Thursday, December 18, 2008

Pretty as a picture

Unfortunately the snow did not melt overnight. No, it had to keep snowing and we now have over a foot of the darn stuff. At this point I am just dreading the mess it will make when it finally decides to melt.

I drug my mom out in the snow today so she could snap some pictures for me, I ran out of room in my pockets to bring my camera out with me.

He has a tendency to swing his rump towards me when I try and approach him before I have a hold of his dragline. I am thinking to send him forward (need to get that gate up so he doesn't just go inside the shelter) for a couple laps and then step back, ask him to stop, and see if I can get him to face me instead of his tail facing me. He doesn't seem to do it in a threatening way, more an insecure I'm not sure if I really want you to catch me way. At least, that is how it has seemed so far.

So was trying to get him to move his hindquarters away from me by rhythmically tapping his hip with the end of the stick. Got him to step over a couple times, figure we'll keep working on this. Still working on the whole leading idea, thought if I could get his feet moving we could turn that into leading.



The brush I stuffed in my pocket today was the mane & tail brush again. The snow had his coat too damp to brush so I brushed his mane and forelock and then mom snapped some pictures :)

4 comments:

Tracey said...

Tell mom great pics!

Good job, pushing his butt away. I'll tell ya, though...mustangs have itchy butts! Keep rubbing back there with the stick to see if he'll kick out, but I think that I've made friends with a lot of horses by scratching their hineys. Make it your idea to be back there, but obviously use common sense and be safe about it :)

froglander said...

Lol, when I went out to clean his stall and feed him this morning, got the normal swing of the rump towards me so I just kept an eye on him and reached out and started scratching. He just stood there so I just kept rubbing and scratching all over. Never grabbed the dragline, just let him stand there.

gtyyup said...

I love that last pic...your smile is lighting up the whole neighborhood!! Coyote is such a cute guy.

Careful on the butt swinging thing. I agree with your idea of pushing him forward when he does that and then backing up to ask him to face up. Mustangs are such smart lil' guys...once they figure out how to avoid you they'll keep at it.

Having him comfortable with you back there scratching is a great thing too.

Just watch his body language and the first sign of aggression with the back end is when you'll need to make that an uncomfortable decision on his part.

FROG SENIOR said...

Words cannot describe my felings on how I feel seeing these pictures, Jonny and I were tearful seeing the joy in your face and how relaxed CB looked. I am sooo proud of you, keep up the good work and thanks to all your friends for the kind comments and practical suggestions to aid you with your 'list'. A special thanks to Traci for all her assistance in getting CB to his new home, and Katy for her keen sense of humor. A special holiday wish to all!!!