Chance Sporting Her New Duds!!

It has been extremely cold around these parts, but I am not going to complain. I will take the freezing temperature's and frozen ground over rain and mud any day! So just how cold has it been? At 9:30 a.m. it was 15 degrees. So I am going to guess it was quite a bit colder during the night. The high for today was supposed to maybe reach 30 degrees, but my thermometer says it's 26 degrees. Brrr....... It is supposed to stay really cold this week, so yesterday after I worked with Chance, I brought Brandy and Fritzy out to put their winter blankets on. I don't typically blanket my horses unless the temps drop below 30 and I know it will stay cold for awhile. And since we were going to be down into the teens, I pulled the blankets out.

A couple months ago I bought a blanket for Chance, but when Chance came home, I realized it was going to be too small. So I exchanged it. Well, once I was able to get her gentled enough to measure her, she measured 56" and the blanket I bought was a 54". So a couple weeks ago I had returned that blanket. Now that it is extremely cold, I ran all over the place to find a blanket in her size. I stopped at 3 places, and everyone was out of small blankets. The last place I stopped at had one left. It isn't the color I would typically buy for her, but it will work. It is a Weatherbeeta Freestyle. The sales girl said all they had was a 57" and that the brand runs a little big. So I just bought it. If it didn't fit, I could return it.

As soon as I got home, I ran out to catch Chance. The last couple days I have been taking her halter and lead and catching her by putting her halter over the halter she has been wearing. She has been doing really good with that. This weekend her green halter will be coming off for good. Let's just hope that she doesn't get any crazy ideas, and decide that she doesn't want to be caught, after I remove her halter permanently!!

I was hoping that Chance would accept the blanket. I held it up to her, she was very curious about it. I put it next to her body. She just sniffed it. I then put it on her back while still holding onto it. She walked around me a couple times then stopped, this is when I removed it. I put it back on her back, she moved again a couple circles then stopped. I removed it again. I then opened up the blanket and put it on her like you would normally put a blanket on a horse. She moved a little, then stopped. She stood completely still while I buckled all the straps. She didn't care at all. I guess all that desensitizing with the towel really paid off!!! I was wondering what she would do when I let her go. She didn't care at all. She just sniffed the front of it and went on her merry way!

I know she looks funny with 2 halters on. This is how I have been catching her, I walk up to her, put my right arm over her neck while holding the crown piece of the halter, my left hand is holding the nose piece, then I can hold her if she tries to move off, which she hasn't yet, and I can slide the nose piece over her nose, and since my right arm is already over her neck and I am holding the crown piece, I can just pull the crown over the top of her head and buckle it. She is doing so well, that her green halter will be coming off soon!!



Chance wasn't concerned at all with her new blanket. She checked it out a couple times and that was it. Oh, and it fits!! I am very happy about that!



Fritzy and Brandy watched every bit of it. They were awfully curious in what I was doing to that silly Mustang!



Chance was more interested in her poo, than some wierd thing on her back!



This here is frozen mud. It isn't any fun to walk on!! Seriously!!



Chance being very curious, as usual, she grabbed my green bag and picked it up off the ground. She almost took off running with it!!



It doesn't get any cuter than this, does it?



Chance has been so sweet this weekend. She did really good. I am so proud of my little Mustang!! I love her more and more everyday, is that even possible?