Thursday Feb 12, 2009

I decided to work with Kahlua since she’s had a few days off. She will face up to you and walk up to you when you put your hand out, but she doesn’t want you on either side of her. After a few minutes of moving her around, I was able to put a drag line on her so I could continue having her give to pressure. I would scratch and pet her face and head and start working my way onto her neck and shoulder/withers. She would only let me get so far before she moved off. She became calmer and calmer when she moved away and didn’t move as quickly or as far away. Though I still can’t get past her withers, she has made a definite improvement in her reaction.
I played with a squirt bottle full of water – spraying her on her face, neck, body and legs. The only part she doesn’t seem to care for is her back legs. She has a funny way of picking up her back legs to avoid the water stream. You can see the pictures with her opening her lips for the water. We had fun with that. Now, she’s ready for the fly spray!!
After she went thru the boards on the round pen a few days ago, I dug a big splinter out of her neck and didn’t see any other areas of injury. However, her right hind leg at the hock became swollen. Though she was limping, she was still putting weight on it and standing on it fine. The day after the swelling, it burst open and there was discharge. I decided we needed to check and make sure the splinter still wasn’t lodged in her leg. Ashley and I needed to get her into the squeeze chute so I could examine her leg closely without getting hurt. Since the chute is in a different area than her pen, it took us several minutes to get her into that area and get her closed in. After a few tense moments and a shot of Ace, I was able to use the squirt bottle with water to clean the area and check for a splinter. Good news….it’s out!! So I swabbed the wound with an antibacterial ointment. The wound looks clean and it looks like it’s already healing. Then back to her pen and work with her for a few more minutes touching down her neck and withers and we call it a day with her.
As for Tequila – she’s a real trooper. Ashley was able to halter her pretty quickly. Tequila is funny, she will stand still and not run for a lot of things, but she will flinch a lot. She’s a brave girl and stood for saddling and the tarp. However, once she moves off with the saddle on, it’s a real bronc show out there. She doesn’t like the feel of the saddle on her back while she’s in motion. But after a few minutes she gets into the routine. Ashley was working on bending, but I’m not sure if Tequila quite understands the concept of it yet.
Ashley picked up her front feet pretty much by just tapping on her legs. She was a good girl with that. Let’s see what Friday brings when the farrier comes out to trim!!
He’s a favorite of many mustang owners because he doesn’t try to “cowboy” them and listens to how the owners want them handled. One of the things you really want your horse to be calm about is farrier visit. David knows that his attitude and way of handling them will benefit not only himself, but the horse.