This weekend has been super busy for me. We just completed disking, harrowing, fertilizing and seeding one of our big fields. If all goes according to plan, we will have very high quality hay to harvest next year in that field.
It was a hot dry weekend and dust was flying everywhere. I spent countless hours outside (I think I averaged 13 hours per day out of the house) and got one big sunburn. You can put sunscreen all you want but with the sweat, dust and elongated periods spent in the harsh sun, it wears off... and being that I never returned home, I never reapplied. I'm surprised the dust coat that was on me didn't prevent sunburns!!! Anyways, we're done with that field! I'm so happy!
I've managed to squeeze a trail ride (probably under 1 hour) on Sunday late afternoon. I will post that story tommorow!
Sunday around noon, we undertook our second training session with Misty. This time, I've completely isolated her from the other horses, she couldn't see them at all, but could hear them and probably smell them, which caused a bit of a problem at some point. She did great. I have taken her halter off permanently since I have no problem getting close to her at all and it was causing chaffing on her face. I was a bit nervous about putting her halter on, but she proved me dead wrong by standing very quietly, even when I was having trouble getting the darn thing over her head. We hooked a lead rope on and started.
At first, she wasn't sure what was up, but you could tell that she remembered her first lesson. She reared once without nearly as much strenght as her first session and bolted about 5 times before she understood that we had control of her head and that she couldn't get away. Then she started to comply and give to pressure. She is VERY light, practically no pressure is needed at all. I had to get after her twice, once for an attempt to bite my arm (the arm that was leading her) and the second because she crowed me. The rest of the way, there was no need at all for correction. She lead circles, turned both sides, stopped when I stopped and never attempted to bolt again. Once she had a clue about leading, I proceeded to touch her, she is not fond of touching but I managed to touch her neck, withers, back, the upper front legs and a bit of the croup as well as lower on her sides. She moved away twice but I kept with her and she realized that I wasn't there to hurt her.
She is super friendly and loves to have her face petted, but not her body. I believe that the people who had her before only petted her face from over a fence, because she is much more relaxed from accross a fence and tenses up a bit when it isn't between us. Other than that, she comes to meet us, likes attention and is very willing to learn new things. She is getting to be more comfortable around us and she should be very easy to train. Next session is revisiting leading correctly and maybe getting to touch and pick up her front feet, but it will take patience and time. For now, she is not totally comfy with me touching her above the knee, so we'll take as much time as it takes to get there. With enough practice, she'll get used to it and it won't bother her as much once she knows that I will always give her foot back. Plus, I can't wait to trim those nasty hooves! I might be over-dramatic, but it really gets on my nerves to see a horse with long hooves, especially mine!!! I can't stand it! Fortunately, we are not riding her and working her hard, so length can do for now... if she was trained to pick up her feet those would've been done a long time ago!
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