Well after our lovely week of 50s and 60s (albiet most days with 50mph winds) we're back in the frigid temps. Thursday was 60, no wind and the sun was shining, it was gorgeous! Friday.. not so gorgeous. Winchill of -20 in the morning, -15 throughout the day and once again the wind was howling. We woke up to snow everywhere, it's so crazy here.
ANYway, enough about the flippin' weather. On our last nice day I spent 3 hours with Onyx scrubbing mudd off her belly and butt. I got her over to the wash rack and she walked right in. Backed her out and walked her back in a few times, then cross-tied her in there with a couple of lead ropes. And there she stood for a couple hours. Overall she was very good and pretty darn patient with me. She cow kicked at me a few times, but I tapped her and said "knock it off" and so she did. There were a couple times after that when she'd pick up a back foot... and then put it right back down. I keep saying it, but she really is a quick learner. I had brought a 5gal jug of hot water and had a couple buckets to mix in some colt. I used a "bug scrubber" sponge and got most of the mud off her belly. She and I were both about tired of the process by the time I got back towards her "girly parts" so I called it a day. I also got most of it off that side of her rump too.
That night Jeff came with me to give her dinner and he commented on how accepting she was of having her belly and butt rubbed. He was amazed that she was so comfortable with being touched. He said it was like "night and day" from before. He'd held her the first time I worked on her belly to snip some mudballs off and she'd kept bolting away from us. For a guy who doesn't know much about horses and had certainly never handled a rowdy one, he was a pretty good hand and wrangled her well. We were in the round pen and she'd bolt away, he'd give her some rope, but would just kinda go with her until he got her under control again. I'd told him to let go of the rope if he had to, but he never did. Good job, Jeff! Yeah, after 2+ hours in the wash rack with me all over her belly and rump, she's ok with contact there now.
She's had a couple of days off because of the crazy cold returning with a vengence. I've gone to feed her and I always hang out and rub on her, but hadn't done much work. Tonight I stripped out her stall and put in fresh shavings. Then I worked on petting her right behind the ears, that's not a favorite place of hers. I got her pretty calm with that by the time I quit for the night. Then I took a big step. I took her halter off. I can walk up to her in the stall and she's fine with me putting a rope over her neck and leading her with just that. Plus we've worked on putting another halter on over the one she had on, so I'm hopeful it'll be no big deal to get her caught and haltered tomorrow. She was acting like the halter bothered her and I didn't want to leave it on 24/7 any longer than I needed to. I'm pretty sure it was time for it to come off.
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