What A Stinker!

It finally quit raining, for now. I am so glad that when it comes to my days off, the weather hasn't been too terribly bad. I have to get out to work with Chance, and it is no fun when it is raining, windy or cold. But since it is now dark at 5:00, and I usually don't get home from work until around 6:00, that only leaves me 2 days to work with Chance.

My sweet, baby Mustang decided to be a stinker on Sunday. She just decided she wanted to be overly curious, which is a good thing! She is being really good about being caught, but I want to give it a couple more weeks before I take her halter off. With the bad luck I have, I'll take it off and never catch her again! When I first get into her pasture, I go to the least muddy area, and set down my grooming bag and other bag full of tricks. I then just stand there with my back turned to Chance, slowly taking the lead rope out of my bag. I can feel and hear her walking up behind me. She stops, waits, than puts her nose on my back. I slowly turn around and pet her face and neck. She is so good now with petting her face. She used to move her head all over the place, now she holds her head so still. I continue to pet her, and after a couple minutes, I can snap the lead rope right onto her halter. I think it is better to let her come to me, then go off and try to get her. I don't want her to get any crazy ideas that catching isn't any fun. Chance stands so quietly for grooming. I just hold onto her lead rope and brush away!! She is also doing really well on picking up her front legs. I haven't picked up her back legs yet, but I can touch and brush them. I need my OH to come out and hold her when I start to pick up the hind legs. After our grooming session today, I decided to take a self portrait of us. Please ignore me, I just threw my hair up and have very minimal makeup on. But I wanted to show you all how sweet she is!



I brought the towel out again. I am still working on the same desensitizing stuff. I want to make sure she is okay with everything I have been using and doing, then I will slowly add more into the mix. I am going to go slow with this, I am not in a hurry and she has such a good nature about her, she will do just fine!

When I first pulled the towel out, she was very curious and sniffed it again. I put it all over her body again, but once I unfolded it and sacked her out, then layed it over her back, she didn't really like that. I did this lesson last week and she handled it really well. I just kept the pressure on until she relaxed, which didn't take long at all. Once she relaxed, I removed the towel and praised her. After a couple times, I could just leave the towel over her back, no big deal.

Here she is checking out the towel. Probably wondering what the heck I am making her wear!



She then decided that she wanted to play with my grooming bag. I almost thought that she was going to pick it up and throw it!



I can just read the thoughts going on in that head of hers. I know what she wants to do!



Yep, sure enough. She pulled out a brush! Maybe she is trying to tell me that she wants to be groomed some more!



I let her wear the towel for awhile. It's good for her. It'll let her get used to the idea of wearing a saddle pad for those 8 hour trail rides we will be taking some day!



After we finished our training lesson, I went to get my muck bucket to scoop baby poo. I set it down and walked away to see what Chance would do. I was pretty sure that she wouldn't care about it and I know she has seen one before.



She slowly walked up to it, and then decided to stick her nose in to see if there was any food. Sorry Chance, no food, but there will be poo in there soon!



Chance ended up knocking it over, it was on a slight incline, and when it tipped over, she jumped back. But she came right back up to it again. She realizes it isn't a scary monster!



No Chance, there still isn't any food in there!



Recognize this? My pink handy stick?



While I was scooping poo, I had glanced over at Chance and I see something laying on the ground over by her hay. I had to really look to see what it was. Wait a sec! That is my handy stick, and how did it get over there? I know I didn't put it there! So who did?



That little stinker! Think your being funny, huh? And to think she struck out at that handy stick twice, when I first moved it towards her body a couple weeks ago, now she is picking it up and dragging it around with her! In my drawing you will see I circled my handy stick in pink. The white arrow indicates where the handy stick was, in the green bag! Chance decided to take it out of the green bag, and drag it away! I wish I would have actually seen her doing that, but I was too busy scooping her baby poo to notice!



Monday morning I volunteered for 4 hours, than went to the tack store to see if I could find some gloves, guess what? I found a pair! They are very similar to what I had, but they are insulated and water resistant! Go here to check them out! Since they are so similar to what I had, I am sure they will be fine. And they will be warmer! And they were actually cheaper then my other pair! I also bought another pair of cowboy boots, I have a feeling I will be needing another pair at some point, and there was a pair there that I fell in love with. I can't get a picture right now, my camera takes terrible indoor pictures, but as soon as I can get some daylight, I will take them outside and get a picture of them.

I came home and ate lunch, then headed out to work with Chance again. It started raining right when I walked out the door, just my luck! She was being a butt about some things today, but I could tell she was a little worked up about something before I even got out to her pasture. I know she won't always have good days! I brought out my saddle cover to use for more desensitizing. Unlike the towel, my saddle cover makes noise!! I was able to rub it all over her body, no problem. But when I just held it out in my hand and shook it, it made noise and she didn't like that! She actually went backwards a few times and reared! This time she didn't strike out, but she was still not liking it. By the time I finished the lesson, that saddle cover now is her best friend!

I then received a text from one of the grooms at the barn. The trainers were heading back early from U.S. Nationals, which meant they would be coming home a day sooner. So I called one of the trainers that stayed behind, and asked her if she needed help getting ready for their arrival. She said sure. So I went into work to help move horses around. They went to Nationals with 12 horses, but we knew from the beginning that 2 wouldn't be coming home. While at Nationals, a client bought another horse, and someone else is sending one to the barn for training. We had moved a bunch of weanlings and 2 yr olds into the main barn, so we had to move them back out. We also cleaned up as much as we could.

So much for a day off! Only 5 more days to go!