All The Kings' Horses

Whew!  I am so exhausted, but I wanted to take some time to sit and write about what has been going on - for anyone who hasn't been following all the drama on Facebook.  And to catch everyone up on the whole story.  So, Wednesday morning started out like any other morning, until about 6:45am, when I got a text from Lois, who feeds the horses in the morning.  She said "I think something is up with Baker.  Rolling a lot. And Fiona gave him a little kick to the side a few minutes ago.  He's not acting right."  I immediately went out the back door, in my pajamas (I was already awake, but just doing morning paperwork, so I hadn't gotten dressed yet), to assess the situation.  I watched him for just a minute before I decided that it was definitely something serious.  She told me that Fiona had kicked him (she had a video of it, but it was too dark to see exactly where he got kicked), and that within 2 minutes of being kicked, he walked over to where she was at the gate,

It's been a pretty hectic week, so I have only worked with Baker once so far, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it.  I worked with him on Monday for about 27 minutes.  For those of you who are not from around here, it's been really hot and humid this week.  Most of the horses have been sweating just hanging out in their fields.  As I approached Baker's paddock on Monday, I noticed that he was no exception. Before But this actually presented me with a great opportunity to work on something new with him - bathing!  I am always trying to introduce new things to a horse in the most positive light possible.  I am also always on the lookout for opportunities that make learning something new even easier.  When would you be most receptive to feeling cool water on your body?  When you are already feeling pretty cool?  Or, when you are nasty with sweat and dirt and feeling pretty yucky?  Well, horses are no different.  So, as I took a look at his sweaty, di

I worked with Baker for about 27 minutes today.  I haltered him and led him to the tree.  He was a bit resistant to walk forward today, so it took quite a bit of tapping with the whip, quite often.  Eventually, we made it, and then I tied him, groomed him, picked his feet and flysprayed him.  I had a helper again today, so we worked on the clippers together.  Just like the last time, when I turned the clippers on, he was very curious and wanted to touch them with his muzzle.  He was very relaxed while I clipped all the short hairs on his muzzle again.  And he was also quite relaxed as I moved the clippers to the area of his jaw just beyond his muzzle.  That's the part I had worked on last time, for the first time, and he had been a little fussy about it.  During this session, he was perfectly fine with it.  So, I moved on to a little farther up his jaw.  I worked on the area underneath his jaw, in the middle.  He reacted much the same as he did last time when I worked on the newer

I worked with Baker for about 25 minutes today.  He came right up to me to be haltered, but then he was a little fussy, trying to push my hand, so I had to reprimand him not to touch me and to maintain a fair amount of space between us.  It is very important that you always insist that your horse (big or small, older or younger) ALWAYS maintain an appropriate distance from you and not enter your personal space.  It is especially important for a colt who has the potential to be a stallion.  The last thing you want is a 1500 pound stallion pushing you around because you have told him in the past that it's ok to be in your space.  When working with young horses, always ask yourself "is this something I would allow a larger horse to do?"  Anyway, after we established appropriate manners, I led him to the tree.  He was a little more resistant to lead at the walk today than he has been in the past.  I had to use more whip than I have had to recently, and I had to use it more of