It didn't start out so bad. I played with him in the pasture, scratched and loved on him. Then, my dad came in through the gate and left it unlatched. While we were chatting, Chico walked up and shoved it open, waltzing out into the yard to graze. I wasn't in a big hurry to catch him, since I figured he wasn't going anywhere, when suddenly, Cody appeared out of nowhere and shoved her way through the already open gate, too. Then I went and got a halter and lead and approached Cody. She trotted away, but I trotted alongside her and she stopped, like a good girl...she knows she's supposed to stop and face me. I put her back in the pasture, then went to go catch Chico. He trotted away from me and dropped his head to graze in a different location. I followed, and he appeared to wait. I was about to slip the rope around his neck, when he slowly turned away and started to walk off. It's kind of an instinct for me to pop him with the rope on the butt if he presents it to me when I'm trying to catch him. This of course works great when he's in an enclosed space...I chase him around for a while, and he realizes he was naughty and stops and faces up. Well, being that we were outside the pasture, I probably shouldn't have done that. He took off for the back hay field (borders their pasture). By the time I caught back up to him, he was still thinking that he was having way too much fun out there by himself eating the lush green grass and then took off back for the barn area. Once he got there, he circled once, then decided to take off around the pasture going the other direction. Well, this took him onto the road (thankfully a little not busy country road), and around to our neighbor's freshly mowed lawn. My Dad went after him in the Rhino, and Chico came running back (cantering up the road), and into the barn area again. I had him cornered and was trying to engage him and get him to stop, but he just decided to keep dodging me, and then took off down the road to the neighbor's property again. That's where I finally caught up to him (with a bucket of oats as a bribe) and was able to halter him (I didn't give him any oats though). I led him home and let him stand tied for a while. No harm done except for a few divots in the neighbor's lawn, but they were minor. The little turd had company this whole time too...Cody and Catlow were whinnying for him and galloping along the fence line to keep near him. I know I shouldn't have done something so aggressive as pop him when he was avoiding me, but I obviously wasn't really thinking. I was just reacting to him turning away from me and completely disrespecting me. I think I may need to take him to the neighbor's arena now and do a catching lesson so that he will still face up even when I have to put pressure on him.
In better news, I trimmed Catlow's back feet today while she was tied to the hitching post (facing the pasture this time) and she was a perfect angel. Either tying her the other way was key, or she was just more comfortable today.
And now, it is time for a mystery photo. I took this today, so obviously I know what it is...but I wanted to see if there was anyone out there who could ID this from such an abstract photo. It was taken in the barnyard area. That's the only clue. Give me your best guess.
8 comments:
Oh boy, I can relate to your catching Chico issue. My horse pulls the same thing in the pasture, last summer we spent up to two hours playing catch me if you can. I understand why you popped Chico, that is what I do to my horse too, in the pasture. If he got loose, I'd probably just leave his gate open and feed him his grain in the pasture, I have a feeling he'd go back in for that. He wears a breakaway halter right now too, until I can get him past this catching issue!
No idea what the mystery photo is....I'll keep looking and thinking and let you know if I figure it out! ;)
Yeah I know how you felt when you popped him. I squirted Wildairo with some water today when I was filling his water trough. He took it like a man.
My childhood horse was just like that, Pony Girl. He was a POA that really hated to be caught. I used to sneak around the backside of the barn to try to shut the gate to the corral surrounding the barn so that he couldn't run out in the pasture. In the corral, I could walk up to him easily because he knew he was caught. In the pasture, once it took me over 2 hours to catch him. I was so mad that time that if someone has said they'd take him off my hands, I'd have PAID them to take him! But as soon as he stopped and finally let me catch him, I loved him again! Yeah, it because a quiet race for me to make it around the barn and slam the gate shut before he could squirt out. Now that I have more experience, I think I might have been able to work with him a little more with it, but that is just ingrained insome horses. He was always that hard to catch, and I got him when he was around 15 years old. He was used as a gaming pony in his younger years, so I think he was soured to being worked hard. I guess the last few years before he died, I didn't ride him anymore and we only caught him to feed him his mush, so then we was much more interested in being caught.
It made me laugh when I saw your title after reading Arlene's blog. Tonka and Scout had a mildly horrid day yesterday too! Must be springtime (and in my case not messing with the horses enough).
Your picture looks like something growing on to of the water in a trough. But what grows in such a perfect pretty little square form?
I need to know what that glob is. Do we need to quarantine your place? Is it something from outer space? lol. I read a lot of Stephen King, so I'm ready for anything.
Okay, another hint...
See the reddish pinkish color behind the squares? That's a color that you all should recognize, and the things growing in perfect squares is actually the biggest key (although maybe not everyone will recognize it since usually when we see these squares, they are much much smaller)
That's my nightmare scenario--and we live by a very busy Highway. I have a friend who lost two horses--they ran right out on the highway and both horses got hit and were put down on the spot. Soooo...as a consequence, I haven't released Beautiful Girl yet. I'm chicken.
Linda - That's terrible about your friend's horses. I can see your worry. After you show her the pasture boundaries, I would turn her out with just one horse for the first time...your oldest calmest horse who can show her the ropes around the pasture. Then probably eventually introduce all the horses in one at a time so that there is less running around when Beautiful is not familiar with the fence line. Does she know what an electic fence is?
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