Sunday, April 1, 2012

Spring, sloppy, wet, Spring...

The south paddock got too soppy, so we had to move the girls to the north paddock...chest deep in wheat and barley grasses... Yeah. They hated that. The north paddock isn't great for 2 horses, but...it was better than where they were at the time. A few weeks later, it's so sloggy wet up there, I'm sure they both have a bit of thrush setting in.

Shasta has been a problem...she is such a playful, inquisitive creature! She finds her way out of the paddocks if it's at all possible and she's bored. 3 escape episodes later...we got them out of there. They spent the majority of today being passive lawn maintenance...a little trimming, a little fertilizing... I wasn't comfortable leaving them there for the night though. Shasta didn't appreciate Jasmine running through, and struck out at her with a foreleg. I don't think it meant much other than Shasta wasn't comfortable with her surroundings yet, and there was boundless-energy Jasmine...bouncing right in front of her. Silly dog. She grabbed a healthy dose of respect in a hurry though!

A little grooming... A little attention... A little wormer... I can't say that went totally smoothly. I dipped both applicators in molasses, and Shasta took hers fairly well. No big fuss. Willow? Yeah. Right. The last time we did this, it was a bit of a battle, but we got it in her. This time, I thought the molasses would help...and it almost did. She felt that applicator in her mouth and threw her head right up! Okay, she also got as close to bringing her front feet off the ground as she could without doing so... So much for doing things the easy way. I ended up putting a rope on her and over her nose...and still it was a battle. Bruce stepped in to help, and she lifted us both up. Oi. Then...Bruce was tickling her lip and she acted like she had a twitch on her nose...in that wormer went, quick as lightning! Can you say TEAMWORK! *Ü*

The girls are back in the south paddock for tonight. If the weather holds, I'll move them back to the front yard when we get back from Chico. They knocked it down a lot, but they aren't anywhere near finished in there. It will also give their usual paddock a chance to keep catching up and growing.

One thing we both noticed today was the ease involved with catching, haltering and having the horses on lead. They both remember their manners and Willow is really getting much better about being pushy on lead. They both behave much better in Parelli halters than in standard woven halters. After we got them back in the south paddock, I played with them for awhile...rope on, rope off. Caught you....caught you not... I really want this flight thing to die down in Shasta. She's getting better but she's still so nervous about so many things. She had a cute way of telling me she was finished having her mane combed out...she ran off and tossed her head! Silly girls...gotta love them!