Turnout and training

A couple of days ago I moved Gussie back in with the mares and moved Peppy in with the new fillies. He is across the fence from her, but can't try to nurse, and the top rail and the third rail have an electric line on them on his side.

She had to check out all the new smells;

And then all three mares took off through the trees. This picture is funny because Coyote Belle is ahead of Gussie but all you can see of her is her baby belly sticking out on either side of the tree!

I am having a good time working with Andee. I have been working her in a mini round pen, and on Saturday got the halter on her for the first time. If I had known that all I had to do was get a bucket of grain to encourage her to cooperate, I would have done it long ago! So with the reward of grain she let me touch her face, and with the help of my trusty stick, fish the halter on her. Today when I worked with her, she was much easier to touch and halter although I still had to use the stick to bring the halter up around her face. She also had a lesson in leading,
and I apologize for the poor picture;


(it's hard to use the camera and lead at the same time!)You can see that she is following me nicely on a loose line. After I turned her loose, she let me walk up to her and pet her. So we made good progress today. I think next time I'll be able to halter her without using the stick. If you are curious how I do that, it goes like this: I drape the halter and lead rope on the end of the stick and rub it on the filly. Once she accepts that, I drape it on her so that the halter end is on her off side, and the lead rope on the near side. Then I use the stick to fish the lead rope through the throatlatch area of the halter, and bring the end of the rope where I can reach it, and it works like having a lariat around her neck. Once she is used to that, I slide the noseband on her nose- the first day with the stick, today with my hands. She still won't just let me reach up to do up the halter, so I flip the headcollar piece over her neck with the stick, then rub her neck til I can take the rope and run it through and do it up. The first day I had to do that one-handed; today after a little fussing, I was able to use both hands. So we are continuing to build trust, without having to force this filly into things; the only time I ever had to really get after her was at first when she kept turning her butt to me- she doesn't do that any more! I think she will be a really willing horse once she gets the picture, and having Peppy in with the fillies will be good because of how friendly he is.