Mustang Saga

Tonight while I trimmed Mack, Tonka got to stand tied and play around with the lead rope and tie post until he decided it was better just to nap and watch the cows. Then I quickly checked over his hooves and touched them up, and we went on to more fly spray training.

Normally I'd start with a bottle of water since I don't want to waste fly spray or put too much on them. He's such a quick study though, so I used the real thing. Same as before, I rubbed him with the bottle and then worked on spraying. He did really well on his left side, I didn't even have to untie him. We worked on the right for quite a while with him really tense and wanting to get away, so I untied him and let him move. He took about 3 steps sideways, stopped, so I stopped spraying. Next spray he took two steps, next spray he just twitched, then started eating grass and not minding much at all.


I'll leave you with a picture of Tonka checking out what was clearly a "horse grinder" at the show yesterday. He was quite afraid of it at first, but I explained that horse grinders don't function unless the horse actually steps into it, so he maintained a more relaxed vigilance.