lets just say I was so proud of Boomer. He’s definitely one in a million.

Boomer after his painting session

So that being said – back to the painting. After letting Minnow and then Blitz practice their painting skills I decided to pull Boomer out as well. He stomped up to the easel and stood infront of it like he had been doing it all his life. I handed him a paintbrush and he actually held it. After a few practices holding it I decided to ask him to touch the paper. Several minutes later he was consistently touching the paper. I decided not to ask too much of him (like strokes and such) in one day, but I have no doubt that within the next week or so Boomer will be the third painting Chincoteague pony to reside at Iron Horse Farm.

Boomer has been really fun to train because I can do/show him almost anything. With Minnow (and Blitz too) I have always had to be careful how or what I show him. Minnow in the beginning had extreme trust issues, not to mention he had issues with sound or anything that made a noise. As you can see he’s progressed TREMENDOUSLY in the 6 years I have had him, but I still always have to be careful what I ask of him or show him. With Boomer he’s like a clean slate. The first time I showed him a tarp he picked it up and flung it at his unsuspecting brother Blitz. Funny – but it set me back a bit with Blitz’s training…thanks Boomer. On Wednesday I brought out the big ball and he proceeded to put all of his weight on it until the point where he layed down on it (with me on his back!). With Boomer the possibilities are endless as to what he can learn. It makes me dream of days where maybe I will be walking him into a school or a nursing home so he can entertain people or perhaps he’ll be riding on a float in a parade – if I can think of it he will probably do it! My guess is (and he’s lucky) Boomer has never been given any reason to not trust people. He was born and raised by the loving people that I bought him from (www.1000welcomesfarm.com) and I think he’s been fortunate to have a life thus far where nothing bad has ever happened to him. I’ve never had a horse before that didn’t have some sort of traumatizing issues – and as much as I love working and helping the troubled ones, its a bit refreshing to have a pony that has no issues.

So I ask you….can you think of anything CRAZY I should try with Boomer? I’d love to hear your suggestions!

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com