Tuesday August 9, 2011

This afternoon I brought my two fillies in along with another red roan filly. Sweetie wanted to play silly games again before she allowed me to catch and halter her. I made her do a few laps and reversals so may be she will associate not letting me catch her with having to do a little extra work. The funny thing is once she is haltered, I can walk away from her and then come back and she just stands there. I sprayed her down with fly spray today for the first time. I continue to be amazed at this filly's attitude. She just took it in stride like she had been sprayed a million times before. There was no jumping around or flinching. Today was the first time I slide a bit in her mouth. I just slip the bit in and let her mouth it for a while. Then I snap a lead rope into her halter and we had a refresher class on giving to the pressure. We had done this numerous times before so she handled it well. Then I snapped the lead onto the ring of the snaffle bit and we worked on giving to the pressure on both sides. It only took a little bit before she figured this game out and was doing it pretty well. Then I snapped the reins on the bit and we worked on flexing. She is figuring it out. Not completely soft yet but she will improve.





I walked up to Julie and slipped the lead rope around her neck. I then haltered her with very little fuss. Julie wasn't too sure about the fly spray stuff. She jumped and got nerved up a bit but seemed to settle down with me talking to her. We got it done and nobody was hurt. I brushed her a bit then we slide the bit into her mouth. We went through the chomping and mouth of the bit while she tried to figure out what I had done to her. She settled down after a little while then we worked on giving to the pressure while snapped into the halter. She is a little stiffer than Sweetie in this exercise but she is figuring it out. Then I snapped into the ring on the bit and we worked on the release to pressure. We had a few issues here but she finally started coming around. She did decent on both sides. Then we worked on flexing and while she is doing it we have a ways to go before we can say we have that exercise down pat.

This red roan filly is Snippy. She looks a lot like Julie but their attitudes are completely different and their build is different as well. Snippy is not as trusting as Julie and really doesn't feel the need to have people around her. Right now she is also a deeper bodied thicker type of filly, built more like a tank. Just a good soggy type of horse that ought to have a lot of power once she learns to use her weight. I don't think she will ever be as agile as Julie or Sweetie but I believe she will make the type of horse that will go all day long. Since Snippy has trust issues we just worked on her accepting me rubbing and scratching her today. We also worked a bit with the flag. She accepted the flag on her back and up to her face but just wasn't comfortable with that yet. She allowed me to pet, rub, and scratch her but again was not comfortable with me messing with her face. I can live with the progress we made today. I didn't even try to halter her that will be several sessions down the road but she will come around.