Merry Christmas!

I looked at Willy last night, as I was frantically wrapping the last of our daughter's gifts.
"I've figured out why I've been at such a loss this year," I told him. "Why, when you or my mom ask me what I want for Christmas, all I can offer is a blank stare."
"Why?" he replied.
"Because for 30-some years I've wished for the same thing for Christmas. Dear Santa, I want a pony. I stopped asking out loud after I hit 13 or 14, and figured out it wasn't going to happen, but I never stopped wishing. And so now I have no idea what to wish for. Quite frankly? If I get up tomorrow morning and there isn't a single thing under the tree for me - I might feel a little forgotten, sure, but really, I don't think I'll mind much. I'll just head to the barn and give my big Christmas wish come true a big hug and a handful of carrots."

Yeah. My teeth hurt from the sweetness of it all. But really, it's so true. I spent my whole life nearly sick with wanting, and now, what do I want? Just some quiet; and enough time to just go moodle around at the barn every day for the next ten days.

I wish devoutly that all of your Christmas wishes may come true - and remember, sometimes you have to wish long and hard and also, you have to do the work to get there - and that you are surrounded by love and fellowship and peace and joy and, if it's your thing, eggnog. *grin*

Bored Colt

Now that our rainy season has begun, I'm looking for ways to keep Boo entertained while he's cooped up. Our arena stays closed for days at a time once the rains begin, and I'm really grateful that our barn has lots of good space for handwalking, as well as a quiet private road just out the gate that we can adventure on.
But during those in-between hours, a three-year-old Thoroughbred needs something to do with himself!

I've been experimenting with toys - both store-bought and homemade - for the past week or so, trying to find ways to keep the Boo-ster occupied. He's got an Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Ball (for those unfamiliar, it's a 10" ball of grain stuck together and hung on a rope) which he licks and bumps around, but he's not crazy for it. If it were a bunch of carrots, well, different story!

I've noticed that he's really mouthy- like he needs to chew or gum on things, and I wonder whether it's a stage of tooth development he's in. He's got a corner incisor about to come out and probably lots of other assorted dental changes going on. So I got a thick cotton lead rope that the snap had come off of, and tied it in a big complicated knot around part of his pipe corral, leaving an end for him to chew on.

This was a HUGE hit. Bonus points too - Pie, who is next door, also likes to play with it. They mess with the dangly end (there's about 8" hanging), and work on the knot, and Boo sometimes just squeezes the whole knot mass in his jaws. Definitely some teething happening - he looks just like my daughter did when she was cutting teeth!

The last thing I tried was milk jugs. These, it turns out, are SCARY! And EAT HORSES! So instead of having them around for toys, we'll use them for training and desensitizing, for the time being.

Anyone else have ideas for entertainment for the kids while they're idle this winter???

Lasting Lessons

I love that Boo is not only a quick learner, he has good retention. You might say to yourself, "well, all horses retain things well." Not so, my friends - I know a mare who reminds me of that Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, you practically have to start over each day. Three steps forward, two and a half back. But with Boo, it's forward progress, all the way.

Today we only had a teensy window of time (my lunch break from work) so I just stuck his halter on and we went out into the arena to lunge. We started to the left, his good direction. I'm working a lot more seriously on transitions and especially on focusing on what I'm telling him with my body language. I have a tendency to over-cue and to be sloppy with my upper body, so this practice was more for me than for him in ways. Walk, trot, walk, halt. Walk, trot, canter, trot, canter, trot, walk. Halt and switch directions.

About this time the feed truck showed up with the hay delivery. Boo never batted an eye.

We got started to the right without so much as a hitch - none of the backing up, jostling for position, or other confusion we had a bare week ago. Just a nice smooth step-out into a walk circle. (This is where I say thank you to Maraka for breaking our little mental block!) We did some more transitions to the right - our trouble spot now is the downward transition from trot to walk, where he sees an opportunity to instead halt and turn in. So rather than cue him with the line, I'm using my shoulder position and my voice to bring him down to a walk. One I got a smooth set of walk-trot-canter-trot-walk-halt, we quit.

We'll start working on less predictable transition patterns, but for now I'm proud that he's learning voice commands, staying focused on me even when there are interesting things going on (alfalfa delivery, horses cantering downhill in the turnouts, etc), and, best of all, enjoying his reward-scritchies at the end.

I mention the scritchies part because Boo, unlike a lot of horses, has been a hard case with this - he doesn't do the pooky lip or glazed eyes when you scratch him. I've tried just about every spot on his body without luck. But - BUT - it seems that he's suddenly decided to let his guard down, because today I got pooky lip, eyeroll, and head hug all within a minute of each other. We're into breakthrough mode as of last week and I love it!

One last thing - and this is huge, so huge. He had his feet trimmed yesterday. Last trim, he was off for almost two weeks from the loss of hoof wall height and the increased contact of his soles against the ground. Today? Sound as can be. Sound and solid and happy. My farrier is thrilled at what he's seeing - he even called me over to look at one of his soles and show me the changes, the new growth and turnover and parts that are exfoliating. What's happening is that Boo's going from having very VERY flat, thin, weak soles to having thick, normally cupped soles. We're three months in and already his feet look, I'd say, 85-90% normal when you pick them up.

Sooooo happy!