All The Kings' Horses

I worked with Baker on Friday this week.  I ended up spending about 51 minutes with him, which is definitely longer than I usually recommend working with a young baby, but most of that time was spent with him standing in the cross ties drying off while I did other little barn chores.  We started out with another bath.  This time I tied him straight to the tree with a quick release knot.  He has been so respectful about being tied (*knocks wood), and he was completely relaxed about bathing for most of his session last time, so I wasn't really worried about him doing anything this time either.  And he didn't let me down - he didn't even startle when I turned the hose on, and was pretty quiet for the majority of the bath.  This time, I even tried spraying his face.  I used the very lightest setting on the spray nozzle.  I think it's called the "mist" setting.  I pointed the sprayer way up high, over his head, so the water rained down on him. ...

So, I know it's been a while.  Partly, I have been super busy with all the extra care that Baker needs (as well as a few other sick and injured horses - when it rains it pours :/ ), and partly I didn't want to do anything too stressful with him too soon.  Baker has been doing phenomenally with his stall rest!  I have been turning him out in a stall sized pen on the grass, three times a day, for up to an hour or so each time.  He gets quite upset the longer he is in the pen, and hollers at me, or whoever, to come and take him back to his stall.  He is so relaxed in his stall, and under his fan.  It is definitely his happy place!  This will be very helpful when he goes to overnight competitions and has to stay in a stall.  Some horses that live outside 24/7, like all mine do, get very anxious and upset when they have to stay in a stall for a night or two at a show.  Horses don't like changes in their routine, and they don't like confinement, es...

I wasn't sure when I would be able to start working with Baker again, since his injury and surgery.  However, as I was thinking about it, I realized that I really am working with him every day, several times a day.  We aren't working on anything real specific, but the daily handling definitely counts as training.  I'm still not sure when I'll get back to what we were working on before his injury.  We definitely can't do trot sets anytime soon.  He has to have a month of stall rest, another month in a round pen, another month in a paddock, and then he can go back to "work" after that.  This type of recover usually applies to horses that are already working under saddle.  The only real "work" that Baker was doing before his accident was the trot sets, so I will hold off working on those again until he is cleared for more activity.  Meanwhile, I could still work with him on things like the clippers, however, I have been so busy with bringing him in ...