Here's a boring (thank goodness) video of much of Angie's vet check yesterday. (I paid for a pre-purchase check in September, plus my vet did a quick check of her when she arrived - this was mainly a booster WNV visit.) You may remember that I got Angie around the first of December 2007, as a project horse. When she stares off, she's watching Sina in the stall beside of her, as Sina wanders in and out of that stall's adjoining paddock. Angie is a busybody, always concerned about what's going on, and I think her curiosity is what is making her turn around so easily. Note that Cary is holding Angie in his normal, lacsidasical way, on a loose lead - slipping her a cookie once or twice. Angie's teeth seemed pretty good, so she got marked for a dental re-check in six months. Maybe (no promises!) we'll be thinking about putting a bit in her mouth by then...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofq55ZxBd6o I think she's ready to go under saddle whenever we can get to it. We still have work to do with Runa, foals due within 2-6 weeks, and Svertla is in line to be started first - plus we're trying to get Sina and Skjoni back into shape, as well as the others. (And I have to work to support all these hungry mouths...where IS that lottery ticket?) I spent some casual one-on-one time with Angie for the first six weeks, during which she stayed in a smaller pasture with Runa and/or Ima for company. About a month ago, we put her in the big pasture with most of the herd. She came here noted as "hard to catch" and "very nervous", and she's still somewhat wary in the big pasture. I think the herd interaction is good for her at this point, to see how the other horses like to come to us and see what's up. I haven't made a point of trying to catch her in the big pasture though - I want her to get over the idea of being "caught" and instead, pick up the attitude of being "selected" - and I think it's coming. We can easily rub her and give her a cookie in the pasture now. That was more evolutionary than revolutionary, and sometimes I think that's best all around. When she came here, she'd jump/flinch/startle at any quick human move, and even with her lack of concentrated individual attention over the past few weeks, she didn't flinch even once yesterday. I was quite pleased with that. I was quite pleased with our rehabs/projects/rescues yesterday - all were very good indeed! I've said before that I think there are at least three kinds of confidence that a horse can have - herd confidence, human confidence, and "stuff" confidence. When Angie arrived, she had plenty of "stuff confidence" - she's not at all what I'd call a spooky horse, which surprised me since I was told she was "very nervous." And, we've seen that she has tons of herd confidence - she immediately integrated into the herd, rising to a leadership/strong-peer position almost immediately, even though a few others are probably basically still ahead of her overall. What I saw lacking initially was her "human confidence" and yesterday, I saw that too has had a huge boost since she got here. Karen Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED]
