Always remember, plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change

It's important to be flexible, especially where horses are concerned.  It can mean the difference between training successes and failures, getting injured and staying safe while handling our horses, happy horses vs. stressed horses, happy horse handlers vs. stressed horse handlers ... I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Our weather has been very strange today--sunny for a bit, then dark and cloudy, then cold/windy with spits of rain--or even little ice balls (WHAAATTT??!!), then back to sunny and not so cold.  Welcome to upstate New York in mid May!  The horses are feeling frisky.  I'm thinking about whether to get my winter barn coat back out.  Nah--think positive!

I'll start off with a Rosie update:   Thankfully, she is my most frisky horse!!  It's great to see her running, bucking, and shaking her head at the dogs and Jerry because she spent most of last week standing around with her head hanging, depressed and painful after her vaccination reaction.  I'm VERY happy to report that today she is completely back to normal except for still having a knot on her neck.  It's small--probably an inch or so--and it doesn't seem as tender when I press on it as it was a couple of days ago.  She is taking her antibiotic pills like a pro.  I went from breaking them in half and just putting them in her grain, which she wised up to and started eating around, to dissolving them in a little bit of water and pouring it over her grain.  She munches it right down.  Three more days of this and she is back to normal tasting grain--hang in there Rose, we are almost there!

I had planned to put part of the harness on Rosie today for the first time, post a picture of her new feat, and write about it here.  I haltered Rosie, got the harness out and could see the weather had made her more spooky and tense than usual.  I started to proceed with my original plan of putting the saddle/girth/crupper on her ... but then I paused, listened to my gut (always listen to your gut!), and decided today wasn't the best day to introduce her to all of that.  Instead, I just placed the saddle on/off her back and rubbed it all over her body repeatedly.  I could tell by her reaction that was plenty for the circumstances.  She's usually Miss Cool about new things, but she flinched a few times, raised her head, and got a little buggy eyed with just doing this.  That told me she wasn't ready for more.  After messing with her and that part of the harness until she was comfortable with it, which really wasn't more than 5-10 minutes, I gave her a treat and called it a successful training experience--which it truly was. 

I believe I made the right decision to hold off on harnessing her.  There is no reason to rush--heck, she's not even two years old.  I'll choose a day when the weather is warm and she is calmer.  That might be some evening this week ... that might be in a month.  I'll let her guide me about when is the right time.  Always remember plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change.

I wrote in an earlier post (Equine Battle of the Bulge) that I was going to put a grazing muzzle on Rosie and Babe.  Well, my plan changed there too.  After a couple more grazing muzzle sessions with Rosie I decided it just wasn't worth the stress she was feeling while wearing it.  Her stress level increased the more times she wore it.  Rosie is a very sensitive, emotional horse.  The last time she wore the muzzle she was so upset that she was wild eyed, obviously frustrated, mean to Jerry while she was wearing it, and attacked her hay like she was starving the minute I took it off.  It took her over an hour to calm herself back down to normal.  That degree of stress response is not healthy for us; it's not healthy for horses either.  I thought about it and compared it to the times I've turned her out onto Pony Paddock Annex (PPA) for a short period of time not muzzled, called her back in, and then she just took a nap or hung out happy as a clam.  From that day, I decided the grazing muzzle just wasn't going to work for Rosie and I would just limit her grazing time instead. 

Since Pony Paddock (PP) has a little bit of grass (more like stubble--but mini's are so good at getting every last little stubble), Rosie and Jerry are already used to eating some grass.  Going out to PPA is not a huge shock to their systems.  I said before that I do like my horses getting some grass.  I decided to leave them on PPA for 1 to 1 1/2 hours per day max.  That's been working out well.  They graze for a while, and they come in when I call them with a rattle of the grain scoop.  They are calm and satisfied with that grazing time.  So far no noticeable weight gain or problems handling that much grass, but I'll adjust the time if needed.  Again, plans CAN (and maybe SHOULD) change.

Rosie says she's much happier and calmer not wearing her "starvation torture device":

 

 

Now Babe, on the other hand, doesn't get upset about wearing her grazing muzzle.  She's not pleased about it, but she's not upset or stressed.  She will continue to wear hers when she is out of her small "diet" pasture.  I can leave her in the bigger and grassier section of the pasture for a few hours and not worry.  She wanders around picking the tastiest grasses here and there.  It works for her.  Here she is grazing contentedly:

And, another picture of Babe an hour later still happily grazing with her muzzle:

 

Another, less important, plan change involves my manure cart.  I use a large yard cart for picking the manure out of PP.  In an attempt to keep things easy, I decided to leave it in Babe's pasture near PP (but not IN PP--Rosie's curiosity would wreck it and she'd probably hurt herself) covered with a tarp weighted down by bricks.  Well, that lasted one night.  This is what I came out to this morning:

 

 

 

I guess it doesn't want to be covered, you think??  So, I'll put it back in the shed, which is a little farther for me to pull it to PP when it's time to clean.  But it will work out OK.  Plans change, right?

 

Ever since Michaela worked her magic removing that big pile of old hay that was in PP, I just smile every time I look at it--I know I'm weird, but it doesn't take much to make me happy. 

 

Before:

 

And, after:

Now, doesn't that make you smile too?  :-) :-) :-)