7-30-00 Found a barn and moved my guys today. Spirit was awesome--she loaded into Christa's two horse slant with Shaman. It's a smaller space than she's been hauled in before, and I wasn't sure if she'd do it--especially without a panic or two. She even unloaded great. We opened the back doors a little bit. She was scared and nervous. Then I asked for her head, and she gave it to me! We opened the doors slowly, she was snorting with buggy eyes, but she listened to me the whole time! Never panicked, never pulled back. Good girl :-) This new barn has a 6 stall barn, and ~5 acres of pasture. My guys plus and arab or two that I haven't met yet (they're at an endurance race) are on the pasture. The horses in the barn go out on the pasture during the day. I think this will be a _great_ transition for Spirit to learn what it's like to be out with more horses. When I take her back up to Fort Collins, I want to put her out on the 80+ acres pasture with ~30 horses. This barn is also a good place to get her used to other people handling her. The owner really likes Spirit, and Spirit likes her. I need to get her ready to go be bred in spring 2001, which means she's got to have _solid_ ground manners by then, with _anyone_, not just me. <sigh> There's always more to do.
7-31-00 Today Spirit got introduced to the barn owner, Carol. Sprit did very well, never snorting or really bugging her eyes. It was no big deal. Carol led her around, and asked for her to come. I also worked Spirit in a bridle today--we just lead around and trotted in hand. Nothing hard.
8-4-00 This has just been the week from hell for me--I haven't been out to see my guys since the 31st. But I did get more pictures back from the photo place. I have a bunch of good ones from this latest roll, but I just put up four to keep loading time from getting rediculous. If you'd like to see more of Ms. Spirit email me and let me know. I can always put up more on a seperate page.
8-8-00 Worked a bit more on hind feet today. I had to use the rope trick a couple times before Spirit would let me pick up and hold the left hind. I also played with her front feet, moving them around and pulling them out in front of her. For the first time, Spirit let me take both front feet all the way out! (Think shoulder stretches or like when the farrier pulls the foot out in front and puts it on the stand) I had worked on this awhile ago, and never quite got the feet all the way out. Interesting that with a break, she relaxes and lets me.
8-9-00 Got some sheets I had ordered in the mail today. I bought one for each of my ponies. Ms. Spirit was a little freaked out by it when I first pulled it out of the bag--it was really windy. I drapped it across the rail of the round pen and longed her by it a few times in both directions. Once she was comfortable with that, I scrunched it up as small as I could and rubbed it all over her until she was comfortable. After that, I was able to put it on her. It only took five or 10 minutes to let her know the flapping thing I was holding was _not_ going to kill her ;-) Once I got it on, she was just fine with it. She walked and trotted without incedent. I left the round pen to go get my camera (pics soon) and was a bit surprised when I returned and she was in the exact same place I left her in. She did _not_ want to move with this weird thing on her body. She did walk up to me when I asked her to, and followed me when I requested it, but wouldn't move if I didn't tell her to. Interesting. So I left a couple handfuls of hay in a bucket in the middle of the pen and waited. Maybe 20 minutes later, Spirit finally relaxed enough to move 15 feet and go eat the hay. Taking off the sheet was no big deal.
8-12-00 Wormed Spirit today. This is the first time I've wormed her--I put her on Strongid-C when I first got her, and Ed wormed her when she was knocked out for her teeth float. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but certianly not what I got. She didn't fight _at all_. She let me stick my thumb, then the wormer syringe in her mouth. She didn't move when I depressed the plunger and squirted the paste in her mouth. And she swallowed all of it without even thinking about spitting it out. I consider Springer very easy to worm, but he does want to pull his head up when I squirt the stuff into his mouth, and I have to hold up his head otherwise he'll spit it out. I've never wormed a horse that behaves like Spirit--it kind of makes me think she's never been wormed before...
8-13-00 Today I took Spirit for a walk out of the pasture and around the new barn. It's a small place without the buildings, dogs and other "spooky" things of the barn I just moved out of. She did absolutly wonderful, with a little huffing and puffing the first few steps out of the gate, but no other tension. She even stood quietly while Shaman raced back and forth acting like an idiot in the pasture. I'm going to have to figure out what to do with that little one--I don't want a severely herd bound three year old <sigh> I fly sprayed Spirit while she was out of the pasture and she stood perfectly still <grin> Good girl :-)
