E-mail excerpt.

Been busy enough past few days, but such good progress has been made. We entertained my parents and one of my dear friends over the weekend and spent lots of time taking photos and giving treats and pats and all the like. Progress really came to a head today, and I'm simply going to copy and paste chunks of the e-mail I just sent to Deb from Passion Horse. After shamelessly plugging some photos my mother took this past Saturday, of course, of Pax and MollyMare.

Hi, Debra and Co.,

Although I haven't yet constructed a "success story" or adoption tale yet, I did want to send you a couple of pictures and let you know how well Pax is doing.

After watching her figure out how to break into the feed and tack rooms (we were present and she didn't eat anything or get in trouble, don't worry!) and getting her to eat out of our hands, in our laps, out of our pockets, etc., with lots of pats and mane-braiding and removing most of the cockleburrs out of her forelock, we decided to make the step to get her in a halter today. It went incredibly smoothly. I haven't worked with hundreds of colts but enough to realize what a great head she has on her shoulders.

Richard taught her in about twenty minutes how to lower her head through the nose piece to get to her grain bucket. After repeating that a dozen or more times, he began flipping the final rope over her ears.. Lots of repetition, and lots of doling out her mash a tiny bit at a time. Once she was alright with that, he tied it and we allowed her to back up from the pressure and feel the weight of the halter and rope. She dragged the stiff lead for a few minutes while we watched, releasing to the pressure every time. I picked the rope up again and allowed her to move against it to a point, slowly asking her for to at least lean her weight towards me, then take one step, then two, etc. etc. Within the hour, she was walking behind me without stopping more than every twenty or thirty steps. We swapped and Richard did the same. She's a bit more resistant to him, but he was definitely quicker to teach her to drop her head into the halter, so surprisingly we seem to be an okay team!

I know it's luck that we work where we ride, so we have hours a day to spend with this little girl. I know without a doubt most horse owners are simply not so lucky to have that kind of freedom, but it's been wonderful to be able to achieve so much trust in a matter of days. Having her walk up to the fence to greet us with a whinny is pretty incredible, and watching the gears turn as she learns minute by minute is so very exciting. Obviously she had a good experience before we got our hands on her and she is proving to be as smart as you'd suggested!

Day One: The Drive, the Visit, the Haul, and Welcome Home

Welcome!

Today was the big adoption day for the new girl. Truck and trailer left our house at 5:16 A.M. and after a remarkably easy journey north without any turnarounds (isn't the GPS age novel?) we made it to Passion Horse Ranch at 10:12 A.M.

Touring the site was wonderful.* Debra was incredibly inviting and both Richard —my husband— and I were completely taken back by the beauty and size of some of her PMU rescues. Gorgeous horses. Part of me can't wait for Pax to be grown and flashy and massive like the rest of them, but when we first got a good look at her, backed into a corner of the covered stalls, I decided it's quite all right that our bonding is going to take years and her body needs to grow. She was huge and lovely. I'm so pleased with her confirmation— the one (ONE!) image I saw before adopting her, despite being a month or so old, was fairly accurate. My only complaint is that her front end is a bit splayed, but part of that may be baby, part of it may be fixed with good trims, and goodness knows Bandit (my other horse) is not a photograph of perfectly balanced legs and feet, and his soundness issues have been all but zero except for a bad bout of "natural barefoot trimming" which didn't work so hot in volcanic West Texas rock.

*Backing the trailer in between a couple of goosenecks, a roundpen, and a garage with an audience of six was not, however.

It didn't take too long for us to coax her out of the stock trailer into the arena, what with a very faint dusting of grass still growing in it and a pile of Coastal. The other 19 CFA horses were beside themselves trying to get a peek at Pax, but she remained fairly aloof and visited them only briefly. At first, Bandit was the only horse with his rear end turned to her, head down, about fifteen feet away acting disinterested, but as the others drifted apart he came in for a good sniff and a loud, appraising whinny, which she answered. My tiny proud-cut gelding has the gutteral yell of an old stallion, and this gigantic filly sings like a four-year-old kid! I put Molly, my favorite pet of the herd— a 12 or 13 year old APHA mare; in-your-pockets kind of sweet— in with her and they seemed to get along immediately.

I mixed up some soaked beet pulp and alfalfa pellets (just about a scoop and a half total, more of just a starter for the girls) and left the pan in the arena, sitting about 10 feet away. Molly, of course, came over to rifle through my hands and hair before eating, and Pax was right behind her. I stayed out for thirty mintues or so, not trying to touch anyone or move, just watching them eat and entertaining Molly as she saw fit. Pax never really spooked, but she would catch an eye at me every few mintues and saunter off, appearing to be terribly interested in nibbling at the dirt before returning to nose Molly out of the pan. Will feed them separately and properly tomorrow but it's good to see them getting along so well.

From Blogger Pictures