Saturday, January 17, 2009
Today we were able to celebrate our "heat wave" of 10 above... lol
I'm not complaining though, it can ALWAYS be worse! (like the neg 46 we had the other day)
I spent this break in the weather attempting to bring the round pen into the indoor arena.... HA! it JUST COULD NOT BE THIS EASY the powers that be must have been dancing around up there laughing hysterically at me today.
The roundpen panels were not only frozen TO the ground, the somehow ended up IN the ground! I tried shovel, a spade, then a jackhammer, that worked fairly well until i was able to get the panel LOOSE but then could not life the panel up to undo the pins that hold the panels together... we were at it for a good hour or so til my back was hurting!
so we took Sierra into the indoor arena and I attempted to work with her in there... yeah it worked for a while- at least until the herd realized that there was another horse in the indoor and they started banging on the windows and got her attention...
so THEN I had the great idea to open up the pens and herd her into the roundpen outside this way... It worked! HOWEVER, while working with her, she would have a mini meltdown and SLIP or SLIDE on the snow! after a while she started to calm down a bit and we were able to have a nice and decent workout. I was able to get about 2 ft away from her, she still does not want to be touched, but i was able to touch her in the booty as she passed me a few times.
I have been told to try to use a bamboo pole, but all of the spaces where i can work with her are too large to use this method- i even thought about using a long lunge whip, and even that i think is too short.
She did really well today, and I have a feeling that if I work her tomorrow and Monday like I did today, she will come around quickly and I'll be able to get that halter on her!
Now I KNOW why the trainers put the halters on their horses while they were in the chutes at pick up- I was not as fortunate to do this because I wasnt able to go! =(
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I wish I would have had the chance to put halters on too, we arrived at the pick up 15 minutes before it closed so there wasn't time. Ugh! I feel your pain!
ReplyDeleteThe pole would really help you. I'd suggest that as soon as you're able, get a few of those panels out of the round pen and make it smaller. How big is it? I've used a long rope before, too, and just tossed it on and off their back until they get used to that motion and feeling of something touching them. The stall is definitely too small, as it gives her no personal space. I like to work inside nothing smaller than 20x20, or larger than 24x24...or a circle roughly that size.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever want to bounce questions off me, just pop me an email!