Before this evening, I haven't done too much with Pax minus messing with her at nightly feedings. Up until a couple of weeks ago, she was excelling at having all of her feet handled and held, but (almost literally) overnight, she developed a killer one-two punch with her hind foot. We reprimanded her shortly the night her new habit was discovered but didn't have time to do much else that night besides run our hands down her hindquarters to see where the sensitive spot was. Since then, I've used a carrot stick and flag and a 4' lunge whip to re-desensitize her to the sensation of having something around her back hocks. She's done okay, on a relatively inconsistent basis, but I can't help but wonder what caused the new danger zone. I think a lot of it has to do with her changing social status— in the past month, she's gone from hanging with the oldest, most apathetic fogies (i.e. Missy and Dixie) to eating at the Cool Kids Table with Marquee, Alabama, and Bonnie, who are all pretty aggressive. She seems to hold her own pretty well, and they don't mess with her anymore, so I'm guessing she's used her eight-month-old-but-still-drafty butt to kick them around a time or two.
Tonight, though, I felt the urge to teach her something. We've gotten good at walking in and out of the tack room.. which perhaps you will judge me for, but I learned to love the habit after working with my old boss, who would often ride his 16-hand gelding in and out of the CLJ tack room to retrieve some item he wanted. True, he's a short little cowboy and true, he's considerably more adept at just about anything in the saddle as I am, but once I taught Bandit how to walk in one door and out the other, my capability for sloth multiplied.
Anywho, we worked on lunging on the line for the first time. I started with the bare carrot stick sans string but switched to a medium lunge whip with a short line and taught Pax to be pushed from behind as I walked to one side. That took all of two minutes to get down for the most part, and we moved on to gradually expanding circles, finally getting to the end of a 10' lead without pulling or fussing. She does tend to gravitate back inward, but that's an easier fix than the opposite. As for cue lightness, she does know what clicking and kissing are supposed to represent, but I still find myself having to take my pressure a step further (snapping the whip, in this case, and a couple of times letting it nick the back of her legs very softly) to get her to move. But when she does.. I LOVE her high step and tail flag! I hope that doesn't go away with age. Maybe some of the awkward baby-ness, yes, but the prance is my very favorite.
She does seem to be filling out, and she's caught up to the shorter horses and ponies now, at about 13 and a half hands; maybe 13.3 now. Her growth seems relatively stable at the minute, without her fore- or hind- end being six inches above the other half, as babies do tend to grow. Can't seem to get rid of her excessive pot belly, but she is a chronic hay muncher. I need to re-band her mane for awhile and get it all back on one side. She's sort of a muddy mop at the minute. Can't get her out of the puddles and muck while everyone else is huddled under the trees after this week of yucky rain.
As personality goes, I've created a bit of a princess monster, but I have begun backtracking on that progression. After experiencing watching that fat draft baby jump over a stall chain to get at me when someone else was getting the attention, grooming, and handouts, I backed off on the amount of physical reward she gets for coming up politely. (She still gets verbal rewards, and the occasional pocket treat or rub session, but on a less generous basis.) And she always, always comes up to visit. It's just a wonderful change from crotchety old Bandit, who has his days of affection but mostly prefers to watch with vague wariness.
