Day 17 - 
Cleaning her Feet the First Time

I notice I take A LOT of pictures of her eating! I think that the only time I have "time." Going to try to take different pictures!

I am getting more and more confident everyday. It is a wonderful feeling. I know that my confidence in handling Lilly is being felt by her because her confidence in me is growing. It is really true that we are responsible for the relationship we want with our horse. 

Today I really felt like I did a great job. I felt so connected to Lilly. I felt like we were really communicating. I really felt like she is starting to like me because I am "her" human. I think she is starting to love me! This makes me so happy because I love her! 

I have changed up the routine to help her be more calm and less pushy when I come to get her for her supplements. I was coming into the pasture and asking permission and putting on her halter and immediately leading her out and straight to the food. But this caused her to build up a lot of expectation of us leaving immediately and going straight to the food. 

Now we are taking things slower. When I arrive I still greet her and do the horseman's handshake. But then I let myself in the pasture and hang out with her a little. I help her investigate the feeding tires and help her find pieces of hay that are still in there but she can't reach. We walk around at liberty together. I give her scratches and just spend some time with her. I also say hi to the other horses if they come around. If there is a big pile of hay found I will keep the other horses back while she eats it. (side note - the horses are learning from me to turn their head and go into the tire to find hidden stores of hay - lol) when I went out there in the evening there was barely any hidden hay and I saw them turning their heads to get under the tire)

Then after we mosy around I ask her to put her halter on. Then we mosey around some more. Than I ask if she wants to go for a walk and attach the lead rope. Then we go for a walk. I lead her to the gate and open it. I am teaching her to bend around the gate and stay with me while I close it. When I first did it she did it naturally with me - but now she seems to not want to do that. So I will continue working with her bending around the gate and than waiting patiently while I open, close, and lock the gate.  

Then we went for a walk. Smelling things and touching things along the way. I also worked on stopping and having her stop with me. If she stopped in front of me having her take steps back until she was in the right place. We did not have to do as many circles. She is pushing on me less. But when we got close to the food she didn't want to practice. So we practiced more. I even needed to make "the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy." We turned around and walked back when she really was unhappy about listening. Then we slowly made our way back to the food. Stopping and relaxing. Walking, stopping, relaxing. Walking, stopping, relaxing. Until finally I gave her the command to eat. I am soon hoping to get to the point that she stops right over the food and doesn't try to get it until I give her the okay. That is my goal. I also need to lead her on the other side. I notice that I feel the most comfortable with her on my right side. But I also need to practice her on my left side. 

Than we relaxed while she ate. In the morning I did her feet. This was hard. She is very big and very strong. I need to work with her on HER picking up her feet and not ME picking up her feet. It was the first time I cleaned her feet! But I was able to pick up each of her feet, clean them and put the clay in the crevices of the frog and around the top of the hoof. This is really important as the snow is melting in the pastures and making a TON of mud and rivers of peed and poop. So the more I clean and protect her feet the better it will be. I also had her eat on the one dry spot I could find. I want her feet to have the chance to really dry out. Hopefully the ground soaks up all the moisture quickly. It really makes me think about my own land and how I want to do things differently. It was exhausting work but I am glad I was able to do it. I will need to do it everyday! 

Then we went for another walk exploring things. I took her in the area and showed her the exercise ball. When I kicked it she jumped and snorted and her energy went high. We practiced me kicking it and her coming to check it out. She had lots of energy. I think she will enjoy playing with it. So we will practice again everyday until she gets more confident. 

Then we went for a walk touching more things. When we got pasture I helped her find more hay. It was harder because they are all learning from me how to get to the "hidden" hay. Lol. But it was nice. I always help her get a drink and hay. Then remove her halter give her nice scratches and then say good bye until next time. 

The evening session was really nice as well. We found a "secret" stash of hay that we will be visiting before she eats her supplements. From my research it said horses should eat hay before supplements. So I want to make sure she is eating hay first. I also thought I could take a bucket and fill it than put it out a the back of the pasture. It was a thought to help Lilly get back there more and moving. Back in the pasture, we got a drink of water and than we took a nice walk to the back of her pasture. Della and Nora followed us out. They were probably hoping I was showing them more food. But they walked with us. It was a nice little walk. I am hoping with going out there more and more Lilly will want to travel all around the pasture. 

Shows me again what I want to do differently on my land. I might ask Jerry if I can have some feeders and put them at the back of the pasture and take hay out there. I will see what he says. I know they feed them in the front because they have  a lot of horses and it is easier to feed them that way. But if I am helping then that should not be a problem. I don't want to step on toes - but I want Lilly moving around more. Especially since the snow is making a huge ice/nasty puddle of pee and poop in the front. I do not want her standing in that. I also want to see if he will let me figure out a way to drain that area. It is really gross and potentially dangerous.