4-2-00 Snow. That wet heavy stuff that leaves tons and tons of mud. <sigh> More pictures tomorrow, I promise!
4-6-00 If it's not one thing, it's another. Springer (my gelding) went out to pasture on the 1st and came in on the third with lacerations on his pastern, heels and through the corenet. <sigh>. I can't do much with Spirit until he's sound--I don't trust her to lead by herself, and he's my pony horse. Spirit has stocked up pretty bad behind from just standing in her stall...hopefully Springer will be up to 100% soon.
4-11-00 Today we moved Spirit from her pen (maybe 15x15) to a larger pen that's twice that. I was very, very nervous about just leading her to it, but Springer is still injured, and I couldn't pony her. Spirit did fabulous though!! She was nervous, but she stopped when I told her to, and she walked forward when I asked. What a good girl :-) However, the whole reason we moved her to the new pen is that my mother is ill, and I will not be able to work the horses for a little while. I post updates when there's something new.
4-20-00 Today was such a good day!! I haven't work Spirit in a round pen in *forever,* but today the weather was good enough, Springer was sound enough and I had enough time to pony her out. (She was great ponying, too, but that seems like such a non-event now <smile>) In the round pen, I started with a saddle pad on Spirit's back, practicing flopping it around, taking it on and off, and her trotting with it. Then I added a surcincle doing the same things--on and off, and buckling it one hole at a time, letting her walk, and taking it off in between. Spirit didn't think *anything* of the surcincle, even when it was snugged up tight. So, I decided to try a saddle. I brought it in the round pen and just left it in the middle so she could check it out first, then went up and put it on her back. No reaction. Did the put on-take off routine a few times, then reached down to fasten the cinch. No reaction. Wow!! After more of cinching up slowly, walking around and taking it off, I got the saddle cinched up tight. She walked both directions just fine, offered a few baby bucks trotting to the right the first time (kind of like, "I know I'm supposed to buck with this stuff on my back, but I really don't want to") and on the next trot circles she didn't buck at all. Just carried the saddle with stirrups flapping. What a good girl.
4-29-00 Today I couldn't work Spirit for very long--a huge thunderstorm rolled in! I groomed her, and then worked on her accepting me on her right side. She's really flaky about it. Usually me standing over there is okay, grooming is okay, but leading is not possible. So today she begain to learn to lead from the right :-) I finally got the latest set of pictures back. Couple really good ones of her right brand--I put the brand pictures on a separate page. Click here to see them.
5-1-00 Finally some more pics of Spirit!! You can really begin to see what color she's going to turn out--it's the darker shade on her shoulder and neck. She's still shedding white hairs off her topline. It's hard to capture in the pictures, but she is *so* shiny! When I saw her, I thought she was wet. Wow.
Hmmm...well. Apparently it must take an hour or something to upload pictures to geocities over a 56k modem line (I'm on ethernet up at school and it's so much faster!!). I'm tired of waiting, but if anyone would like to email me for Spirit pictures, I'll send them right along :-) Next week I'm heading back up to school, and I'll make sure to update Spirit's pages with pictures :-)
5-8-2000 Today we had quite a bit of rain, so I just worked with Spirit a little bit in her pen. I groomed her, and worked on her leading from the right. Her "bad" side is definalty the right--she's protective of it, and very reluctant to do anything from the side. She would lead a couple steps before freezing, and that's such an improvement. I was also able to pick up and clean her front feet!! Christa, who manages the barn and who has been taking care of my horses, has been working on Spirit accepting having her legs touched. It's certianly paid off...Spirit was still nervous about having her feet played with, but she didn't take off <big smiles>. I also bridled Spirit for the first time. I didn't think it would be a big deal, and I was right. She loves to have her mouth played with, and it was nothing for her to accept a bit. She mouthed it for about 15 minutes, and then picked it up in her mouth and just carried it. Looked at me with this "Okay, now what?" expression on her face. I let her hold it for maybe fifteen minutes, then took off the bridle. She wouldn't let go of the bit! I had to stick my thumb in her mouth to get her to let go. (Not that I'm complaining, mind you...) This week I really need to get her leading 100%. The dorms close at the end of the week, and I have no place to stay up here in Fort Collins. I live in Parker, 90 miles south, and am having an impossible time finding board there <sigh> If it's not one thing, it's another...
I finally got more pics of Spirit to upload. You can really see what color she's turning. I can't wait to give her a bath and thin that mane out!! I'm really looking forward to when she's got a dressage saddle on her back, braids in her mane and ready to go in the arena ;-)
