Teaching Louie to "Parkit" and Marie Colics Again

Fun work with Louie tonight. I went out and climbed up on the pen with whip in hand. I had just fed him and Marie and he was munching hay in his stall do he didn't come out right away. I just sat and waited. It took about 10 minutes but eventually his curiosity got the best of him and out he came. He walked up facing me head on. That was OK as today's lesson was teaching him to move over into mounting position. So, I started tapping him on the back on the off side to get him to move his hindquarters towards me. He ignored this for a while, tap, tap, tap, then he swished his tail a few times, tap, tap, tap, he then pawed a bit, tap, tap, tap, he then flexed and targeted the whip (we have been working on flexing) I kept ignoring him, tap, tap, tap.... he got a bit annoyed and bit the whip, I ignored, tap, tap, tap and he backed up. Well, I had to stop tapping as he was now out of my reach. 

He watched me for a minute his mulie brain working hard trying to figure out what this new game was. He came back in head first. Tap, tap, tap,  he backed again, walked forward, flexed, pawed all in fast succession and then........ tap, tap, tap, he finally moved his hindquarters over just a tiny step! Stop tapping, lots of good boys and a treat. The next try brought much quicker results and even quicker the next and soon just a few taps had him moving over. Good first session I think. 

The not fun part of the evening is that Marie coliced again. The first strange thing I noticed was her eating manure. Louie's manure. I've never seen Marie do this before. But, she seemed OK so I fed her as usual. All she's getting right now are some hay stretcher pellets and hay. She ate the hay stretcher but then was just standing around not eating hay. When Marie isn't eating, something is wrong. Soon she was showing other signs of being uncomfortable. And as before, it was gas colic. Of course I could not find my tube of anti-gas medication. I did give her a dose of banamine but that didn't really help. I spend a long time out with her just grooming her quietly. Later in the evening I did another thorough search for the anti-gas medication and finally found them. I gave her a dose and hung out with her for about 20 minutes. That definitely seemed to help and before I came in she was looking much better and munching hay.