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So pretty! I like her almost heart on her cheek. Congrats!!

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You lucky, lucky lady, you have a pure Davenport/Hamadie mare. Isn’t it just amazing how these old lines of Bedouin approved breeding stock just keep on getting better and better.

When I got into the Davenports they still thought that the root mare of this line was *Urfah 40, the Saqlawi al-Abd mare, dam of *Hamrah 28. Luckily for the Davenport breeding herd the Chicago World Fair Arabian horses who got abandoned here and bred on were rated as pure as the Davenport horses. Interestingly when the pedigrees of the supposed Saqlawi-al-Abd horses were corrected to Hamdani Simri I went to Raswan’s Index to read his description of the various strains of Arabians, and the Hamdani were the only ones that he specified had dished faces other than the Saqlawi horses.

You lucky, lucky lady. Yes, I am envious, I just wish that I was still physically able to keep horses. I compare all horses to the Davenports, and while I like all Arabians it is the Davenports that really push all my buttons of what I look for in an Arabian (though, of course, they have their own faults in conformation, no horse is “perfect”.) Plus I found them super easy to train!

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Gorgeous! Congrats !!

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Day 3.
Have ordered new crownpieces for breakaway halter.
I believe I have spare window screens in the loft to replace the destroyed ones.

PSA: please teach your horses to lead as foals.

She’s still gorgeous and I do think she’ll come around.

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Of course she will! All she needs is regular attention and training.

I predict that in six months you’ll have a beautifully behaved girl.

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Inshallah, it will be sooner than that!

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With my Davenports, colt and filly, I did ground work. One concept I introduced young was the importance of the word WHOA. No tying up at first, start just standing still, then I would say WHOA and move one step to the left. If the horse stayed still I praised, if the horse followed me I said NO, shook the lead rope, moved the horse back to its original place, and I said WHOA. By the third time they got the idea, I would move further and further out, put on the lunge line and go even further out, starting with WHOA.

Of course this is not a guarantee about anything. The Davenports learned quickly, cooperated pleasantly, and I had only one time that the mare pulled too much when tied, on a very bendy small tree (emergency).

My first horse, probably a half-Davenport Anglo-Arab (by Ibn Ralf?), one day learned he could break his halter when the veterinarian popped out of a stall after tube worming a horse. I never cured him of this, however I could take him to the grooming area, groom, tack up, with him standing untied. If I had to adjust a jump out in the schooling field I dismounted, put the reins behind the cantle, said WHOA and deal with the jump.

I now use a BOT Poll cap on the lesson horses. I just figure that they probably had a vehement “discussion” about being tied in a halter, leaving possible bruising. This poll cap has worked well for me and the horses who often visibly relax when I put it on them. Your mare may like to have one for when you handle her.

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Lovely mare and lovely name !

She is handsome but beauty is her barn manners,

Good luck, you have your hands full.

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She would not allow something like that at present–she does not want her ears handled at all.
Maybe later.

Yes.
I do think she’ll come around.
We are making progress in tiny increments, and she has figured out what horse treats are and is developing a taste for them.

I’m continuing to work on her elf locks in the stall, but now, instead of letting hr walk away, I’m asking her to stand still, and not to crowd me.

I am running polywire around the windows where she took out the screens, but need a few parts before that is operational.

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I have dealt with a few horses that I HAD to introduce the poll cap slowly.

A QH gelding in his late 20s. VERY ear shy. It took me around 2 months of being patient and persistent, and he ended up lowering his head and angling his head so I could get it on easily. It got to the point that I “felt” his disappointment when we forgot it. After that I could brush his ears out as much as I wanted to and he cooperated with bridling instead of becoming an instant giraffe.

Another was an elderly Arabian mare (general list, looked Crabbet). She did not take as long as the QH but I had to be patient with her too. She also started off extremely ear shy, she ended up volunteering her ears for cleaning. Both horses ended up enjoying wearing the cap.

I started out slow. At first I would just hold the poll cap folded up in my hand below the base of the ears. Over weeks (I just handled each horse once a week) I would gradually hold the poll cap higher on the ear for a minute or two. Then when I to put it on the head (giraffe), it took a few months and the horses decided that holding their head down meant the poll cap would get on them quicker. After that I had no problems with the cap or ear shyness and the imitation giraffes disappeared from my life.

Both extremely head shy horses ended up enjoying it when I cleaned their ears out thoroughly, and we stopped having problems bridling them.

No instant cure here, it takes time.

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Once you get her accustomed to your light touch around her ears you might try a feed bag.

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Update:

Laavender is well on her way to becoming a pocket pony.
She has developed a liking for apple wafers.
Haltering and leading almost like a real horse these days, and approaches me as soon as I set foot in her paddock.
I was amazed when she allowed me to put a blanket on her recently–the temps have dropped and she hasn’t grown much coat yet and was shivering.

Belight still isn’t showing her much overt friendship, but does call out to her when I have put one out and am going to get the other.

They are currently going out together in a smallish paddock while I reconfigure the larger pasture area to make sure they’re well separated from my stallion, and pretty peacefully coexisting.

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You know we got one breakfast pic almost 2 months ago. We’re going to need an eating wafers pic, a leading pic, a blanket pic, and a pasture pic at the very least!

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What a sweet girl! Ok… we’re good on the pic tax for a month.

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She has the mare stare down pat. :laughing:

Lovely girl!

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Twin mare stares! :grin:

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