Rooted to the spot

So I haven’t been able to do a lot with BG. It is too dark in the evenings, the mornings I just have time to do the basics and muck out, and P2 has remained in the shelter a lot of the time so I haven’t been able to put a head collar on BG. I don’t have time to win the battle in the morning, and at night it is just too dark. I feel a little bad for BG, but she is perfectly happy with the arrangement.

When P2 did start to be let out again I got BG in the shelter and she was perfect with the head collar first time, and since, with only a couple of minor blips where we have had to have several attempts. She believes she knows exactly what you want her to do and tries to help you all the time. The first time the shelter was free she went and stood in her ‘pen’ instead and looked at me as if to say ‘but you feed me in here now, I’m where I should be’.

The heat in her hooves seems to have died down a lot, it is hard to work her at the moment but my husband has done some in-hand with her in the morning’s whilst I am mucking out. Then I made the most of last weekend to spend an additional two hours up there on Saturday and an additional one on Sunday.

Sunday I did some in-hand work with her over the poles in the field. Saturday I gave her a thorough groom, her mane went a bit static-y and stuck out. Then I cleaned all the scabs off her off-fore and gave the area and clean before re-applying Sudocream over the top. The scabs did appear to be going but the ones at the top are still there.

I lunged her a little and then popped her in to put her rug on. This isn’t because she needs her rug on yet, as mentioned before hopefully I won’t put it on her at all this winter. It was 1.5 degrees when I went to give her her breakfast this morning but she is plenty warm enough in her winter coat, and if anything she still needs to loose a little fat. It was again an exercise to get her used to it, for when she does need it, even if that might be when she turns 25, at least if I start now she might be used to it in time.

The only other time she has had it on I just put it over her to check the size and didn’t do up any straps. This time I put it on her and wanted to do up all the straps and leave her in it a little so she could get used to the feel. Her neck tensed up as it went over her (slowly) and down the far side, and you could almost see her eyes roll back. She stood there patiently though, and didn’t flinch when I did the belly straps or even those between her hind-legs. We kept her in her shelter for this, so it was a controlled environment if she did get upset. With it all going so well (or so I thought), I went to get a feed bowl to put in the far corner of the shelter, so she would move in the rug to go and get it, and then get used to the feel as she put her neck up and down.

She went to move when I first put the bowl down, then felt the rug move on her back, her head went up, her eyes showed their whites and she remained rooted to the spot.

I left her to it and went to muck out the field. My husband stayed near her in case she were to get upset. In the time I mucked out the field she did not move. My husband tried coaxing her with the food, but every time she thought about moving the thought of the rug scared her. I felt really mean, she obviously wanted the food but was too scared. Eventually we just put the bowl in front of her and she built up enough courage to bend down and eat some of it, but even then she didn’t manage to finish it. I wonder if we will ever get her happy in a rug, I am inclined to think maybe not after that. At least she wasn’t shaking when the rug came off.