Monday, June 23, 2008

ACK! Clark Kent looks different than Superman!

I don't have any photos for this day, which is just as well. Apparently I looked really bad and scary!
I went out Sunday morning to play before feeding time and Tripp freaked out, ran under the canopy to 'hide', and I was wondering where the guy in the evil clown suit was hiding! After all, what could cause such a reaction?

Well, it was the first morning I had gone out in my glasses! And no make-up....but would he notice that? I have made a point of wearing lots of different colors just in case he is sensitive to stuff like that. It took me a while to get him calmed down enough to touch. I did get 3 sessions in with him this day, altho they were short.

That evening we went to pick up hay, and Tripp watched Brian driving the tractor with the big round bale up in the air, but he didn't react to it. Just watched it until he could not watch it any more. We went to get a 2nd load and I figured I had enough time to get another touching session in.

I think between the tractor going by again, me being in the pen with him, and the horse flies taking that time to attack, it was just too much for him to concentrate. He had enough! Normally I close off the extra panel so the pen is round, and when I am done I open it back up so he has access to the canopy part. This time I didn't shut the pen off so he RAN back and forth across this small pen. I tried to make a game out of it because I didn't want him to know he can get by me in the future by running by me. It didn't work! (I did manage to walk by him while he was eating and he didn't leave - so that is good)

When I go out to feed before work I try to spend a few minutes with him. This morning he was not having any part of it, the little snot! So I had him take a couple bites of hay out of my hand (he does this without backing up after each bite now) set down the rest of breakfast, then I left him alone.

Tonite we worked a little harder and he still wasn't going to let me as close as I was the other evening. Part of that could have been because Brian was running power tools in the barn, which is right by the pen. I did manage to get a little skinny lead line on his halter and we worked that way for a while. Once he realized he could not get away he was much better. He did try to lunge away twice but I managed to hold on and get him turned back towards me. The look on his face was priceless! It is actually the whole body language along with the look. Good! :-)

Oh yeah, the other priceless moment of the evening....he nickered at me when I first walked out there. Life is good!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He nickered at YOU? OMG! He knows who to butter up....He already had you before, now he's just sealing the deal....

Love the blog, and the pics....Keep up the good work ma'am!