Toasty warm!

We seem to do most of our work in the dark since it gets dark so early.

Today I was finally able to pick up a blanket. I ended up getting one with just a bit of insulation to keep some heat in so he doesn't have to burn calories staying warm and can put them to putting some meat on his ribs. It will be interesting to see what size blanket he wears when he's all grown up. Right now, the blanket I got was a size 68.

With the snow that is falling feeling wetter than the past snows, and with the nasty winds we had last night, I really wanted to get this blanket on him. So we started off with some review of moving his hindquarters over from a tap on the hip. After we did it a couple times tonight, he'd step over when I tapped the air above his hip. He steps across with his hind leg better when I am on his right than on his left. On his right side, he'll step across in the back and turn to face me, on the left, he sort of steps over and goes in a few circles and then stops. But he's getting there.

So that went pretty well, and I didn't want to overdo it, so I went and got the blanket out of the bag it was in. I wish the snow wasn't getting packed so slick in his pen! We did many more laps of the pen than we have previously....

I almost had it on him, it was opened up over his back until he turned his head to the right and looked at it, then he decided it was going to eat him and he trotted off, of course the blanket fell off. Dumb me for trying to put it on without showing it to him on both sides just because he was standing still. Took awhile for me to be able to touch him with it again, but he finally stood still and let me gently touch him with it, just kept touching him with it and taking it off and inching it closer to the top of his back. Let it get bigger and just kept up the sorta rhythmical brushing it against him until I could sort of set/toss it on the top of his back. And ta-da, we got in on, straps all done up, even the leg straps, he didn't mind at all when I touched his back legs to do the straps.


Hard to see in the picture because it was dark, but he's wearing his new blanket! I took the picture from the gate and he didn't even lift his head when the flash went off. The alfalfa was much more interesting.

I think the real test is going to be when I take it off and try and put it back on again....