A Resurgence of Heat

Yep, spoke too soon, summer wasn't quite ready to give its last gasp and quietly retire. After a deliciously cool tease of 50 degree mornings and daytime highs in the 80s, today's foothill forecast calls for 99 degrees. Oh yeah, and 99 is also the forecast high for tomorrow and the next day. I wore jeans down to town to run errands yesterday and was absolutely boiling--I got so excited for fall that I broke out some real clothing prematurely. Its back to tank top and shorts today, that's for sure.

I've delayed separating Desire and Sheza since I needed to de-worm everybody and didn't want to introduce too many stressful variants at once. Sheza is a little spooky since moving over to the new paddocks. I had to really talk to her and convince her to let me put her fly mask on in the paddock this morning, after she had been marching right up to me ready for it the last week or two before I moved her. Still, she allowed it and is coming along quite nicely. Last night she took her de-worming well, she was a little spooky about it around her face at first as she tends to be but I just rubbed it all over her face and neck and talked to her, then popped the sauce in her mouth, gave her a congratulatory rub and moved on to having her pick up her hooves right away. I figured rewarding her good  behavior at taking the de-wormer and then moving her brain right along to something else is better than making a big scene over the de-worming. I'd rather have her take things in stride and be ready for what's next than spend a lot of energy and fuss over any medicating/cleaning things she may take a disliking too. Of course I'm talking about moving on and challenging her mind as long as she is taking things well, otherwise I am ready and willing to put more time and patience into it. Since she took the actual de-wormer quietly and just sort of chewed at it without any fuss or drama I figured a word and a quick neck rub was reward in itself. She then picked up all four feet quietly. I am working on her letting me hold each of her hooves a little longer each time. I don't let her pull her foot away or be snotty but I'm trying not to get into a struggling match over it as again, I want things to remain calm and easily doable in the basic grooming/ground work phase. She is so smart and has such a stubborn streak that I feel like I should do things as smoothly and easily as possible without exciting her to a battle of wills. We've already had a few of those in her short life and I know she can hold her own long enough for it to not be worth doing if its avoidable. As an example, when she starts to pull a hoof away, I give her the "EH EH" no-no noise and don't let her do it, but as soon as I feel her stop and resign herself to holding it quietly, I mean the very moment AFTER I feel it her give in and stand nicely, I release the foot. See that's all I want, good job, we're done. So far this method seems to work with her. She has her mom's tendency to look at things with wide eyes like you are totally nuts to be bringing that hose/brush/fly mask toward her, but they both then give the object a hearty sniff and allow you to do whatever you were planning to. Its like they just have to make sure you SEE how dramatic and Arab-y they can be, if necessary. Lol. Girls, girls, girls. That extra spunk and attitude it quite entertaining to me and I am enjoying having it around again. That said I do love Blaze who comes out of his pasture to eat mash on command, then mosies back over and through his gate to go home again when I call him. No fuss, no drama. Love it. Having that variety of horses and attitudes all at once is pretty fun. I have the option of easy, medium, or spunky baby when wanting to have horse time. Or all of them at once for a big ole carrot session. My husband has been bringing home bulk bags of giant carrots reliably so there is rather a lot of spoiling going on.

Oh, Sheza's baby halter is officially too small! I just barely got it to the last hole last night when pulling her for de-worming. I think the mini's halter, which is much too big for him, should fit her at this point. For a while anyway! Wasn't it just the other day I was punching extra holes to make it go smaller to fit baby Sheza??

If the forecast does what it says its going to, Sunday should be a beautiful cooler day and is my new planned day for mom and baby separation. Of course I've set the day about four different times now but its good to be flexible, right? I just don't want Sheza having a fit about mom being moved and running around like a nutter when its 100 degrees out. Of course the horses all get buck wild when cool weather comes suddenly so Sunday will probably be quite a rodeo all the way around!