Thunder tries on the blue halter and gets a brushing!

The pen is finally getting a few dry mud peaks so I can change my plan of action! Woo hoo! Walking is still a challenge, but it is getting good enough where I am now introducing a few new odds and ends and trying to encourage them to WANT to be with me. I have been joking with Brian about them not being able to lead, but by golly you can balance a ball on their backs! Ha ha!

I found out that Beth has a blue halter for Thunder, so I needed to get the blue halter on Thunder pretty quick so Terry would not try to take it from her! Ha ha! He has a light brown colored one, and it will look good on Paco too - told ya, yellow is the only color I can think of that won't look good. :-) And maybe orange.

The blue halter looked great on Thunder, but it doesn't fit. It is a bit too small but we made it work for the photo shoot. :-)
Doesn't he look cute?



Thunder wanted his own t-shirt shot too....

THUNDER: "How you doin'?"



I had Brian check the wound on his nose and the bump under his jaw. I think it was smaller, but I needed him to check to make sure since he had not felt it in a while. Yep, it is smaller! Yay! Brian gets to pick up some antibiotics tomorrow - powder that will go in his feed.
Check out nosey Paco behind Brian and Thunder. I love this! Paco still avoids things when he wants to, which is most of the time, but this is a great example of his curiosity taking over...
When I see him trying not to peek, I try hard not to 'notice' and let him think he is getting one over on me. It makes me laugh, and it helps him to want to see what I am doing.



Thunder and Brian...it didn't take long for Thunder to relax when Brian came into the pen.



I pulled out a thin pad I have and started rubbing it on both of them. Paco made it to this...



Then he told Thunder all about it! (Thunder did not wear it, but I did rub it on his face and neck)



Tonite I did some brushing on both boys, and I touched Paco almost all over with one of the balls. He was not so sure about it, but we stuck at it until he decided it would get me before it got him, and if it didn't get me it must be okay. No photographer on duty for that part of the evening....

But there was for this part...

Thunder has had issues with a human body standing beside him. He always wants to face me, which is good, I would rather have that than the side or rump. The past few nights I have been working hard on getting him to stand still while I moved to his side, and he is doing great! I still have to be patient when I start, but it takes less and less time to get there. Tonite was awesome! I got his halter on and put his medicated rag in place on the nose wound to soften it up before cleaning, then I started petting on him. I decided to leave the lead rope off and see if he wouldn't let me beside him. He did, and not only did he accept that, he also let me brush back to his shoulders! I did not tempt fate and go beyond that...there was enough mud on the front half of him to keep me occupied anyways.

I would brush and he would sniff...we did that a lot, which is fine with me. I love that he wants to know about things... He asks questions and I try my best to answer them for him.



I rubbed on his side too, and he just stood there. A friend, Angela, had made the comment that this is the best time of year to work with new mustangs because they are starting to shed and are itchy. She is 100% right! :-)



I got a lot of dried mud off him and I guarantee you he will have it back on himself tomorrow! I joke about these two being like the movie, Lord of the Rings. Legolas (Paco) is great in battle but somehow always seems to stay clean. Aragorn (Thunder) is great in battle and is always dirty.



The past couple of nights have been great! The days are longer, the sun has been shining, and I am hanging out with horses. Yeah....life is great! :-)

Until later...Karen and Tripp