SATURDAY was Thunders day to venture out of the pen. He has been moving pretty good on the lead line and I got to thinking how much better the horses seem to do once they get out of the pen. I really believe it is good for their brains. I know I get carried away so I will try to keep this short and sweet. We walked around the yard, front and back, by scary things, over a small ditch, we had guineas flying over our head, and he did fantabulous! Scared and nervous, yes, tried to pull away a couple of times but came right back when he hit the pressure on the lead rope, but he always stopped to think about whatever it was that scared him.
We have a trailer out front and I hopped up there to see how he would do with me above him. Better than I expected! We walked back and forth a lot. We could not quite make the corners, so I hopped down to help with those.
Here is Thunder feeling the 'squeeze' between the fence and the trailer!
Time for a break...Thunder says "Hello, this isn't too bad!"
Yum Yum! Grass!
Thunder is normally just around me, and everyone that I have met that has mustangs or worked with them mentions the bond the mustangs get with their person. Brian's kids were here this weekend so we made an introduction.
Madison letting Thunder get to know her first.... (I love this picture!)
Madison touching his forehead.....
THUNDER SAYS: "Hmmmm, I bet it tastes like chicken!" HA HA! Okay, that isn't what Thunder said....he thinks the girl was not too bad, and if she was, he could take her! :-)
THUNDER SAYS: "ACK! They are tag teaming me! Okay, not really...just thought this is what people would want me to say. Hee hee!"
SUNDAY: The great escape!
I have Thunder in the back yard trying to convince him to go over the ditch that now has dark black dirt in it, and Brian says "Looks who got out."
I turn around and here is Paco after his great escape! Look how stressed and beside himself he is! How are we going to get this precarious situation under control?
There was no drama with him meeting the others...he meets Chase the llama, Batman the mini, and Tandee my older Arab mare.
After a couple of minutes of him grunting (literally) and snorting and acting all silly, he looked at me....
...then looked away while his body still faces me. And this folks is exactly what he looks like when he refuses to acknowledge you! How can you not laugh just imagining what is going thru that mind of his? The Master of Avoidance at work!
It only took a couple of minutes to catch him, then we worked on our leading! Yep, he doesn't lead well - at all! Ha ha! So we slowly but surely worked our way to the front yard.
While I was working with Paco, Brian took Thunder to the front to relax....
Then I needed Brian's help...Paco says he doesn't know how to walk forward, so we needed some encouragement by the name of Thunder. Paco would not follow - he wanted to blaze his own path, so Brian and Thunder got behind us to scoot us along. We went in and out of the pen a couple of times then called it a night. It was a lot of fun and a great test to see how they will handle being free. :-)
Look at us! We are good boys!
What a fun time!
KAREN SAYS: "And then there was Monday!"
(Okay, I really don't know what I was talking about...this just made me laugh!)
I started with Paco and thought I would leave the gate open for Thunder to see how his 'capture' goes. Thunder walked out, I got to the gate with Paco and turned around to see where I was stepping, and Thunder was right behind me. Yep, he will be just fine!
Paco did very well with his leading and we made it thru a good part of the yard. His mind tuned in on the grass, so we had a couple of chats but we worked it out. He will eat grass after we work on a couple of things. I also put the light saddle pad on him because the wind was blowing, and the flapping around would be good for him.
We relaxed a while...it took him a little bit before he realized it was okay to eat grass.
Almost ready to call it a night...and Paco wonders about this girl who just won't leave him alone...what the heck is she doing now?
(Watching buzzards fly in low...I could hear their wings! Awesome!)
While we did our thing, Thunder grazed on his own. I know I know, he is dirty! But he is so happy that way....for now. :-)
Catching Thunder was not a big deal either. I slipped the halter on and didn't worry about the lead...we walked to the pen and he stepped right thru the gate.
This is one of the many observations from the past few days. They know where their feet are - they use them every day - if they step on you they usually mean it according to some of the clinicians out there - but when you are trying to walk them over something, they are very careful. I read an article in Horse & Rider a while back about how horses see things. I think we as humans forget that they are not seeing what we see....that tube from the gate panel isn't a tube to them, it is something they have not had to deal with before. Taking the time to stand back and observe them and watch them work something out is a huge treat....
Time to head to work! Have a great day everyone!
Until later....Karen and Tripp
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