Friday, May 30, 2008

We're Graining Ground...

Sammy has been home one week now and more has happened than just her finding out how to eat grain. She has discovered she loves to be scratched, she loves standing in her stall and watching it rain instead of standing out in the rain. She has such keen hearing, why she can hear me pop the lid on the feed drum all the way out in the back barn, :-). She has discovered that she doesn't have to mug me for her feed that if she waits politely she will still get her share. She has learned that she doesn't have to attack her bucket the moment the grain hits the bottom, she can wait until I get the scoop out of the way, and she has gotten tons better about taking her wormer. The first three days was a wrestling match. Who knew such a small horse in such a weak condition could be so strong? I think I wore as much wormer as I got in her. LOL

Her weight is not obviously changing yet, but her spirit is soaring, her eyes are bright, and she is such a joy to be around. Her nicker is low and sounds so much like her mothers, but her whinny is trill, and so girly.

The vet says we must wait until she gains weight before we can work on her teeth and give her vaccinations. However this week we are going to begin learning our leading manners and confidence. It really is amazing how much she trusts me, but even at 580lbs, that is still allot of horse in your lap when she decides something is going to eat her. LOL So we must work on this. Fortunately she does remember how to stand in the cross-ties and we will find out this week if she remembers getting baths. I think it will be a nice treat for her to be scrubbed all over and be clean. So far she is very funny about walking in the mud so I think she would like to be clean.

Over the holiday weekend we had a fair amount of rain; enough to make her pen gooey. One of the mornings I flipped her hay into the doorway (where it was dry) because I didn't want to climb back over the rail. Well, right about that time Sammy received a visitor, so being a proud Mom, I climbed over and got Sammy to come out of her stall for her company. When she was finished visiting she went back to her hay of course. Well the funny part is instead of standing with her feet in the mud and eating, she stepped over her pile of hay back into her stall, spun around and went back to eating. I had to laugh, because she didn't want to stand in the mud. Sam has the makings of quite the little diva, LOL.

Stay tuned - I will post at least once a week with updates and as she gains weight, of course I will have to show her off. I will also try to make short posts to keep everyone up to date on her accomplishments in training. She is so smart that I expect lots of funny stories of her figuring out ways around what Mom wants her to do. LOL

1 comment:

ezra_pandora said...

lol. My mare is a diva too. True to her name of Sassie. When it rained at our boarding barn, all the horses came in totally caked head to toe in mud. It was horrible. My Sassie? Not a spot of mud on her. lol