It's WARM! We Got Hay and PLAYED!

Today dawned bright and WARM! 80 degrees by lunch time. I LOVE it! I 'slept in' til 8:15 then got up for breakfast [mmmmm omlette!] and then went to feed Indy and Crystal down the street. When B got back from her feeding job we went on adventure to get hay. We were considering how many bales to get, 10 or 15 but then the lady said you can get a bundle of twenty one bales that is all tied together with metal tie straps. We opted for that since that much hay should keep us for the whole three months here!

It was loaded into Goliath with a fork lift and it even fit all the way in so I could close the tailgate! From there we went to the farm where Chance and Mo live to go play and get some metal snippers.

Mo was in an interesting mood today. I think she was still the tiniest bit right brain from moving and being with a new herd and things. She was responsive, but sluggish, both because she was warm and because she was distracted. She did come around eventually and we got some neat things done.

We played in the round pen and over some logs, practicing our liberty a bit. Change of direction was good, and draw was good to most of the time, though usually just at a walk. I can get trot draw online, but at liberty not so much! We are playing with it though. I got some carrots to cut up for incentive to have tomorrow.

After playing around with some liberty I stood on the pedestal and Mo sidepassed over so I jumped on and we played with some bridless around the cones I had set up in a square around the pedestal. That was fun. Really good focus task. We started by weaving around through them like we did online and then I started getting her to do circles around each one. Both at a walk and a trot. We cantered a little bit, doing canter halt transitions, and then Mo was really sweaty and warm so we just walked around. I attached a savvy string to her halter for one rein and then we went out over to where B and Chance were getting a log to put under the trailer tailgate so we can practice loading.

Mo and I just stood in some shade and waited, and then B mounted up and we went on a 'trail ride' around the fence line of the pasture to cool out. We had a following from the other horses in the pasture and that was fun, being able to protect our space without scaring our own horses. We found out that if B protects her space more, Chance wont be making ugly faces at Mo! That was pretty interesting.

Trail ride completed we called it a day and went home to find food. We need to be better prepared tomorrow and bring food and water with us!

:-)
S

New Day, New Friends

This, my first official day back in Florida started in an excellent manner - with bacon and pancakes. YEY. Todays mission, should we choose to accept it, and we did, was to move my ponies from their location at J's to their respective places for the next three months/9 days. Indy was moving down the street two houses to a pasture board and Mo was moving to another J' s about fifteen minutes away. Also, B's second horse needed to be moved to the pasture with Indy.

So, I walked Indy over to her new digs, she thought that was pretty cool. Mo actually surprised me and worried a little when I took Indy away. It was cute, and over in the 10 minutes between me leaving the house and B driving by with her horse in the trailer. Brief, but cute separation anxiety. Thankfully brief.

Putting Indy and Crystal together should have been fun. There should have been fireworks. I should have been able to get some really pretty and gorgeous awesome running and playing pictures because their pasture is beautiful! Camera at hand, we let them go... and what do they do? they sniff noses and GRAZE. Nothing exciting. Not a single squeal. Sheesh!

Those two taken care of went home to switch B's truck and trailer for Goliath and my trailer. We are leaving my trailer at the pasture because we can keep B's with Mo and Chance for slant load practice. Four ponies, two trailers, it works out perfect. After the trailer was unhitched we went back home to load Mo. Her first time in a slant load! She did really really well! I am really proud of her! Having never loaded a horse into a slant, B helped me figure it out, and Mo was a real trooper. She tries so hard!

When we got to the other J's Mo unloaded great, and then we took her into the roundpen to meet Chance over the fence. Neither did anything. No snortyness, no squeals. So we opened the gate and B brought Chance in and let him go... which turned into a liberty session because he had NO interest in attacking Mo at all! Which is really ironic since it was his prime objective on the beach! I let Mo go to, and we played at liberty a bit and then we tried to get some action out of them by sending them both out to the rail, but they both just ran together like "We have leaders, we dont need to squable with each other" IT WAS SO COOL!

Both horses are usually tackle-newbies types so it was really interesting that by being a leader and being present we could keep things under control - and it wasnt even an issue! B and I both jumped on for a quick bareback/bridless ride around the pen for a bit before taking Mo and Chance back to the rest of the herd. Mo had some fun with the herd, I protected her space for a bit then let her do her own bubble protecting.

She would sniff noses with the other horses, then turn to walk away and they would nsiff her bum so she would lift a leg and say clearly I AM GOING TO KICK YOU and then take a step backwards. She would do this three or four times beffore actually throwing a kick. It was hysterical! She would be high step marching backwards and the horse behind her would just be backing in his own line. And then she would kick. Slowly and deliberately. To cute! Left brain all the way!

Nothing major even happened with the rest of the herd either. I am glad but I still a little tiny bit dissapointed! I like first meeting running pictures. Some of the best stuff I have of Indy and Mo is from Indy's first day!

Everything is still awesome in Florida!

:-)
S