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Friday, March 5, 2010

Another day, a new member of our family

      Well it has been one week since we picked up our new horse, Sulphur's Anejo. She is an approximate ten month old zebra dun filly from the Sulphurs Spring HMA. She is underweight, scrawny, shaggy, wormy and in lack of the vital vitamins, minerals and MCAL in her diet, but we are going to change that. She has since been slowly introduced to alfalfa pellets, a high quality youth blend of concentrates, along with a vitamin and mineral suppliment and free choice loose mineral S.O.D. and hay. She has already begun slowly gaining weight.
     After getting her home, I had told my husband of my plans with her. I had chosen her, to become his horse. After watching Seth and I work with Cuervo, my hubby was completely in awe, with the relationship that one can build with a horse. So, he had asked me to help him understand horse phsycology. I knew that Cass would not be the best choice for him to learn with, as she is a mixture of Introvert/extrovert left brain, but very, very lazy, but very, very extroverted with people. One must really climb into her head, to figure out how to motivate her to do anything. And believe me, if she is not motivated, she throws a fit. Hubby doesnt need this right now. He needs the OBVIOUS body language of a wild horse. Cass ignores all body language and pushes through to get what SHE wants. IF SHE doesnt want to yield, she will change the subject by putting her head on his shoulder, and then he melts. SO, I figured, a yearling filly would be perfect to start with. One that every single move Todd makes will become obvious to him, by seeing Anejo's reaction to his move. Then, we will use Cass, for regaining his seat and have a quiet ride, where he will not have to worry about a horse bolting and running off with him. So together, the two horses will teach him. Both very opposite of each other, and he will learn how to deal with each type of horsenalities.
      So far, he has done wonderful with Anejo. The first night, he was able to touch and rub on her. The second night, he achieved putting a halter on her, and the third night, yielding hq, fq, and leading. Each night thereafter, he gained more ground with her, and today, the seventh day, we actually allowed her to go out into the pasture with Cass and Cuervo! Gentled where she comes up to us willingly, allows us to catch her, leads great, backs good off the lead, pivots both directions, stands for grooming, lifts her feet too. Tonite we will work on picking out her feet, lunging as well as clipping bridlepath.
     Anyhow, here are some photos I took over the past few days of Anejo, and the others after she was introduced to them.
Cuervo and Anejo bonding immediately. I suppose they both know that they are Sulphurs.
Anejo followed Cuervo around like a puppy dog!
poor little girl, needs some groceries
Anejo bonding with Cass now
I cant wait til the grass comes in on the pastures, such a muddy time of year
I had left the halters on everybody, in case I had to grab them quickly, if they picked on Anejo.
Cuervo being cute as usual
Seven days after adoption, so Anejo is still very skinny.
Our first two Spanish Sulphurs. We are hoping to add a few more mares and a stallion.
I sure regret gelding Cuervo.
She will fill out in time. I got her dewormed on day two, and she will gain weight slowly but surely