Pax - 4 weeks old!

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you'll know that Texas appears to be being biblically flooded out. I guess the deities saw that Greg Abbot got voted in as governor, and they decided to drown us and start Texas over again from scratch (not a terrible idea really). Unfortunately, so far our literal 40 days and 40 nights of rain has basically put a huge damper on not only the show season, but the thought of working the horses at all. Not to mention the fact that trying to move while it is raining EVERY SINGLE DAY is just awful. Everything is covered in mud, everything is dirty, and everything is wet. And it sucks.

May's show season was supposed to be thick and full - three shows right in a row. Then it started raining right after Sunrise Ridge, and hasn't stopped since. After Sunrise Ridge, I didn't work O for two weeks, then loaded up and headed right to the Games Day, where she did super well as you know. Then I couldn't do literally anything else, because it started raining even more, and every day. Even during the sporadic breaks in the rain, everything is bogged down in massive mud - there's no decent footing ANYWHERE you go, and even if you did try you'd either ruin the ground or ruin your horse's legs. There has been nothing that anyone can do really (at least not with the move. When the move is complete, I can trailer out again). 

The Carriage Classic at the beginning of the month got cancelled due to the weather. Then the Games Day, slated for the following weekend, also got rescheduled due to the weather. It was supposed to be held today, but once again, it had to be cancelled because of the weather. The last show I was supposed to do was Pine Hill, which is in fact running, but is also this weekend - and this is the weekend my parents came down to help us with the move and setting up things in the new house. Seeing as I literally haven't hooked my horse once in nearly a month - and have only been able to lunge her twice - it's not like we were remotely ready anyway. But, it sucks, there's no way around that.

I have no idea when or if it is ever going to stop raining. Tentatively we are going to the Cowboy Country HDT in mid-June, and hopefully the ADT in late June, but we'll just have to see how the weather holds! When I get my cart over to the new house, I will at least be able to drive up and down the roads, if nothing else. O is acting crazy possessive and protective over the baby though, so it might be kind of a rodeo to start.

In much better news, Pax turned 4 weeks old on Thursday! With my parents coming in and the move going on, I haven't really had much time to sit down and write about it. (Technically I should be up and showering right now, but oh well, I wanted to blog so I'm gonna do it!) I can't believe she is already a month old. She is growing like a weed and is just gorgeous.

When it was warm and sunny for 10 minutes, a million flies and mosquitos came out. Everyone got their flymasks, even Pax:

If that doesn't make you feel all warm and squishy inside, you might be a dead person, because baby horses in baby horse flymasks are adorable.

She also does many 'adult' things now, such as:

Grooming: 

Oh yea that's the spot

Picking up her little feet (and she'll get her first trim in a few days!):

Standing 'tied' (meaning, the lead rope has one turn around the fence and she can easily pull free if something happens - but she understands pressure now and she stops if the rope tightens. Don't actually tie your baby horse, their necks are SO fragile at this stage - teach them about pressure first, and then everything goes from there!):

She is too wiggly to stand well for conformation pictures... this is about the best one I managed to get:

She also learned about blankies for the first time (although I did stick one on her as a neonate for a new minutes). The other day I pulled in to feed them breakfast, and Pax was absolutely soaked and shivering hard. P is a feral beast, and doesn't like to go in her shed when it rains, so she makes Pax and O stand out in the rain with her. Pax obviously isn't going to leave her mother, and O isn't going to leave either one of them, so they just stand there and shiver miserable next to P while she, blissfully unaware of the rain, eats or naps.

No, she's not massively roachbacked - just had the MAJOR butt squinches due to the cold rain! I conned them into the shed for some alfalfa.

So, we learned about wearing a baby blanket:

It's kind of like a mini skirt, but it works

As you can see in the pictures, O is always super concerned about her tiny friend, and P kind of doesn't care. O and Pax go off and do their own thing all the time, and P ignores them to eat. 

I did get to lunge O for about 15 minutes the other day, inbetween rainstorms... it wasn't much but it was something!

 And now it's pouring again.... sigh!!

End of October Analysis; November Goals!

This post is obviously late in coming, and it will probably be the last post for the next week-ish - we're currently in Orlando on vacation, thoroughly enjoying Disney/Universal/the beach! I was utterly desperate for a vacation and I am SO GLAD to be here, and so thankful that I have the ability to afford it. Admittedly, I hope the neighbors don't kill my horses while I am away...


Anyway, while I am resting my very tired feet from our first day at the parks, I figured I better finish my monthly write-up! O hasn't been worked hardly any all week - I was just too busy leading up to vacation time. We get back late on the 11th, and of COURSE the next driving show is on the 15th... I'll have 3 frantic days to show prep. Ahhh!



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O-Ren October Goals:

1) Set and maintain a schedule - certain days for fitness, dressage, obstacles
I didn't do as well with this as I wanted. Between work and the waning daylight hours, I really had a hard time keeping any sort of proper schedule this past month, and I haven't had much time to work on her fitness at all. We have done a lot of dressage work, however, and since that is the basis for everything else, I don't think it is a lost cause at all, but I want to make sure we keep a better schedule next month.

2) Finessing dressage work - half-halts, work on really moving forward and compressing
Success! We did really well with this. She has built a lot of impulsion, and following her dental work, she is actually bending well to the left for the first time in, well, EVER. Unfortunately now she is not bending at all to the RIGHT, but I think that has more to do with her crooked SI area than anything else. (Old injury and asymmetrical SIs... with much purposeful work throughout each drive, this vastly improves, but I think it will forever be a thing we need to work on. Chiro, bodyworker, and vet can't find anything to fix in that area, so we face it as a training issue, although I highly suspect at some point we may need to pay some more attention to her stifles... I have a feeling they will be the area that gives us problems, if anything is going to.)

3) Self-education, as always!
 Success! I continue to read everything I can get my hands on, and this month I was able to take not only one but two of the Coachman's Delight online classes, one of which was a Halt class and one of which was a Whip Aids class. The halt class was pretty much as self explanatory as I figured it would be, but it gave me some great exercises to work with. The whip aids class was awesome! I have been having trouble trying to figure out how exactly to introduce proper whip aids to her (or how to even execute them, really), but the class was SUPER helpful and I have a lot to work on. I also need to invest in a better whip... mine is a good starter whip but has a super short lash, and it doesn't touch her without also touching her with the shaft... also I really can't even reach her shoulder. Fail!

4) Look for some more fun shows in the future - what is next!
 We have a show on the 15th! I have all of the patterns for it, and we're entered - I'll have more about it up when I get some time. There is another show the following weekend, but alas! I realized far too late that my Coggins is about to expire, and will be up before it. I won't have time to get a new one in time for that show, with us being on vacation and all. Oh well! 

5) Planning ahead: harness and cart upgrades I might want to consider in the future as we get more seriously into this sport!
Oh man this is a painful one... I found not one but TWO absolutely awesome vehicles I'd LOVE to have in my barn, one 2-wheel and one 4-wheel. What's the problem? They are $$$$$$$$$$$$. And considering everything, they are both REALLY inexpensive when it comes to vehicles that are as high quality as they are. I just can't justify dropping $1500-$4000 randomly out of nowhere on a sport that is brand new to me. So I continue to drive with what I have, I continue to save money, and I continue to shop around, until something comes along that will suit AND that I can afford.



Pangea October Goals:

1) Possible casting as we get wetter - see how sound she is!
Haven't needed to do this... it hasn't rained in well over 2 months aside from one day of sprinkles!

2) Walk hacks if sound! But only if everything works out!
I haven't had time to do this more than a few times, but they are always enjoyable. She is starting to slow down a bit, so we probably won't do too much more of these, but I hope to keep squeezing them in here and there.
  
3) Second Rhino shot!
Success! She did get a bit of fungus following it - vaccines tend to wreak some havoc on her immune system, so it doesn't surprise me. It has cleared up, so no big deal.


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O-Ren Novemeber Goals:
1) Successfully get through our SECOND SHOW!
2) Get on a better schedule - last month things got crazy and we didn't keep one very well. This month, once back from vacation, she needs to be driven 3 times a week with 1 lunging and 1 other training day, no exceptions!
3) Keep hunting for what kind of vehicle we'd like to upgrade to!
4) Get a new whip and work on whip training!
5) More work with the chambon... it's very helpful!

Pangea November Goals:
1) Watch her levels of comfort as we get into wetter weather
2) Her dietary needs will change in January... do more research on what she will need!


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Girls getting ready for the chilly incoming weather - it has been raining for two days back at home (but sunny and nice here!) The peace sign sheet is really awesome, but she has been soaking wet and clammy cold under it three times now.... I think it is just SUPER unbreathable, and when she sweats she can't get dry (and it must be hot enough to not breath enough to not sweat). That won't do, so it has to go.

Also, is it just me, or is P looking REALLY REALLY pregnant so far? She's only at 6 months! No twins, so she is either carrying a really big baby or she is super stuffed with hay. (Hopefully the latter!)

Sweater Weather

Rather suddenly, fall has descended upon North Central Texas. By 'fall' I mean that the days are in the 80's (and sometimes 70's!), and the nights are in the 50's. We've had *gasp!* two big rainstorms in the past week, which has left everything a bit muddy and chilly. I even put O in a sheet on one of those nights, when it dipped into the upper 40's... behold:

You know you LOVE THAT SHEET. I can see your jealous, incredulous dry heaves from here.

No sheet for the old bat Pmare because she is a feral animal and when she sees me coming with clothes, she flees. I force it upon her when it gets really cold, but for nights in the low 50's, she's not gonna die. She survived living in Alberta for most of her life after all, in a field with no blanket at all. 

Everyone actually stayed in stalls for two of those nights (due to never-ending downpours). I wasn't terribly keen on the idea, but decided to go for it since it would help keep P's feet dry overnight. Everybody survived, and they were all plenty happy to get back outside the next day, O especially:

She only needed the sheet for two of those nights, and when I pulled it off yesterday (temps had risen to a steamy 55), she was sweating. If the temp gets back down into the 40's, then a sheet will do for her. Last year she would shiver like crazy when the temps got that low... I dunno.

We lunged lightly earlier in the week, and I had a nicely forward horse on the end of my line, mellow but not stupidly hot. I haven't been using the Faux-ssoa lately - she is the Counterbend Master, and it doesn't seem to matter what I do to try and manipulate that... she just keeps on counterbending. The trouble is that she also is the High-Headed Giraffe Master, and loves to pull herself along on the forehand with her neck all kinds of upside down. I was thinking I might pull out my old chambon and give that another try... or at least, see if I can piece it back together. Gogo destroyed it some years ago (she was very good at that!), but the pieces might still be salvageable.

We went for a road drive yesterday, doing dressage work as best we could while still avoiding all the mud. Lots and lots of transitions left me with a relativity supple and quiet critter at the end of it all, all things considered:

Transitions will need to become crisper, more responsive, as we keep on progressing. I can feel her downshift when she hears the walk command and gets her first half-halt, but she trots on until she gets the second walk command before she actually walks. She also raises her head every time she gets a command for an upward transition, unless I get her balanced and quiet enough pre-transition. It really is amazing how like dressage this all is - the straightness, the impulsion, it's all the same. She has all the same problems that she had under saddle, don't get me wrong about that, but it's interesting the way we communicate differently while driving. We both know full well that my position in a cart behind her is MUCH more precarious that sitting on her back, and that picking a fight with her over something is a REALLY BAD idea while she is in harness. There is no illusion of control when you're in a cart versus on their back - at least if you're on their back, you can hang on for dear life if they start going all kinds of crazy. In a cart, she and I are both fully aware that she is choosing to keep herself in control - if she really decided to go all hell bent for leather somewhere else, what is that fat plastic snaffle in her mouth (or even a huge leverage bit, if I had one) really going to do? In a way, I think this gives her a good ego boost. She's keeping her own self under control and listening because she has decided to do so, not because I told her to do so. It makes her that much more pliable and compliant.

I know I'm waxing anthropomorphic, but I'm pretty sure she is pleased with herself after every drive. She acts it, without a doubt.

Enjoying her week of downtime!

Immy is definitely enjoying her week of downtime. Not only is her weight bouncing back already, but her attitude is 110% improved. I will be away for the next few days at an equine rescue class (awesome stuff to learn!!), but come Sunday we'll be starting back up with lunging again. Hopefully we'll be able to carry on right where we left on... minus last week, of course.

It has been SERIOUSLY FREEZING this week.... 14 degrees yesterday morning, and 17 degrees this morning. Yes, in Texas. I KNOW, RIGHT? Today was the first day I actually pulled their heavyweights off of them since Sunday, even though I left Immy with a sheet on during the day. Does she not look cute in Gogo's light blue stuff?

P's heavyweight came off this morning and she got to be naked all day. Immy comes in for an extra grain meal (they are out on pasture with 24/7 hay) just until her weight stabilizes (and by grain I mean alfalfa pellets, a fat supplement, and her usual supplements and herbs), but all P gets is enough hay pellets and a smidgen of a fat supplement to just wash all her supplements and herbs down. She only gets this once a day seeing as it is hardly a handful.... and she is NOT amused when Immy comes in for breakfast and she does not.

MOM FOOD NOW WTF.

I'll be back Sunday! 

Tina, eat your food!!

Ever owned a picky horse? One that takes delicate sniffs of the meals you serve them, and disdainfully turns their nose up at it? One that WANTS to eat that food, but thinks it tastes ucky? One that carefully takes bites, and then spits them back out with the yucky face? I never did until now. But Imogen takes the cake - she is genuinely suspicious of any food that isn't already on her safe-to-eat checklist, so you can imagine things with supplements and herbs in them are mighty yuck to her.

She WANTS to eat them. There's no question there. She mills around by the bowl looking pitiful, taking bites and making sad, sad doe eyes at me, wondering why I would possibly want to kill her with poisoned food. She usually eats about half of her breakfast, and then finishes the rest for dinner, but that's about the only way I've been able to convince her that the stuff in the bowl is actually appetizing. Switching her over from a lifelong diet of sweet feed and oats is not to her liking, I suppose. (Who can blame her? Who wants to eat their vegetables when all you've been eating forever is candy?)

She snarfs her hay up, at least. She thinks piles and piles of delicious timothy and orchard grass are the most wonderful things she has ever tasted. And once she stops curling her lip and making bleugh faces at her little handful of grainfoods, she does eat them as well. But still... I'd like you to finish it in one setting, mare. It really is only about a handful!

But she sure looks snazzy in the blanket, no? :) She has gone in two days from total blanket panic (she apparently didn't remember how blankets worked) to almost letting me toss it onto her last night. (I say almost... I'm not quite ready to start throwing it up there yet, I think I might get trampled in the process.)

Lunging is going better and better every day! Yesterday she wore a surcingle and POLOS for the first time!! Going to the left, she got a bit rushy and pulled on me some, but going to the right - her harder direction - she actually was a very cool cucumber and stayed on a very light contact the entire time. Once you turn off her RUN FASTER button, she is super level headed and willing. 

And it is about time to pull off the catch halter and get her a real one of her own. None of mine fit her!

And.... Tailmasta has begun the taming. There's a long way to go, but I'd say this is a mild improvement!

And..... she's still here

Well.... Immy is still at the main farm, with no word from the owners about when she is going back at ALL. We have no idea why or what is going on. I thought for sure she would have been sent back to the ET facility and would have become mine a month ago, but apparently not. The only thing we heard from Elvis' owners was that Elvis was going to leave our farm last week and move to a new one. Well that didn't happen either... we heard no more about it after that, and Elvis is still here too.

So basically.... I still have no idea when she is going to be mine. She still will be.... I just have no idea when.

Does she not have THE most beautiful face ever? Maybe I'm biased, but that gorgeous eye makes me melt every time I look at her.

By the way, how about that vanishing belly and improving topline? She isn't in work yet, since she is still at the work farm, but she is now turned out in a pasture that has a roundbale at the bottom of a hill, and a water trough at the top. She has to walk back and forth up and down the 4 acre hill all day in order to get food and water. It is definitely helping!!

The plan for her (if she doesn't go back anytime in the immediate future) is this: start playing in the roundpen this week, doing bits of groundwork and leading as well as introducing the idea of lunging. She has a few basics under her belt, but not many. When I first started to work with her, she didn't know (or couldn't deal with) anything at all, not even being haltered. While she was pregnant, we managed to add all these things to the master list of stuff she knows:

Stuff Imogen Knows How To Do:

- Halter

- Lead 

- "Tie" (not hard tie)

- Crosstie

- Pick up all four feet & stand on the hoof stand for trims

- Shots & deworming (with only minimal fuss)

- Stand for sprays

- Stand for grooming & touching of all parts, ears & legs & belly included

- Blanketing (mostly)

- Flymask

- Baths (including water on her face)

- Catch in the field

Stuff Imogen Doesn't Know How To Do:

- Everything else

Considering that the majority of stuff that we worked on was done in the three months I worked with her before she had the Red Pest, I think that's a pretty good start. From here, we continue working on general handling and leading, and introduce the idea of lunging and moving away (and yielding to) pressure. Despite her timidness, she is a very quick study, so care needs to be taken that things get introduced properly the first time around. She is definitely one of the smartest little mares I've ever met in my life. 

And, of course, one of the cutest...

Bay Girl vs. Blanket, Round II

One of my January goals for Bay Girl is to get her a little more accustomed to wearing her blanket. Or well, perhaps not wearing it.... wearing it isn't the problem. It's getting it on and off that she minds so much!

Honestly, by "minds so much," I mean that the poor girl has only ever had a blanket put on and taken off once in her life that I know of... when I did it last. Getting it on went well, and getting it off went, well.....
Regardless of that, the weather at some point had to turn, and I therefore made it a priority to start trying to get Bay Girl's blanket on and off regularly. Unfortunately with the trip to Canada, long hours at work, and an excess of study going on at my house, I hadn't been able to work on this goal up until now. And once again, "now" meant exactly that... she needed the blanket on for tonight's extra chilly temperatures. Definitely must make this a bigger priority in life so that we can avoid more "nows" in the future.

The mares were all clumped together in Bay Girl's old pen today, due to the fact that the pastures are still a bit soggy and muddy from our last dump of rain, and I picked out some of the muddy mashed-in poo out there today (ew). The other three girls didn't even bother to give me the time of day while I was out there working, but Bay Girl stood and watched intently the entire time, trying her best to perform the Mare Mind Meld on me and get me to yield copious amounts of tasty goodies that perhaps she was certain I would have:


"Lady you bring me foods?"

Alas for her, I had no tasty goodies to give. Food fail.


Following this, my boss mentioned that the weather was going to turn shortly thereafter, temperatures sinking into the 20's for the evening (not a common occurrance in TX, even in the winter). Would I please blanket all the horses before I leave for the day, says she? Perfect opportunity to work on blanketing Bay Girl, says I!

It went very well for the second time, partly due to the fact that I had three other completely quiet mares also being blanketed in there with her. She got to watch me blanket all three of the others, and wasn't concerned by me throwing blankets up in the air as I tossed them over each mare. After watching countless horses go in and out of our AquaTread, and having trained a dozen or two new ones to get into it, I fully believe that horses to some extent really are visual learners. Newbies come to the pool barn, get parked in a designated set of crossties facing the pool, and then watch two or three "role model" horses who are already experienced get into the pool and work out. When it comes time for them to get in, they are FAR easier to work with if they have seen a few quiet ones go ahead of them and come out intact. If they can't get the hang of how to properly enter the pool by their second time (i.e. instead of walking in they continue leaping, sliding, or otherwise resisting for an extended period of time), we park them in the set of crossties right in front of the entrance to the pool, where they get a front row seat to horses walking calmly in. I have yet to see a lightbulb not go off for these horses, and every one of them has gone on to quietly walk on as well. In reference to Bay Girl, she was allowed to watch how routine blanketing was for the other mares in her herd, and therefore when it came time to put hers on, she was ready and willing to give it a shot.

She was still nervous, don't get me wrong - some eyeball rolling, general tension, and some squiggling when the wind moved her leg straps mid-blanketing - but I had her positioned between her friends, and she bounced back and forth off of two of them, ending up standing quietly again while she waited for my next move. I was able to put on leg straps from both sides this time instead of just the on left - hooray desensitization, you work! - and she stood quietly for a picture of the finished product:



Thankfully, the owner of the foal came and brought the other mare's old turnout blanket for her, so she no longer had to wear the ugly and ill-fitting green canvas one from before.

Like I said before, it will be a priority from now on to keep putting that blanket on and off whenever I have the opportunity. The more I can sack her out to as much stimuli as possible, the better her life will be down the road.



Oh, and one picture of Sophie giving the ultimate goober face:



That is SO a Metro look. He ALWAYS gave me the hurp face!



GOOBERFISH!

End of December Analysis

A few days late, that is! I guess I'm not used to having and maintaining goals any more, seeing as the last set of goals I did for myself was in November of 2010. I didn't set a single goal for the entirety of 2011... helpful in some ways, detrimental in others. On the whole, December was very successful for being a simple feel-out month, one in which I tested out Bay Girl's temperament and reactions to stimuli. I honestly can not believe the transformation in her... she's a different animal already and we've only just begun!

December Goals:

1) Continue desensitization to touch (touch with hands, grooming tools, towels, etc, on legs, body, belly, and face)
Success! I've had great luck with touching Bay Girl all over, especially while in the crossties (she still sucks away a bit when you touch her anywhere but her neck when she is out in the pasture). While in the crossties, she lets me touch her face, belly, legs, and everywhere else... hooray! She has also hesitantly been letting me rub her all over with the towel, something she's not particularly sure about yet. This is particularly important to me because she will eventually need to wear a blanket with regularity.... and maybe someday, she will carry a saddle. She is still hesitant about her body being touched while out in the field, but we will continue to work on this.

2) Introduce turnout blanket
Success! Or well, mostly. But just because we got it on once doesn't mean we'll be able to do it again. I intend on making this a regular event in our daily handling, not just on an as-needed basis.

3) Continue working on not just catching, but haltering as well
Again, success! I discovered shortly ago that her aversion to haltering is probably due to the fact that she is quite certain that anything moving towards her head is dewormer. She was probably only ever caught for unpleasanties like that in her former life, and she was reacting accordingly with a "no please don't catch me and shove crap down my throat!" Once I figured that out, haltering her became really quite simple. All I had to do was do it regularly. Eventually, she realized that I was not coming to do something mean and horrible to her. She is still a little hesitant, but this will continue to diminish as time goes on.

4) Work on picking up front and hind feet with no kicking, pulling, or wiggling!
Success! She's actually been better about her hinds than her fronts, very interestingly. She offers up some very small hesitation on occasion with her fronts when first picking them up, but once they are up, she stands quietly for picking and cleaning. She has a bit of thrush on her left front which I am topically treating (would love to give her a good CleanTrax soak but that will NOT be happening anytime soon!!), but it is clearing. I'll have to do a post on her feet.. they are quite interesting!

5) Go on walks around property and desensitize to anything scary we might find!
Success! I didn't focus as much on this as I would have liked, but what walking we did do was successful and pleasant. Her leading needs a bit of work... actually, she needs regular groundwork in general if I am to be honest with myself. I'm not sure how much I wanna do with her being so very pregnant, but this is something that will eventually need to be addressed.



And onto January.....


January Goals:
1) Continue desensitization to touch (touch with hands, grooming tools, towels, etc, on legs, body, belly, and face)
2) Work on blanketing regularly (a few times a week, dangling leg straps, etc)
3) Introduce dosing orally with tasty things (working on deworming phobia)
4) Continue for walks around property
5) Set up a calendar schedule for her (like Gogo's old one)

Basically this is more of the same thing, only on the next level. More handling, more blanketing, more haltering, more leading, more everything! I'll have a calender set up for her soon... but first, I get to go see SOPHIE! T-minus 2 days and I will be sitting on her.... I can't wait!

Sheet On, Sheet Off

If there is one lesson I have learned in horsey life, it is thus: What goes up must come down... and what goes on the horse, must also come off again.

And by that, I mean Bay Girl's blanket.

As I stood in her paddock yesterday watching her mill around by her haypile, I thought to myself, "I thought I was so clever for getting this blanket on her. But... how am I going to get it off?"

Maybe I should have thought of that BEFORE the fact.

The sun had come up, the misty rain had disappeared, and temperatures had reached the low 50's for the day. All of the other horses on the property had been stripped of their clothes, and were all gleefully grinding mud into their coats with gusto. From my early morning view out the window in the pool barn, I watched Bay Girl wiggle around under her blanket, fuss at her leg straps, mill around some more, throw in a few gigantic bucks, and roll in the mud. It wasn't the blanket that she minded, it was the leg straps that were annoying her. She let me put them on without fuss (so long as I did them both from her left side), but we'd have to see how she felt about them when they came off. I had already tried once to pull her too-large blanket forward when it was already on her... she had none of that nonsense and I left the blanket where it was, drooping excessively over her butt like a gaudy green wedding train. She looked a bit like some large and formless green boogie monster had fallen asleep on top of her back, and was unwilling to get up for any reason whatsoever. Form fitting it was not.

"Alright, sweetie," I told her as she ambled over to me, "let's see if we can get that off." She eyeballed me with interest. I think she had no idea what was coming.

The first problem I faced was that the blanket had slipped so far back that the strap encircling her belly was now tightly pressed against her. It was a very old school buckle strap, so I had to pull it a bit in order to release it. Bay Girl felt the squeeze, and reacted by jumping and skittering around. I managed to get it off without further fuss, but it was clear at that moment that getting the blanket off was going to be much more difficult than getting it on.

I moved back to her leg straps, talking quietly to her the whole time. "That's a good girl," I told her. "They're just leg straps, they're not going to hurt you.

One leg strap released. All quiet. Second leg strap released. All quiet.

Then she moved for a moment, and both straps swung and bumped her lower hind legs. And she lost it. Her eyes registered for a moment with KILLER ANKLE BITING MONSTERS! before she took off, and then she was gone. I suddenly found myself with a terrorized mare at the end of my lead rope, racing in circles around me. The only thing I could do was casually shuffle my feet and talk to her, acting like there clearly was nothing here to be worried about, all while she ripped around and around me like I was some sort of perverted may pole. The more she ran, the more the leg straps swung around her legs. My saving grace was that she understands the idea of pressure and release well, and never once pulled on my leadrope. She also never went sideways or backwards - she only went forward. I was never drug anywhere, pulled off my feet, or moved from the spot where I was standing. And because I just hung around and chatted casually to her while she was in her moment of panic, within a minute or two she stopped dead next to me, with a look in her eye of do something lady!

This is why you ALWAYS unbuckle your blankets BACK TO FRONT, leg straps to belly straps and lastly to chest straps. If I had unbuckled her chest strap first and she had taken off, she very well could have had a terrible wreck within the confines of her backsliding blanket and might have been unable to free herself. I was taught to unbuckle blankets in this manner many years ago, but this was the first time I've ever actually been glad that I did. It's the same idea as wearing a helmet.... sure, you might be able to go for years without falling off, but the one time that you DO fall off, you are going to be SO glad that you bothered to put it on.

"You are so silly," I told her after she had stopped moving, giving her a moment to calm down while I scratched on her neck. She snorted loudly a few times, stood like a rock, and let me finish unbuckling the blanket. Not wanting to risk another takeoff when I had the blanket fully unbuckled, I slowly folded it back upon itself, eventually able to slip it off her butt with only a minor butt tuck on her end. Once I unhooked her leadrope, she stayed with me until I left, the same happy and curious look in her eye the entire time.

Obviously, just because I got the blanket on her by fluke chance does not mean we've conquered blanketing yet. We have a long, long way to go before she is ever sacked out enough to this kind of thing that I can just toss a blanket on her without thinking twice about it. There is a lot of potential in there, and a thinking brain for sure. She stopped of her own accord when running scared from something... that is saying something.

Model Student

Bless this little mare's heart. Either I'm a Grade A horsewhisperer (unlikely), or she is a complete and total genius. I cannot believe how good she was today!

The weather has been completely and utterly miserable as of late, with temperatures in the 30's and nonstop wind and rain/snow/sleet for days. I may be a Northern girl, but I've been in Texas for almost an entire year now, and I have been horribly spoiled by all the recent warm weather. I hate the cold!!
Due to all the nasty and miserable weather, all the horses have been inside in stalls for the past few days, getting their exercise by going in our Eurocizer. It's big, quiet, and scary looking for horses unfamiliar to it... but I've never seen one fuss about going in it for the first time, and they always figure it out within a minute or two. For the little mare, however, I wasn't sure how she was going to deal with it.

Lo and behold, look at that! She was fine!



Awful picture, I know.... I have GOT to get my camera out to the barn.
The only fuss she made was when I was loading her and the wind caught the panels and swung them her way.... before I could move her she got goosed in the bum and skittered around in a circle until she was facing the panel. She never even put pressure on the lead when she moved, bless her heart. Dumb wind!

Add "walking in the walker" to the list of things Bay Girl is all right with. Who woulda thunk it?

If she hadn't already gotten an A+ for that effort, she doubly earned it later in the day. Temperatures tonight are supposed to drop into the 20's, and while everyone is stalled, it is still undoubtedly chilly out there. Bay Girl has hardly any winter coat, but we were pretty sure that she had never worn a blanket before in her life. I expected that getting a blanket on her was going to take a few training sessions, but thought I would introduce her to the idea of her blanket today to begin with while everyone else was getting theirs put on.

To start, we hung all the blankets on everyone's stall doors so that they would be easily accessible when it was time for me to toss blankets on everyone (they had been in storage prior to this). Bay Girl spent the day looking out her stall bars at this new and scary thing, and apparently didn't seem to mind much. She watched with interest as I blanketed everyone else in her aisle, and when it came time to introduce her to her blanket, she surprised me. After some initial loving on, I clipped her leadrope to her catch halter, brought her to the blanket, and let her see, sniff, and investigate it for a little while. She was VERY interested in the blanket, more in a curious way than anything. She never balked or hesitated, so the blanket came closer to her. She continued to be quiet and relaxed about it, albeit curious, so I touched her with it. She blinked, snorted a bit, and went back to sniffing it curiously as I touched her side with said scary piece of fabric. I moved the blanket higher, ending over her withers. She still didn't do more than sniff curiously. 'Hmmm', I thought, 'she must know what blankets are. She doesn't seem to care at all.' I moved it higher, up over her back. She sniffed curiously. I let it rest upon her back... and that was when it became clear that she had really never worn a blanket before. She scooted forward, eyes wide, suddenly unsure of the intentions of the green monster now resting dangerously upon her back. But just like every other time she has been scared or uncertain, all it took was a soothing worn on my part and she stopped. Many pets, scritches, and snacks later, and I had the blanket resting in its proper place over her back with no muss or fuss. Her eye was soft, her demeanor was curious, and her continual reaction to the blanket was to turn her head curiously from side to side, eyeballing the weird thing laying upon her back. I riskily took a chance at buckling it. Front buckles... no problem. Belly strap.... no issues there. Leg straps, which I was very worried around.... no biggie. She was fine! Singing her praises, I let her go again, leaving her to wander in circles around her stall, looking curiously back at the strange green thing on her body. After her initial reaction, she genuinely didn't care.

10 points for the genius mare. I can not believe how smart she is. It took her all of 10 minutes from start to finish to be wearing her first ever blanket with no muss or fuss.




That for sure makes me wonder desperately what she'd be like to saddlebreak! I bet she'd be a cakewalk! (Or a lunatic.... you never know what she's actually been through!)