Hoovesies!!!

I realized the other day that I hadn't ridden in like three weeks because of the rain and snow, and I haven't been able to do much training with Starbuck either since the arena's been so soggy.  So I decided to take advantage of the crappy weather to do lots of bodywork with her, using the different techniques in my new Tellington Jones book.  I think that this is good for our relationship as she starts to see me as someone who can make her feel better, it's leading me to get to know her better, and above all rubbing on a warm fuzzy animal in her straw-lined stall is way more comfortable than running around the barnyard dodging puddles.

We've also been inadvertently working on leading since what we've done more than anything else is leading her to different fields and paddocks so she could at least stretch her legs and socialize with her horsey friends and wouldn't be so stir crazy when I could start working with her again.  So we've gone to the top of the barnyard, to the orange groves accross the street, to the field down the road, to the parking lot... you get the picture.  I've started carrying a short crop with me when we walk anywhere and I think both that and all this "practice" is making all the difference-- she's only run past me once in the past few days and today we led up and down the scary side of the arena several times without any problem!

The other change in our training is that I decided to start hand-feeding her treats every now and then, mainly when working on things like ground-tying and lowering her head, or after a particularly successful exercize.  I'm glad I spent time without using treats at first, but I think using them now may help motivate her and keep her more focused on me.  We'll see how it goes, if she gets pushy I'll have to re-think it.  But both yesterday and today she did really well and was much less bratty than she's been lately, it was really a pleasure to work with her and we learned something new-- trotting alongside me while I jog without getting ahead of me.

All the photos below are just because I'm so proud of how pretty her hooves are and want to make a record of it, so I can keep track of any changes.

Front hooves, side view:

Hind hooves, side view:

Front right hoof:

Left front hoof:

Right rear hoof:

Left rear hoof:

More Snow!

Forget Friday's post-- yesterday we woke up to a thick white blanket of snow covering Palma and yet more still coming down!  Worried that it would melt as the morning went on, I hurried to get dressed and drove (carefully) out to the stable only to find that it was snowing even harder there!  After helping Marina and Javi fix some fencing which had gone down with the weight of the snow, laying down a fresh layer of nice fluffy hay in Starbuck's shed and making sure she was warm and dry under her blanket, I took a bunch of photos.

In the end two of the other owners Virginia and Selina took their horses Coco and Monty out to the big vacant lot, but seeing as how even the grown up horses were freaking out and prancing around with the snow everywhere, I didn't want to have a battle of wills on wet, slippery terrain.  So Starbuck stayed in her paddock much to my dismay and envy when I saw how happy the others were running around in the snow... still, with her limpiness the other day and not being used to her plus-sized blanket and my clumsiness I think it was the right decision.  Anyhow here are some of the photos, you can check out the rest on Facebook (even if you don't have a FB account).

Anyone who thinks I might be overstating my clumsiness just take a look at this graceful stance...

Photo Friday: It snowed!

I promise!  I was at the stable at lunchtime as usual and it was raining pretty hard for Mallorca (that means more than 10 raindrops a minute) and was chilly-- I sure was glad to have put Starbuck's blanket on yesterday.    Anyhow I was topping off the straw in her stall so she'd have a nice soft warm bed tonight and giving her a little extra hay to keep her busy and all of a sudden my jacket started making noise.  Except it wasn't my jacket but the SNOW falling on it... little white juicy sleety flakes of it.

I grinned ear-to-ear (I always claim to hate snow but when it first starts falling I feel like a giddy kid) and called out to Starbuck to come out and play, but she just huddled further into her shed.  So I took a picture of her butt through the snow (which is of course completely invisible in the photo-- the snow I mean, not her butt) and then walked around to the front of her shed to take another one.  While I debated sending a text message to Marina who was on her lunch break to come out and play, it stopped snowing and started just raining again.  So it snowed for like a minute and a half, but hey, I was there to enjoy it with my baby girl!

Since I was pretty bored, I took some more photos of her and her roommate Meline, here goes.  Doesn't she look nice and toasty with her blankie? (thanks Virginia!!!)