Random Thoughts...

I love all of my animals, but sometimes, I feel closer to one/some over the others. It usually switches, and all of them have at one point been the recipient of favoritism. This week, I've really been in love with Chica, and every time I look at her I'm again amazed by how beautiful and sweet she is and by how close our relationship is. I can, at times, literally read her mind.

I know, sappy.

But last night, I don't know what it was. I was tucking Romeo into bed (on his dog bed), and I was just overcome with how much I love him, even in spite of how much I didn't want him in the beginning. He just loves me so much, and I have no doubts he'd lay down his life protecting me. All I have to do is look at him, and he starts wagging his tail. I curled up with him for a couple minutes on the floor, and I have no doubt that nothing could have made him happier. His tail was wagging, his face was sleepy, and he was just such a cute puppy, even at age 6. As it was once just me, him and Reeses, my old cat (and Chica, but he didn't really see her then), I think he sometimes feels left out with my current crew... since everyone is such a character in their own right.

Last weekend, I went to Ft. Worth and took the Corgi with me. Romeo stayed with my roommate. I'm sure he mostly had a good time, as there was no Fiona to hog all of the attention, but there was also this:

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but if that face doesn't say "I miss my mom", I don't know what does.

He's such a good dog.

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Good, good... BAD!

Yesterday's ride on Sienna (the first in about 6 days) started out good, for her having so much time off. She longed well (because I was NOT going to just jump on and giddy up), and then we jogged and did some bending, practiced stopping without throwing her head into the air, and worked on going from the whoa to the trot. We even did some long trotting, her favorite. So, as a cool down (and because I had an agenda of my own), we rode off into the pasture [to find my (3) missing fly masks].

Let's just say that the goat weed in the pasture is out of control. Sienna was pretty much swimming through it, and the ground was invisible. I had my eyes glued downward, keeping an eye out for the fly masks. A recipe for disaster, you say?

Ingredients:
(1) green horse
(1) cocky rider not paying attention to said horse
(2) eyes looking down, thus shifting said rider's balance to the side
(many) goat weeds hiding anything up to 2 feet tall

Mix the first three ingredients well and add to the goat weeds. Garnish with a surprise deer for a real kick!

Yep. We're riding along, Sienna a bit tense from probably having to wade through Possible Horse Enemy Territory, and I see something spring up out of the corner of my eye about 10 yards in front of us. My first thought is, "RABBIT!", something that every horse, I don't care who it is, FREAKS OUT at. My second thought was "I don't have a chance, but I'll try anyway." About this point, I realized it was a doe, leaping out of seemingly oblivion. I straightened up, pushed my feet down into the stirrups, shortened my reins, braced myself, said a few prayers, shut my eyes... and nothing happened. Oh, Sienna looked up and watched it skip and hop across the pasture, but... she didn't even flinch. Even as we rode in the same direction it went, she listened to me and didn't bat an eyelash.

I was amazed, and decided I needed to give her a little more credit than I do.

Until we headed back.

Sienna: "I know it's feeding time, and the other horses are over there, probably eating all the food and all the hay and it's not fair because they ALWAYS eat all the food and hay and I have to STARVE I'm always STARVING!!!"

Me: "... you're kidding, right? You just completely didn't spook at a deer, but now you're trying to jig across the pasture?"

So we backed most of the way home, with some small circles thrown in for good measure. And then we got back to the front pasture, and Sienna planted herself and said "I'M NOT BACKING ANYMORE." And I said, "You'll back until I saw you won't back anymore!" And Sienna threw her head into the air, threatening to leave the ground. And so we trotted and practiced giving her face. And tried again. Same results. More circles and giving. Try again. More fighting and refusal to back. This went on for probably 30 minutes. And then... she reared! Not very high, but enough to make me lose my cool. I HATE rearers. Probably because my old trainer called it the Cardinal Sin of horses, but I can't stand it. The idea of the horse losing its balance and falling over on top of me terrifies and completely angers me.

I think I said something along the lines of "do that again and see how mortal you are" and off we cantered, bringing her face to her butt. Way exaggerating her head set. Everything I could do to remind her that when I ask for her head, she gives it to me- NO EXCEPTIONS. If she wants to behave incorrectly, I'm going to make it hard and laborious.

I finally got her to back several times- albeit in a hurried, "I'm extremely agitated" fashion- with her head respectively lowered, and had to call it quits there.

I guess as laid-back and easy as she has been, she had to have some sort of button that set her off. Lucky for me, I inadvertently found it. I know what we'll be working on now!

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Goodbye.

I found out this morning that 3 of the mommas and 3 of the babies were going to be going to their new home today. That's right, some apparent horse trainer is taking all 6. I assume he's taking them all because they are free, and he sees a chance to make some money off them. Personally, I think he should have to choose one mare and foal, and if nobody wants the rest, then he can have them... let's not be greedy. But no one asked for my opinion.

So I just got back from loading up Mojo, Kyle, Marti and Glimmer onto his trailer. I met the guy; he's very young, drives a nice truck, basically laughed in my face when I asked him if he'd reconsider leaving one of the babies (you know, since he's already getting 5 free horses). So my opinion of him may be a little shadowed. He told me he'd get my contact information and then if he decided not to keep her, he'd let me know first. Yeah, so he can sell her to me, probably.

I am so sure.

All I will continue to say about the matter is, enjoy the start she had that I put on her. Hope that makes you more money when you sell her.

Anyway, loading the 2 mares and babies went pretty uneventfully, considering. I thought Kyle was going to kill me when I was leading Mojo down to the trailer, since he kept leaping on her, rubbing all over her like a cat, and bolting around her (coincidentally where I was standing). While my roommate was loading Marti and Glimmer, I waited with Mojo, and Kyle took the opportunity (twice) to go galloping back to his pasture where Katnip was screaming for him and Mojo. It was rather funny. Then, I had to load Mojo, and Kyle tripped all over his face trying to get onto the trailer with us. I had to make an "emergency escape", lest I get under everyone's feet. Yeah, I won't be loading like that ever again.

A couple last shots:

Mojo, coming in for a treat

Kyle, who made so much progress before having to leave

Awkward Kyle

Glimmer, letting everyone pet her!

Marti, who had just become my new bff

I knew this day was coming eventually, but it's so sudden and so sad! After today, I'll only have Eliza to work with, until her new family comes and picks her up. Boo!

The guy is coming back this afternoon to get Prim and DJ. I'm not sure if I want to be there or not. I got to spend time with Prim while we were waiting for him to pick Mojo and company up, and I'm afraid I'll cry when she gets loaded into his trailer. And I do NOT want to give him that satisfaction.

DJ, too interested in her hay to care she'll be living elsewhere this evening

One last haltering

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Baby steps... literally!

This morning marked my first attempt at teaching Eliza to lead. I wasn't sure if I was ready, or if she was, but I decided to give it a go- even if she did flip out on me, so what? I'd hang on to her, or I wouldn't, and she'd run around her pasture, tripping over herself. If her stepping on her lead rope and tripping herself isn't the best teacher, then I don't know what is.

Positives: She did really well with turning. I'd put the lead rope around her butt and stand on the other side and pull, and she figured out that the easiest response was to go with the lead rope, rather than fight against it and knock herself over. We got to where we were turning full circles in the end.

Negatives: The horse doesn't have a "forward" button. I'd barely pick up on the rope to gently pull on it, and she'd throw everything in reverse. I'd stand slightly to the side to try and throw her weight off, and the same thing would happen. We had many rears, many "I'm throwing myself backwards!", and one rear ended with her in a sitting position. Her solution to any type of forward pull is exactly the opposite of what I want- no give at all. Unfortunately the feed cart started approaching, so I had to settle with the turning to the sides today.

All in all, she handled the attempts at leading better than I thought she would. There were no attempts at running away like with Katnip, no calls to mama. In fact, Gloria ignored her the whole time. I'm just glad that I was able to get her haltered today with no issues and that I was finally able to start working on this with her. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

All of that was well and good, but the highlight of my day was this:

I'm in your face!!

Something that I have been surprised to learn from this whole experience is that you can think you're not making any progress, even for weeks, and then suddenly one day, BAM. They do a complete 180.

Kyle has always been so shy and afraid of us. It's a chore getting him even interested in walking up to me, and then I can only pet his nose when he does. If you go to touch anything else on him, he spooks and runs back to Mojo.

So imagine my surprise when he strode up to me this morning like, "Hey. Wanna pet me?" I was like, "Yes." And he let me scratch his head, his throat (a favorite of all foals, it seems), his neck... his back... his hind end... he was a whole new horse! I even held his chin for a moment to look at something on the bottom of it. I EVEN SLIPPED THE HALTER HALFWAY UP HIS NOSE. No spooking, no calling Mojo, nothing. He was fantastic. It was so gratifying to me to see him finally make this step I have been waiting and waiting for.

Not much to report in Glimmer news, except that her mama, who is also pretty stand-offish, has decided she likes me as well and would NOT leave me alone this morning. I had to shoo her off while I was messing with one of the babies. I did try the rope around Glimmer's neck, and she freaked out and got away, but, like I said, baby steps.

Prim is doing very well with her haltering and leading. She's super cute, and super sweet. I picked up all four feet yesterday without too much kicking to get away :)

Katnip comes home with my roommate tomorrow, so that will be fun. I can't wait to see the (suffering) expression on Chica's face when she sees the new baby.

Now, off to go play with these miniature schnauzer puppies someone just brought into my office until lunch!

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More about horses, of courses...

So, this week was a little sad, in the sense that one baby and two broodmares left to go to their new home on Tuesday. One of the broodmares that left was Griffin, my favorite. With her went her baby, Kit Kat. The other mare that left was Julian, the dam of my roommate's foal, Katnip- meaning suddenly Katnip is now weaned.

Or that was the plan, at least.

What has happened instead is that Katnip has adopted Mojo as her new mama. Of course, Mojo won't let her nurse, but she has been wildly patient with her otherwise, letting her cling to her and Kyle like a little adopted child.

Here are a few pics from before they left:

Julian and Katnip on left, Griffin and Kit Kat on right

Katnip sneaking up on the treats

Can you tell they're related?

"Sorry I broke the treat box. Except not really."

"Hark. Something is amiss here."

We originally believed Mojo and Kyle to be going with these ladies as well. So, after showering everyone with treats and well wishes, we tricked Julian into leaving the pasture without Katnip and ran Julian, Mojo, DJ, Kyle, and Kit Kat down to the waiting trailer. leaving a very stricken Katnip. It was pretty heart breaking. While the crew at the trailer did their thing, we moved Marti and Glimmer over with Katnip so she wasn't alone. We then found out that the chain of communication had missed us, and Mojo and Kyle weren't leaving after all. So, we had to go up and fetch the now panicking mare and foal and run them back to their pasture.

"Why won't everyone just leave me alone??"

"As long as I have my mom, I'm good to go anywhere."

Before, Kyle had been getting braver:

Creeping closer...

But afterward, he was like, heck no, you're not coming anywhere close to me!

Katnip was very grateful to see Mojo, as she and Kyle were the only ones from Katnip's group that returned. Marti and Glimmer didn't really give a hoot about her. Mojo seems to have taken her in, leaving everyone in a happier place.

Anyway! All of that aside, I am very excited that I have now haltered 3 of the remaining 5 babies. Katnip and Prim are now leading, and I finally got a halter calmly on Eliza this morning. She was SO GOOD! I got a halter on her earlier this week (unbuckled), and she flipped out, reared, and fell over backwards. Today, after a lot of patience and whispered sweet nothings, I got it on and off her face several times and then buckled it- with no issues. I'm very excited, as she is one of the ones that tends to... overreact.

So, the only ones I have not haltered are the two shy ones, Glimmer and Kyle. I'm happy to say that I'm now to the point where I can walk up to Glimmer and pet her without her running away, and I can even scratch her all over her body. I've been rubbing her with the leadrope a little, as well. Maybe sometime next week we'll get a halter on her.

Kyle hasn't really made much progress, but as he's the youngest and his mother tends to not really like people, I feel like there's not a whole lot that can be done with him until he's weaned, besides trying to get close to him and show him people aren't anything to be scared of.

For now, I'm just going to be excited about stuff like this!

"I'm a big kid now!"

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Babies, babies, babies...

As promised, more baby (and dam) pictures! Also, I found out that they are indeed foundation-bred, at least on all of the dams' sides. Dam's side. Dam's sidesesesssss. Whatever. Still waiting to hear back on the sires for all of them.

First up, Eliza and Gloria, the roans:

A little mother/daughter grooming.

What? Keeping the kid fed requires a LOT of hay...

I'm not sure what color I am yet.

Next, we have Prim and DJ:

Oh, you wanted me to stand still so you could take a picture?

Aren't I just the prettiest little thing?

Are you sure I already had a baby?

And lastly (for this pen), we have Marti and Glimmer, the grullas:

I actually walked up to a human today and asked to be petted...

...making progress!

I'm busy, come back never.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the mamas in the second pen, because they were off eating hay and I didn't feel like walking over to them in the 100 degree heat- can you blame me? Fortunately, the foals were all curious enough to come up- even Kyle!

My roommate's favorite, Catnip:

I also do not stand still for pictures.

Except when I do.

Catnip and her new mother.

The preemie, Kit Kat:

Please explain to me why there is no feed in this bucket.

I gladly stand for pictures!

And the shy man himself, Kyle:

I'm still not too sure about people...

What is THIS??

Feelin' fiesty!

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