This message is from: Robin Churchill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- > This message is from: Jean Ernest > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> , > it certainly is a > different relationship than when you have them at > your home! I agree completely! It has really helped my riding to have my horses at home. I used to be a little timid and sometimes even afraid of my warmblood even though he is the closest to a fjord temperament that a warmblood gets. After taking care of the horses myself, I gained a lot of confidence and it carried over in my riding and handling of the horses.
Yesterday it was hot and the horses were "horsing around" and I thought they were getting a little out of hand so I marched out to the pasture, grabbed the 17H 1400 # warmblood by the fly mask and took off for the barn ( I happen to be about 5feet 2 and 115#). It was sort of funny because he immediately followed me meekly to the barn to get hosed off. I am sure that if he decided that he didn't want to go with me, I couldn't make him but since I have had him at home myself, I think I can make him do whatever I want and I guess he does, too. I had another kind of funny thing happen this week but it should remind us to keep feed, etc locked up when there is a fjord around. My stalls have small paddocks attached made of sliding boards. On occasion, Ooruk rubs his butt on the boards and will get them down and lets himself out. It isn't a big deal because there is a small fenced pasture around the barn so he can't really go anywhere and I keep the feed in a building that also has a fence around it and a door with a lock which I keep locked at all times. In the evening when I bring the boys down to the barn pasture, I give them a little hay then put their nighttime hay in the stalls so all I have to do is put them in at night. Well, a couple nights ago, I went in the barn and I noticed there was a lunge line in the middle of Ooruk's stall, then I noticed that the timothy portion of his hay was gone, the pangola (local hay that is kind of like diet hay that I give the fjords for something to chew on and although they eat it is not their favorite) was thrown in the back corner, half the water in one bucket was gone and there was also a nice deposit for me. Instead of breaking out of his stall, Ooruk realized that the night hay was in there and broke into his stall, ate what he wanted and let me know what he thought about the pangola. No harm was done because there was really nothing else for him to get into--he likes to reach over the stall guard and throw lunge lines hanging on the wall or blankets hanging on the door around but I keep everything edible in the feed room locked up. I had to kind of laugh at him because I'm sure he thought he was very smart to get the hay when he wanted it instead of waiting until bedtime and I guess he kind of was but it does remind me that you can't let your guard down for a minute with these horses because they are so smart especially if there is some food in the equation. Regards, Robin in Florida High of 88 and humid today--supposed to cool down Monday! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
