Lego my Brego

I was going to get some pictures of the horses last night but the card was full, so yet another post without any new pics.

Yesterday was such a nice day. The sun was out and I could hide behind the buildings to get away from the wind. I decided that I would work with Brego. I need to get some pictures of him to document how he's improved since coming into Borderlands.

I haltered Brego and pulled him out of his muddy pen. Hopefully with the wind and sun, all the horse pens will dry out. Brego at first didn't seem too thrilled, all he wanted to do was eat. I groomed him down, which is no easy feat. I'm not sure how he does it but his hair goes in every direction except the way I want. The massive direction changes makes it a little tough to make him look clean and crisp after a thorough grooming. I'm hoping this summer I can get his hair to go all in one direction.

Brego didn't really want to stand still very long. So we worked on leading and stopping. After watching Stacy Westfall at the South Dakota Horse Fair, I realized I was teaching Brego all wrong. But at this point, I'm only fiddling with him and not doing too many strenous thinking excercises with him. He's getting better ground manners just in the short time we walked around.

I did lead Brego over to the big herd so that they could touch noses. Chaos of course is always the curious one so he was there right away. King came over and wanted to do the whole stamping feet and squeeling deal. Unfortunately Brego doesn't like that and decided he'd rather continue walking than touch noses with King.

On the next pass all four horses came up, which made me uncomfortable. I'd rather not be squished between the hay barn and Brego when he meets all the horses. So we went for another pass around the hay barn.

On the next trip around Rain charged the fence. I think Rain is going to pick on Brego. I can't tell if they are the same size. But their heads are definately both very refined. I'd like to get them side by side to see how close they match in size. Rain wasn't too fond of Brego so I guess Rain won't be my "Walmart Greeter" for Brego.

On the next pass through Dude came up to sniff Brego. We didn't stay too long. Brego actually seemed more interested in looking around the hay barn and down the driveway. I'm not sure if he was looking at the ponies or what. But he picked his head up and stared intently in one direction. When he does that, you can really see he's starting to come into himself more each day.

I finally decided I'd better put a halter on Maverick and work with him just a little bit. We are both still uncomfortable with each other. So I tied Brego up (so he could dig me a hole to China and learn to stand still) and I pulled Maverick out. We only walked around in a few small circles and then I put him back. I really want Maverick to have better ground manners but I guess I'll be happy with him allowing me to put a halter on him and lead him around without flipping out.

I put Maverick back in the muddy pen after only about ten minutes of messing with him. I then put Brego back in. He's such a charmer. I'm hoping that if I continue to halter both Brego and Maverick, that they'll get used to me handling them more. I'm not sure how much handling they had when they were younger. I have a feeling not very much. If I continue to fiddle, maybe they'll get used to me messing around all the time. Messing with those two has really taught me to slow down and relax when I'm working with the horses.

I'm hoping I'll have a bit more energy tonight when I get home so that I can fiddle with Brego and Maverick a bit more. And I need to mess with Rain. I think he's getting very jealous. He's been off now for the past few months. Hopefully the weather will warm up so that we can go for a ride. I think he needs some one on one time. I think I've solved Bob's depression last year (he was depressed last year but I think I figured out what it was). But now Rain is a bit depressed so I need to find out what it is and fix it. Maybe some one on one time with a bit of hand grazing. The new green grass shoots are starting to pop out. And with Rain's sensitivity, I need to probably hand graze him anyway.

Hopefully tonight I can get some more good pics of the horses. They are really muddy and starting to shed. I'm either stuck with a mouthful of hay (like I was this morning thanks to Brego), or a mouthful of horse hair. I guess that's the price I pay for having horses. :-) But I'd say it's priceless.