phew!

This week was busy busy and productive finally!

Some accomplishments:

Worked on trot transitions, got from leg on = toss head, swish tail, generall fussyness to leg on = walk faster/trot

I found out that our left lead is most certainly our preffered lead but the right is no where near impossible (takes about 3 tries on average) and that my horse is much more manageable when she's been out to do something at least 2 days consecutively prior. We started with barely being sane enough to listen for downward cues on the lunge, to being reluctant (but still capable) of trotting off in a timely manner when given the upward cue.

We had some serious bridling issues combined with serious tying issues. We were tied up at the trailer, which we've been tying to for as long as she's been with me, and I took out the saddle pad after grooming her and she decided that it was NOT allowed to touch her. She didn't even want to SMELL the thing. Got to the point where when I forced the issue and tried to approach her with the blanket she pulled back and ripped my lead rope. She ended up pulling back several times with different lead ropes and wouldn't stop unless I told her to. Then, I untied her and chased her around with the saddle pad. The second it actually came in contact with her it no longer was a terrifying monster. wtf? I could flop it all over her within seconds of her realization, over her head, ears, swing it under her belly, back legs, all without so much as a blink. I've not seen this kind of fear->no fear reaction so quickly before. There wasn't even a wuffing at it or anything...

Then we moved on to bridling. Putting the reins over the head was a big deal. I'm pretty sure that this has a lot to do with the headshy-ness she's developed since she got the hole in her head which by the way is almost almost almost totally healed. I tried to swing the reins over her head which triggered another blow up/pull back which we worked on. Then un-bridling that day we had another moment which I already talked about. All this has been worked out, bridling issues are a thing of the past! I love her cus she's just so darn smart! The saddle pad thing is still a small issue but I just plan ahead for it now by untying her until I can fully desensitize her. I curry her, go through the saddle pad freakout, brush her, go through the saddle pad freakout, and pick her feat, repeat and usually by the third time she just gives it an eye as it comes out from it's lair again... maybe she's not that smart?

Another issue has come to my attention. She's still not gaining the weight I'd like to see her gain. She's on as much feed as the other horses of the same size (but heavier) out in her pasture, but she may have lost some weight. I fed her two bales worth of extras as a lunch time deal over about a 1.25 month period along with two baggies of rice bran + flax + vitamins + MSM a day and she gained something, but it wasn't enough. I guess all I can do is wait til we move to our 24/7 grassy pasture supplemented with hay in the winter and she how she does on that. I was going to get her corn oil, then read about it and found out that it has lots of Omega-3's but almost no Omea-6's and if the balance is off it can cause inflammation to flare up. So that's a no. I don't know what other ways I can feasably get more calories into her. I've wormed her with ivermectin twice since she's been mine and I know that ivermectin doesn't do it all, but I don't know which ones of the other wormers should be the first to try. She's got plenty of appetite, and her teeth are good so I don't know what else it could be.

But I almost forgot! We jumped our first jump! Here's how it went:

Bijou: "uhhh, mom, there's something in the way"

Me: "its ok, right?"

Bijou: "ya, fine by me, just wanted to make sure you were ok with it, ok here goes *jump* wheeee that was FUN!!"

and we went around the other way, and then we walked over a ground pole covered in fluffy flowers from the flower boxes which wasn't really that scary, just enough to look at a little bit.

I'm so proud of my little trinket :D