Ground Work

Today the barn was busy- so we focused on ground work. When I came to the barn Drifter was in the turnout. She continues to walk the fence, but I think the flies are having a big impact on that. Later, I checked her udder and it looked like a blood bath under there. She has several dime sized bruises and bites on her inner thighs. She we did a quick udder wash and swab with pink bubble gum swat. I think I need to buy more Swat- but maybe the clear kind. I am also wondering if a fly sheet would be beneficial?

Our work today was to see if she ties- yep, she ties. I tied her in her stall with bailing twine and her leadrope. This was four feet away from her hay pile. She tested the tie, but stood quietly. good girl!

I am continuing to work on her feet. We are making good progress on the front- worked more on the left then the right, because she was standing along the wall on the right side. The hind legs also required more work! She continues to jerk her leg away when I hold onto it, but is better when I am just lifting and letting go! Her feet look pretty flat right now and it looks like her fronts could use some shaping, I don't think I will ask the farrier to touch the hinds for anther month.

We went for several walks around the farm on just the leadrope with no dressage whip for corrections. She is getting the whole- please don't walk on top of me! She is now walking on a loose lead and is stopping on voice command "whoa" for most transitions. She is also learning about the wonders of hand grazing. Yet, she remains polite when hand grazing and lifts her head when I cluck to walk on.

We also walked in the outdoor ring. She was very good and interested in what was in the ring. I figured that if I can step over a cross rail- so can she. So I walked her onlead over the first cross rail and she didn't lift her legs enough and crashed it. It crashed down behind her and towards her and she took a few fast steps away from it, but wasn't overly worried. We then walked over a red/black cross rail, then the yellow/black cross rail (which she needed to sniff, but followed right over). She was very good about this on lead hunter course, so I added the small panel gate and finished with the flower box. What a good pony! There's hope for her being a jumper someday.

I really love this mare and hope to be able to work out an arrangement to keep her despite my changing home status. I also can't wait to get on her.