Snooze Is My Enemy

Snooze Button is my personal enemy. I couldn't get out of bed this morning until 5:30 a.m. I had to rush around this morning to get everything done. Lucky for me chores only took the standard 20 minutes since no one was in the barn. It is possible to get ready for work and do chores in 45 minutes. :-)

Yesterday morning when I went to let the horses out, Dude some how managed to mess up the main gate. He must have been pushing on the gate while eating his hay, but I really have no clue. Horses manage to do the weirdest things.

While Mike was fixing the gate, I decided I'd work with Brego on leading and general ground manners. The only problem was Maverick wanted to be handled. I can't understand him. He doesn't want to be touched but he wants to be included in all the action. I think he was jealous from the last time I worked Brego. I absolutely couldn't get Brego out without Maverick getting in the way.

Maverick

So, I sucked it up and threw a halter on Maverick and started working on his ground manners. We only worked for about 10 minutes on going forward and stopping. He's so squirrely I just don't trust him. When I tried to reward him by petting his shoulder he started to toss his head around. I took that as the sign we should stop.

I then pulled Brego out. I always figured Brego was a little slow. He just had that look. But as we were working on going forward and stopping, he caught on really quick. Within 10 minutes of giving him the different cues, he'd picked up on what I was asking him. With just a bit of a change in my hand position he knew when I wanted him to start and stop. Brego is also starting to get a bit more sassy around the other horses. I'm very happy about that. He will actually interact and harrass the other horses.

Maverick torments Brego. But now that I can pull Brego out and get him away from Maverick, Brego seems like a different horse. There's a light in his eyes I've never seen before. He always had this pitiful look in his eyes but now when I pull him out, he's eager to see new surroundings. So I took him over and let him touch noses with Rain, Chaos, and King (all on separate trips back and forth while working on going forward and stopping). I think, given the chance, Brego could actually stand up for himself. He'll always be at the bottom of the pecking order but he very well may turn into a good looking horse with confidence. Right now I consider him my baby.

Brego - Bad pic but you at least get to see sort of what he looks like