Today we have some rather atrocious spring weather and for once there is absolutely nothing on my calendar. Time for a blog post!
We had some pretty nice weather for a while. Sunny, little to no mud, even some t-shirt weather!
John wants to make Scout and Juniper his packing pair, so he took them for a walk together. The dogs had to go too, of course.
I asked if I could take Juniper along to our lesson the other day, and my trainer's friends were super excited to meet her. Juniper had fun too, except for the trailer ride part. She is going to be an adventurous sort, as long as we don't break her of her curiosity. I just love her.
Halla got to try out some Sure Foot pads. She looks pretty disorganized on them here, but where she seemed to prefer to put herself was with her left front and right hind on the pads. She didn't have a huge obvious reaction to them but I think they did relax her.
At home, when I can, I just take her with me to do chores. Here she was snacking while I cleaned out the trailer.
Here she is trying on the Ez-Fit treeless saddle. I though I'd do something easy and ground drive her. Nope. That wasn't easy. Not for her. The lines were too much for her. Back to square one.
We started working on putting up some new permanent fence. Huckleberry was happy we were working by the pond. It was warm that day!
Liam found a lovely toad.
We both tried out the treeless on Sawyer. I love it. Liam didn't so much. He doesn't like anything at first though.
Sawyer took me in the pond so he could eat weeds. But don't ask him to cross a trickle of water! That's too scary. (We got over it.)
We ponied Halla a bit in the round pen. I think that will help a lot with her fear of things above her. She hated it at first, was very stiff and worried, but relaxed more and enjoyed some loving up against my leg.
And again my beautiful, wonderful, brilliant miss Juniper. She's taking to the pack saddle just fine. She even follows without being led (after a little bit of a snack). Don't worry, we were on my driveway, not near the road.
I'm planning two trips to mule and donkey shows at the beginning of June. I'm so excited! At first I toyed with the idea of taking Juniper to one of them, but there wouldn't be much time to prepare, and she wouldn't have a buddy, and I'm no showman. I haven't done showmanship since Tonka went to Mustang Days. I'd like to see how they dress, etc. before I jump in. I bet it's not as dressy as an AQHA show, for instance. And if I have to clip off all her whiskers, I'm not doing it.
4 comments:
Juniper is adorable. To be sure, all of your critters are. There's just something so interesting about mules and donkeys. Totally different sort of animal. I always like to hear what she's up to.
Oh, and please feel free to post pics from the donkey and mule shows. I saw a few saddle mule classes at the Los Angeles County fair a few years back. Some of those mules moved so smoothly. I can still remember how glossy they were, and how they glided around the arena. Very cool.
Some horses are better at hiding their anxiety. I have one: Beautiful Girl. She was so relaxed ponying on trails, doing obstacles, and even on her first rides, but then she’d blow, seemingly out of nowhere. Looking back, maybe she needed more buttons pushed, and an experienced, tougher trainer may have done that. I don’t know the answer. I do know though, that finding that anxiety on the ground is preferable to finding it when you’re up there on them. But then again, she doesn’t seem like BG to me—not in what you’ve told us so far. Halla seems to give you more warning.
I do hear a lot how smooth mules are to ride (although I rode a pretty bouncy one once) and I know donkeys are smooth! Totally different from a horse. If I lose 50 more pounds I might try riding Juniper. :)
I wonder, if you watched BG's lower lip for tension, or her breathing rhythm and depth, or looked to see if her tail was clamped or her neck was braced or back was hollowh or her eye was hard or unblinking, if she would have seemed less relaxed and maybe it wouldn't have seemed so out of nowhere. Usually there is a warning, we just don't see it or we ignore it. Except maybe in the case of asshole birds that explode out of the brush and spook me too. :)
I don't think that pushing them harder is the answer unless you can bring them back to calmness and comfort. They need to know you are their fearless leader and their calmness in the storm. I think some mustang mares have a hard time giving over their self preservation to us. We are, after all, not nearly as observant as they are. Then there are mares like Bella, who is confident enough for both of us. She is the herd boss, the mother/nurturer and although she is super, super sensitive, she rides without near as much trouble. But she still needs her feelings attended to. She is, after all, female.
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