A year or so ago I was thinking that it might be interesting to take a hula hoop and move it from around the horse’s front legs, over its body and rest it on the floor around its back legs. I mentioned this idea to my vet and asked what she thought. Her comment: “I’m usually called AFTER someone tries an idea like that!”
A few days ago I took out the hula hoop to see how much bigger it would need to be to accomplish this exercise. Ann was there and I filled her in on my “dream”. We talked about getting a larger hula-hoop. Well, wouldn’t you know…I entered the arena today and she showed me a very large hula hoop! She had taken two of the miss-shaped hula hoops, opened each one, attached them to each other and created the whopper.
I placed it on the ground and asked Zelador to step “in the middle”. He did, after attempting to pick it up with his teeth while one hoof was “in the middle”. I raised the hoop and realized that even this hula hoop was going to be a tight fit if Zelador stood in a normal position. The distance from his elbow, along his neck to his head is BIG. In an effort to shorten this distance I asked him to touch his nose to his chest. Easily done. I brought the hula hoop over his head, along his body and down his hind legs. He stood perfectly still during the whole procedure! Then I asked him to step forward.
Well, wouldn’t you know that after doing this once or twice he stood perfectly still with the hoop around his hind legs and looked at me. (Ah…horse-to-human communication!!!) He wanted me to bring it up his hind legs, along his body, over his head and down on the ground with his front feet in the middle. He actually ducked his head at the appropriate time to help me lower the hoop to the ground.
