How Oly Got His Way
Oly, my elder Fjord Horse, is smart, strong, stubborn, and very food oriented. Before he was retired, I would ride him across fields and he would dive for grass. It didn’t matter what I did—pull his head to the side, use a stronger bit, prop my reins on the pommel, push him up to a trot—none of my techniques to keep him from grabbing grass worked. He was stronger and smarter than I was. Finally, I found a grazing muzzle that prevented him from eating while riding. Even then, he’d drag his mouth along the tall grass heads in case a seed might fall in.
Oly knew the crackle of plastic, and whether I was eating a granola bar or a sandwich he’d stop and look back at me waiting for his share. And he usually got some because he was cute.
That’s why I was surprised the day he started refusing to take treats from my hand. Oly gets a daily pill for Cushing’s disease that’s small and quick dissolving. When I first started giving it, I could put it on top of his senior feed and it would disappear. Soon I started noticing the pink pill left in the grain pan, pushed aside by his prehensile muzzle. I had to up my game.
Oly loved all treats: carrots, apples, and horse cookies. For a while I could place the pill on top of a slice of apple or carrot and he would munch it down—happy as a Fjord with a mouthful of food. But soon, he’d spit the treat out, pill and all. After that, I hid the pill inside the goody. That worked a few more times. I even bought the expensive soft horse treats from the feed store made especially for feeding pills, but those only worked for another couple days.
One day, Oly simply refused treats from me, even treats without a hidden pill. He’d had enough and determined that all treats from my hand were icky and contained medicine. He would still take treats from my husband or my son, but not from me. I was the one who gave him medicine, and all treats I offered were suspect. Of course, my other Fjord thought this was great; Vali was happy to shove in and take the delectable goody meant for Oly.
I had to get trickier. I tried placing the pill directly on his tongue, but he spit it out immediately. Then I learned to shove the pill up between his cheek and molars. This worked ninety percent of the time, unless there was hay in his mouth. Then he would spit out the hay, sending the pink pill with it. I would pick up the half-dissolved pink glob and put it back between tooth and cheek again. Oly would glare at me with disgust.
The only problem with this new technique was that I had to teach my family how to do it when I’m not around. Non-horse people don’t like sticking their fingers in a horse’s mouth, so I had to give horse anatomy lessons, showing them the part of the jaw without teeth and how to push the pill up and past that area. My mom got it. My son got it.
But when my husband, Doug, tried it, Oly bit him. Granted, Doug has bigger hands and fingers than the rest of us, but I think Oly was mad that his buddy, the man who gives him snacks with no pills and has no expectations, tried to feed him a pill. Oly was telling Doug that his behavior was unacceptable. And it worked! Doug refused to give Oly his pill, and instead expected the other humans in the family to do it. Oly is not only smarter than most humans, but he also taught his favorite human how to get what he wants: treats with no pills.
See this article in the November 2024 Online Digital Edition:
November 2024
Michelle Eames’ first book, Riding Lessons: Things I Learned While Horsing Around, is a mostly humorous memoir that tells the story of Michelle’s journey with horses, and the numerous lessons the horses taught her. She describes her horsemanship adventures, mistakes, and mishaps with humor, humility, and even a bit of poetry.
Michelle lives on a hobby farm near Spokane, Washington. The farm includes two horses, two barn cats who want to be house cats, a few chickens, and a husband. When she isn’t writing, riding, or shoveling manure, Michelle spends her time gardening and repairing vintage sewing machines to keep them out of landfills.
Michelle writes about a broad range of topics, from biology to horsemanship to wildfires. Visit her blog and learn more about her writing at MichelleEames.com.
