This morning saw another attempt at catching little miss Sheza filly. It was a cooler morning and today is only forecast to get to 88 so it was as good a time as any. Sheza decided to play catch-me-not yet again so I had to recruit the husband to help tire her out and make me and the halter area the quiet happy place again. It only took us 20 minutes this time instead of 2 hours so I guess that's an improvement. I really can't wait til she gets back to stuffing her head in the halter like her mom always does. Desire is a horse who truly sticks her head INTO the halter and says "take me with you!" Even Blaze is more like okay, yeah, catch me, whatever. And if he is out in pasture with one or more horses he will absolutely run to the far end of the field like a punk. His herd stallion tendencies come out in that situation which is why I prefer to keep him next to but separated from the other horses.
Anyhow I finally caught Sheza and had to pull stickers out of all her legs because she dashes around through the remaining thistles in the field like a nutcase during the haltering extravaganzas and ends up looking like a porcupine so I always clean her legs and cold hose them afterwards. Desire wore my flex panel saddle and her beta breastcollar and bridle today for the first time (I had been riding her in my western saddle because she is still so plump) and I put the new mohair girth on her as well. She looks downright dandy in the fully endurance set up, despite her momma belly. After some quick lunging and ponying practice in the arena I decided to head out on the road through the neighborhood for the first time. I have been holding off doing it because I didn't feel it was safe or wise to head out my first time alone but I just don't have anyone to help me and waiting around for my husband to decided to want to ride/help is rather a losing enterprise. I have been riding the mare and ponying the filly enough that I was as comfortable with it as I was going to get and I am also sick of ponying the filly around the arena and want to expand her horizons so I decided to just go for it. Sheza did quite well, she walked/trotted alongside us and was very interested in all the new sights. She does a little dance/spazz whenever car goes by but its not unmanageable from the saddle and I'm sure she will get over it with more exposure. Unfortunately Desire was slightly off in her front right so I didn't go very far at all but at least I took that first step out the gate and I can't wait to do it again. I dug a rock out of Desire's hoof that was well wedged in there and I think that's why she was slightly sore on that hoof on the gravel road. I will be keeping an eye on that but I'm fairly certain it was just the rock. We were only out in the neighborhood for maybe 10 minutes, got passed by four cars and made it home again safely so it was a good start for all involved I think. Once Desire is comfortable on that hoof again (hopefully like..tomorrow?!) we will start adventuring farther.
I am working on giving Sheza baths with the hose and she is slowly getting accustomed to it. She's so funny because her first reaction to thing is white-of-her-eyes "terror" but after about 10 seconds she just gives in and is over it. This happened again today with the hose: I hose off Desire (who has hose-fear in her family line according to her previous owners and tolerates baths but is always suspicious of said hose) and then move to the baby, starting by just spraying the ground in front of her to let her see and hear it. She snorts and tries to move away, then quiets. I start spraying her hooves and lower legs and she prancey dances and snorts and acts like she's melting, then quiets. I started moving up to her chest and she has a total filly tantrum like I'm trying to kill her for about 20 seconds, then heaves a sigh and stands quietly as I hose the rest of her body off. LOL. The drama, the drama! I had to find her discarded fly mask in the field this morning and pull about a hundred stickers out of the fuzzy parts and then stuck it back on her after her bath, gave everybody carrots and turned them back out. Whenever I put Desire and Sheza away Sheza goes to the milk bar like she just crossed a desert and has never seen anything so beautiful. She absolutely guzzles the milk and usually has it pouring on the ground and down her chin. Our 14 foot tall corn is now ripe and super delicious and they both enjoyed eating the husks off an ear I pulled; Sheza still has little teeth so she was eating the corn off the ear sideways like a person does, it was hilarious.
So another mostly successful filly session in the books. I can't wait til the day I sit down at the computer and type "Today I walked up to Sheza and haltered her with no issue." LOL!
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