Spring is on It's Way...I Think?

Yesterday the weather was 60 F and today it is in the teens. We had a lot of fun yesterday, playing and frolicking, but this morning as the temperatures began to drop we prepared for an extra cold night. The low will be in the single digits.

In the warmth of the day I felt like a wild life photographer trying to capture pictures of a wild horse with out getting hit with a flying hoof. She was excited to play and really went all out, my favorite shot was a frontal of Velvet bucking, but it was a little blurry, since I was scrambling to stay out of her reach.

During the week I only see Velvet in the light of the barn and some subtle things go unnoticed, such as how much she has grown and the changes in her coat of many colors. She has been shedding all week and Saturday morning in the daylight I could really see how much she is changing. She is shedding out to a beautiful light roan, but in patches all over the place. Her face hairs are roaning a lot and over her back she has reached all light roan, except over her rump, which is also lightening up slowly. Her tail is almost all silver on the top and the rest is black. Luckily the new light roan hairs are still long, not as long as her baby hair, but will still protect her for tonight's cold weather. According to the forecast we will have 2 very chilly days and then another warm up. I hope the goats can stay warm during this short cold spell, goats just do not acclimate well to sudden drops temperature. I added 2 bales of straw to the barn over top of the wood pellets, so the goats could snuggle deep. I also have a heated water tub outside for all of the animals, but the wind today has been so cold I felt like my cheeks were freezing off. I have been carrying bucket after bucket of warm water to the barn so that everyone will get plenty of water without being frozen in mid step going to the tub. It is also a great way to monitor who is drinking and how much and from the amount of water I have been carrying today it seems that everyone is drinking well. I will carry one more bucket tonight and then throughout the night after the bucket freezes then they will have to venture out, but given it will only be about a 6 hour time span until I bring new warm water it is likely they will snuggle down and won't drink too much if at all during the night.

Last week I did my due diligence and researched at least 20 articles on different techniques for hoof lifting. Funny how some articles said one thing and others said something completely different and contradicting, which left me at a loss for why my Velvet was acting so strangely when I pick up her hooves. She is a very willing giver, but consistently slammed down her hoof as soon as I picked it up, she got very nervous in the backend and would raise her head and I could tell she was thinking of kicking out by the swishing of her tail. During grooming I brush and touch her legs and hooves all over and she is relaxed and falling asleep, but when I actually start lifting she becomes a nervous wreck. I did not have this problem with my colt 27 years ago, so I pondered on it for quite a while. We even had an episode where Velvet tried to walk away while I was holding her hoof, she almost fell to her knees, but I released the leg I was holding and she regained her balance. She started to lick and chew, but through research I have also found that there are various opinions on what the horse is doing. I agree with the one theory that says the horse may or may not have learned something, but she IS thinking over what just happened, good or bad. In Velvet's case I feel as though she realized that I would give back her foot if she was in danger, since many horses fear their leg will not be released when they need it, causing hoof lifting issues. Since that time, I have held Velvet's hooves longer and she relaxes a little. We still have a long way to go to be ready for the farrier, but now she is not threatening to walk away or kick out. She is big and gangley and I certainly can't blame her for feeling unbalanced and nervous on 3 legs.

Good Days and Not so Good Days

Lately, Velvet has seemed very bored. The goats are very limited in playing the way she wants and the ground has been snow covered. Velvet is chewing on anything she can chew on, window frames, doors, you name it! She is becoming quite bold also, trying to walk all over me and trying to play rough horse games. What do I do? Well, first I decided she is not getting enough training attention. So for starters I took her out on a long lead rope and started teaching her to lunge only for about five minutes walking and trotting, bucking and jumping...she was not used to giving to the halter at a long distance and I now have a sore elbow from hanging on when she exploded. Still it was a good thing. We went to the barn for grooming and more training. Velvet is very good at backing and she is pretty good at moving her hind quarters away from me when I ask her, she even side passed a step when I applied light pressure to both her hindquarters and also her shoulder. I am very proud of her! She is also very good at stepping toward me when I say "step forward" while using a "come here" hand motion. Sounds silly, but she will be in great shape if she goes deaf! By the way, my not deaf Dalmatian also responds very well to hand signals. "whoa" is still fantastic even from a distance, once she starts saddle training "whoa" combined with seat pressure will make her a fine stopper!

Hooves are another story. She still has reservations about holding them up after she picks them up, but I see her improvements. Her front far side is the main trouble here. She is good all the way around until I get to the right front leg that is when she wants to take a step into me, but we are working on that. She is also learning to "stand", which to me and her is standing quietly and not chewing or playing. I found that snapping my fingers on her near side at her chin immediately stops any chewing activity. Funny, though, this has not worked from the far side, so when I am on her far side I simply reach under her chin and snap my fingers on the near side and she stops and stands quietly. I found that she learns much better from a small gesture such as snapping my fingers far more than a small swat on the neck as a matter of fact she gets cranky. I feel much better this way. Man handling is not an option, nor do I believe in it. She is approaching 14 hands starting her 9th month and I am 5'3". I am NO match for her! We are also working on tying. I have found a unique way to tie her and if she would become frighted she could easily pull free. I place her lead rope over the bottom of the dutch door and place it near the hinge end. This way she gets some tension when she pulls back, but if she gets frightened I can easily release the rope.

Overall she is doing very well with the somewhat limited time I have been able to spend with her. She is a giant cutie!