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05/12/2002: "Never A Dull Moment"
We had quite a bit of rain today, but at least it was relatively warm - finally. I dunno - if global warming is real, why has it been so *%@#! COLD! Well, Mr. Indy and Ms Ami haven’t been bothered by the unseasonably chilly weather. In fact, Indy has undoubtedly found it invigorating. The large paddock that he’s been living in IS large, and he seems to take great pleasure in tearing back and forth. We can see him from the kitchen window, and one of us will say, “Here he comes again!” He is REALLY beautiful with his dark body and silver-white mane and tail flying :o)
Yesterday, I was walking the paddock, just to check things out and make sure there was nothing that needed attending to. Indy was grazing just outside the barn - staying close to Ami in her paddock. Then he noticed that I was down at the far end, and here he came, barreling down the way. When he got to me, he stopped and immediately started grazing again - EXACTLY like DJ used to do. I hung around with him for a while, and then continued my inspection tour around and back up to the barn. When Indy looked up and found me back at the barn… here he came again, flying up the hill to stop and resume grazing almost at my feet. Is this kid Something Else or what?!
Later, I had given Ami some hay, and she was doing her usual thing of pulling all her hay out of the feeder and eating it off her shavings, but this time, she did a something more. I bit of background first. I’ve been giving Ami the mixed hay that we bought last year and keeping the grass hay for Indy. While this may sound backward since she needs to lose weight and he needs to gain it, Indy has always been on grass hay and very little pasture. Now, he’s on full pasture, and I didn’t want to spring mixed hay on him too.
However, he has figured out that Ami’s hay is tastier than plain vanilla grass hay - mostly by sticking his head under her stall gate and stealing little bits and pieces that have gotten pushed forward. Anyway, yesterday Ami was doing her hay-tossing thing, and he was watching over the gate, hoping she’d accidentally flip some far enough for him to grab. Once Ami got the whole mass onto the floor, she pushed it all the way out of her stall proper, up to and under the gate, to the point that fully half of it was on his side. Then they happily shared it until it was gone! I have NEVER seen Ami volunteer to share ANY food with ANYONE before. Now, maybe it was an accident that the hay got pushed over that far - I don’t think so, but even if it had been, she would normally have been pinning her ears and daring him on penalty of death to set a tooth on her hay. Sure wish I’d had the camera…
I haven’t done any “formal” training sessions with Indy yet. I wanted him to have plenty of time to settle in before starting anything serious. Brenda left me the Richard Thompson book with the ground work that Indy’s done, and the first thing I want to do is repeat all that with him. But of course, as John Lyons says, any time you’re with your horse, you’re training him. There is a thing I do almost unconsciously - which I got from John too :o) - and that is to cluck to my horse when I want his attention and to communicate that I’m about to ask for something - much the same way I would use a half-halt under saddle. “Attention: We’re about to do something different from what we’re doing now.” Well, Mr. Indy has picked up on this already. If I cluck, he stops whatever he’s doing and looks at me, waiting to see what I want. Smart boy! :o)
