"Deal With This, Pony."

In an effort to get our little Ambien-laced wild child back on track last week, I spent a couple of afternoons again walk/jogging her in hand all over camp. Literally. In and out of buildings, up some small steps, banging and slamming trash cans, adorning her with hula hoops, chunking balls around— I just wanted to make her THINK through it all! Even though I wouldn't peg her as an equine prodigy, Pax still gets bored rather quickly and isn't particularly curious about things that don't involve food. If it isn't changing or increasing in edibility levels, she shows her distaste now by kicking things repeatedly out of (I perceive) spite.. SMACK, SMACK, SMACK on a pole or hanging bucket. Obviously she's getting reprimanded for this, and in her defense, she is standing VERY well for extended periods of (supervised) time.. But I'd rather be able to encourage some energy outlets than have to constantly discourage her boredom.

At least, down by the bottom line, she is still very happy to be caught and come play with her human mom. I still have moments of, "Wow, I can't believe she is mine."

Little triumphs.

I am the epitome of fair-weather rider.

Yes, occasionally my job puts me in the position to ride in sleet, wet, and snowy stuff (see Christmas Eve 2009 and numerous summer thunderstorm occasions) but if I can get out of riding in it and being grouchy and just care for everybody and get back inside, I will. I mainly just don't like cold + wet.

This is all a preface to me not being a stellar horse mom in an on-and-off fashion this winter, as it has been both chilly and soggy. But, obviously, I am out for a spell at least twice a day (and pass through much more often, when I get bored with whatever inside thing I've found to do) and try to do what I can, training-wise, in the time I'm doing more menial horsekeeping.

With Pax it's been a small and steady stream of desensitizing. The same halter that used to threaten to eat her face now equates pats and cookies, and she dives her head into it. Saddle blankets are down for the most part— her expression is still pretty plaintive when I whip them out, but she doesn't try to escape. Richard "helped" with the category of "Hugely Loud Hammering on the Stall Walls While Horses Are Still Latched Inside and Feeding." (Catastrophe avoided, though I was in the arena doing work on a lead and somehow managed to get tripped and trampled by, out of 22 horses, MY specific two. I think they were aiming.) So she can now stand reasonably quietly in a stall while someone bangs the crap out of the adjacent boards. Whips are in there also, as we are learning to differentiate between Lunge Whip: Utensil For Equine Decapitation and Leg Amputation to Lunge Whip: The Annoying Thing That Cues Me to Trot in Circles. And tonight we flapped some huge, scary, jangly, and multicolored turnout blankets around our head and back. Even though she's quick to give you the apprehensive white-eyed stare, it never seems to take long before she'll let you throw whatever scary thing you have onto her bag so she can drag it around a bit.

Pretty proud. :) Good filly.

In a debacle over choosing a feed brand to switch to. I wish I had taken a Feeds and Feeding course at university, but also think I'd be even more torn between schools of thought. I visited with two feed representatives from a regional distributor, Livengood Feeds, last week and then had a long discussion and thought session with the Purina nutritionist today. Definitely got some good information from the Purina guy, and gave me lots of mental goals for our string— but on the flip side, I did have to talk myself down a little bit and remember that, at the end of the day, that guy is there to sell me more horse feed. While I'm really willing to make some adjustments to get a quality senior product to our older guys, I don't feel that I should also pour more money into Salty the Overweight 24 Y/O Grade Pony in order to improve his coat texture and maybe see a few millimeters more cover over his topline. I don't doubt the benefits of feeding more expensive full-dose concentrates, but weighing that out on a cost-benefit analysis of Camp Horses versus Performance Horses and even Backyard Pleasure Riders.. doesn't make sense. I want to put more resources into the oldest horses who really need the nutrition, but I don't want to pay extra to have Super Shiny Camp Ponies. I know it's nice, but there's a limit. Also, though he was happy to talk benefits of good hay (and we feed good hay— each horse eats around $85 of Coastal a month, bought in bulk) he tried very hard to debunk that Coastal has enough protein to provide maintenance to a handful of easy-keepers. I'm sorry, but I take one look at some of the round grade and Mexican-bred horses we have who spend 23.5 hours a day eating hay and trace minerals, and 30 minutes tearing around at a rocket-fuel gallop, and I can't get behind sacrificing more of our budget because a feed-pushing nutritionist says they need more protein. I'm really not worried about them. I feel like they could eat wood chips and still end up with a high-scoring body condition. But on the flip side— I do trust Purina and I love buying a product with that much R&D that goes into it. But asking me to put my easy keepers on a 32% pellet.. Err...

Catching up from the winter mud

Contrary to what you might believe from my dearth of posting, the horses are all alive and well. Dr. Quattro was out last month and clean bills of health were issued all around, even to the oldies and the fatties.

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.

Sporadic updates; constant progress

She's pretty ridiculous.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, marked a week since Pax came home from Joshua. December 1st will be her first half-birthday.

Today marks ten days with her. We did all of the following this afternoon:

1. Caught without any fuss. She comes at a whistle much of the time, but not 100% yet. (Have yet to meet a horse who was 100% at that game, but perhaps its just me.)
2. Lead in-hand at a walk and trot. Relatively clean halts; no running through my hands.
3. Stood tied to the hitching rail, both alone and up against my gelding. No setting back, no tugging, no pawing.
4. Curried and brushed all over.
5. Mane and forelock brushed out thoroughly.
6. Pushed her hindquarters from side to side while tied. Walked behind her, stood behind her.
   
7. Picked up all four feet, held them for a time (little wobbly on the back and one mild attempt to kick out; quietly reprimanded) and cleaned each with hoofpick and brush.
8. Ponied in-hand behind my gelding in the arena. Drug a little bit, but he's been sort of an ass to her since she arrived —steadily improving, though he doesn't make very nice faces— and we ended on a high note.
   
9. Ponied while dallied to my gelding in the arena. Lagged behind and tried to run up on him once. Pulled pretty sharply after trotting off but settled back in to his side.
10. Lead in-hand for a nice walk around the camp.

Couldn't really be more impressed. Her personality is coming out and the aloof-factor is dwindling. I need to write Deb about her progress for her site. I think Richard is pretty taken with her, too, and that makes it all the more wonderful to spend time with her, and him, and the rest of the horses. It's been a pretty wonderful fall.

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!