My friend and her horse are back for the summer to board at my place. She brought her trailer over last weekend so I could practice loading Fred. He is star and jumped right on after a couple of minutes of sniffing and looking around. I think he will be a good candidate to self-load!
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Spencer on the left and Bailey. |
My horses have it pretty good here - I don't do much with them in the winter except feed and groom them. My barn is set up where I can just let them into their stalls without haltering and leading them in. They all know that routine, but in the spring, when we start working and changing things up a bit, I get some grumpiness and attitude - even from little Copper!
The big guys are out on grass for about 8ish hours a day now, but Copper can't handle that much. He would be so fat! I can't find his grazing muzzle, so until a new one arrives, I keep him in during the day and then at dinner time, I shut the gate to the pasture and they all go back out to the small paddock.
Copper follows me to shut the gate, so I've been bringing a longe whip just in case. He DOES NOT LIKE being told where to go, so man have I been getting some attitude. It is hilarious, of course. After day 3 of some manners, he now stands and glares at me while I close the gate. I had to get a picture, because it is so funny.
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This is f'ing bullshit! Copper, probably. |
I decided to try him with a rope halter since I didn't feel like farting around with the cavesson and surcingle. Turns out his "whoa" didn't work well with the rope halter either. Needless to say, we have some refresher work to do! The mosquitos were vicious, so I'm going to need to work him with a fly mask or something so his brain doesn't melt out his ears BECAUSE ZOMG MOM THERE ARE BITEY BUGS ON ME!!!!!!
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Bugs in my ears!!!!! |
We ended our session, just before the mosquitoes carried us away, by standing at the mounting block and me hanging over his back. He really didn't care, as long as I was helping swat bugs. No pictures of that since I didn't want to test my luck too much!
I'm looking forward to doing some regular work on the longe with Fred - I really want to try long lining him and ground driving as well as get him working in tack!
omg Copper's little attitude is PRICELESS!! glad everything around the farm is lookin good and chuggin along into spring! good luck with the showmanship stuff too. i've never necessarily been inclined to do those classes, but the in hand stuff always seems really really similar to the ground work i've enjoyed practicing and like it would be great to have a hose that tuned up
ReplyDeletehaha - small horse attitude. You don't see it much, but boy you'd better watch out! lol
DeleteThose tulips are gorgeous!
ReplyDeletethanks!
DeleteYour mini kills me! So many opinions. I think the smaller they are the more opinions they have.
ReplyDeletehaha he is a riot. He probably didn't like me laughing at his opinions!
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