Yesterday was interesting. I must preface with the fact that Lynx is a dominant Jack hole. He loves to terrorize any new horse. So I had moved Whiskey into a paddock with a 5′ tall board fence and had Lynx and Splash on the pasture side. I cleaned out the round pen and just wanted to give the new kid a change of scenery. Before I did this for him, we worked on being saddled and he was a saint. I figured some move around time was needed!
I should back up and tell you that the horse had zero reaction to the saddle. He was haltered but not tied. He let me rub the pad all over him then let me swing the saddle on him. He didn’t flinch when I brought the girth around. He might have humphed up a couple of times, but nothing like “the big blow up” that I have seen with other horses. I moved the stirrups around and made plenty of noise. Nothing. I seriously think he was like “if I act bad, she is gonna make me sweat and I’m too lazy for that”. We also worked on being lead over the poles forward and backward!
So to reward him, I put him in the paddock. The next day… well… LYNX decided to set Whiskey free so he could chase him. Yup. He reached over the board fence and grabbed him on the face and neck. Then, somehow, the gate came open (it was snapped. Snap broke) and Whiskey was chased ☹️. End result was teeth marks and scratches. He is ok. The fence, not so much! My friends came over and helped me replace the bused board and pull the bent t-post to put in another and stretch the fence back. Thank God for my team!
Moving forward to the 15th. It’s WINDY. Whiskey was in the round pen but I didn’t feel that after the chaos, he needed to be worked. So I hooked up to the stock trailer and I had tied Whiskey to the thinking spot… I then got the stock trailer to were if he got loose, he would only be loose in the pasture! Obviously, I was thinking he would argue! Nope. Lead him right into the trailer. No second thoughts. To say I was shocked was an understatement! So I then let him turn around and I lead him out. Shocking, he stepped right out… ok. Now what? Then it hit me… HE needs to learn to back out of the trailer!!!!! Yes!!! And he did it twice. Sigh. Too easy. So I went to load one more time and he refused. Finally, I decided I should load him like the others. Where I am not in the trailer. So I tied him back up and ran a long rope. I seriously expected him to fight a little. Nope. Loaded in with out me in the trailer!!! Yahoo!!! Then I had him back out one more time! No, he didn’t get a cookie. He got a lot of love, scratches and good boy!!!
I also decided to try a blanket on him while he was chill in the trailer. Yeah, he didn’t care!!!
Now after all that, I figured he deserved some pasture time!!! I walked my fence to check my Hotwire and kicked him loose with Splash. They get along like two peas in a pod!
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