Meet Nikki

Meet Nikki

Nikki is an absolutely wonderful horse. She’s kind, sensitive, eager to please and a hard worker. She’s also a “food-a-holic.” I’ve heard it said that there are those who “eat to live” and then there are those who “live to eat.” Nikki is definitely the “live to eat” type. When I watch her I have to laugh because I can imagine her approaching each meal singing the song “Food, Glorious Food.”

Since Nikki is so very interested in food I’ve started playing different food oriented games with her. Last fall I decided to use the fruit of a nearby apple tree to teach her how to track the flight of an object. Horses are not like dogs; there’s nothing in their natural environment that teaches them to visually follow an object with the idea of finding it again.

Here are some of the journal entries from that fun process.

NIKKI and flying food.

11/15
There’s an apple tree near Nikki’s corral and I’ve started throwing apples over the fence to her. Nikki’s learning curve was very fun to watch. It seemed like at first she thought heaven had opened up and blessed her by raining food. It’s interesting to watch since she really doesn’t see them in flight, and it’s not until they thump on the ground and roll, that she really figures out what’s happening. I’m keeping the tosses small at first. This will be fun to watch as it develops.

11/17
Nikki’s catching on. At first I had to toss the apples gently, maybe 5 or 10 feet, then she realized that food was being tossed. It was flying, and she saw where food was flying to, and then she finally saw where it was flying from.

11/18
We’ve made it into a real game now and I’m up to a great heave-ho of about 30 yards. It’s fun to watch; she can follow the flight of the apple with her eyes, listen for the “thump” as it hits, and track it as it rolls along the ground. She’s beginning to be "dog-like" in her approach. If she misses it visually, she starts sniffing around until she finds it. She has even gotten so good at understanding the game that she nickers when she sees me raise my arm for the “toss.” I can’t help but stand there giggling while I watch her, and you can bet she’s got me tossing LOTS of apples. (Who’s training whom?)

11/20
The apples are getting sparse on the tree so I tried tossing carrots today. They don’t roll as well, so it’s not as easy for Nikki to find them. It’s interesting that she can track the apples but not the carrots.


11/21
Still tossing carrots for Nikki. It’s the “new” game and now Buck is getting involved. In fact I had to laugh, because up until today, Buck really had no interest in what the other two were doing. (I really think this is partially because of his poor hearing). Anyway, I was around the corner out of Buck’s sight while tossing carrots to both Nikki and Buckwheat. The next thing I know, Buck comes thundering around the corner with that “Hey, I know something good is going on here and I’m not missing out” look. Sure enough, he tracked every carrot visually, and because he wasn’t relying on his hearing as much as Nikki, he was very good at finding them.

Since November, tossing food has become a permanent part of our horse/human friendship, and Nikki finally got her wish; heaven opens up regularly and starts raining food.

Nikki