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10-22-01
Nancy and Jackie both came out tonight to work.
First we each picked up one of the new arrivals. Jackie
worked with Magic, Nancy worked with Dusty, and I worked
with Spirit. Dusty was the easiest one to halter but acted
like he really didn't want to play. Nancy worked on some
disengagements and "lounging". Then she spent some time
grooming. Dusty seems a bit tender on his front feet. I
guess the Utah rock is catching up to him so we took it
really easy on him and tried to keep him in the sand as much
as possible.
Jackie worked on grooming, disengagements and getting Magic
to lower his head. It was weird to see such a tiny person
as Jackie with such a big horse as Magic, but they seemed to
get along very well.
Spirit was the hardest one to catch but it only took me a
few minutes to get up to him and get his halter on. To get
his attention first I let him honk his horn a few times
which seemed to cheer him up. And of course Dusty wanted to
play as well. I also worked on disengagments and grooming.
Wow Spirit is tall. I almost have to get a stool to reach
the top of his back. The Knightsen group has done a
wonderful job with these boys and we look forward to
continuing progress.
After about an hour we put the 3 California boys up and
Nancy caught Moose and Jackie caught Frosty. Jackie worked
with picking up feet and using the rasp on them and also did
some grooming. Then she went to work on lounging and
backing. Frosty is coming along really well.
Nancy did some grooming with Moose and picked up both front
feet and worked a rasp on them a little. He didn't seem
alerted by that at all. Hopefully this weekend Cliff will
have some time to do some trimming. Nancy has been working
with Moose the last few times with a saddle blanket and
desensitizing him to it in preparation for being able to put
a horse blanket on him. Well she got the horse blanket on
Moose tonight without a single problem. He was leery at
first but accepted it being put on from both sides. She
then did it up and led him around and did some
disengagements so that he could get the feel for the
blanket. Moose and Nancy make a terrific team and he is
really blossoming with her quiet hands. He simply loves to
be petted cuddled now.
Jackie had to get home but Nancy wanted to stick around and
work with Yogi, so I went in and haltered him and brought
him out into the round pen. I spent a few minutes petting
him and picking up feet and then had Nancy take over. This
is the first time she was worked with Yogi and he accepted
her very well. She did however find that he does not like
to be "patted" yet. She was able to run her hand down all 4
legs clear to the hooves and lead him around the round pen.
Yogi was doing very well for her and Nancy was even able to
lead him up so that Cliff could pet him through the panels.
She then led him back to his stall and was able to remove
his halter.
That's where we called it a night.
10-25-01
Nancy made it out tonight as well as our newest volunteer.
Carolyn is a foreign exchange student here from Germany and
is going to be joining our little volunteer project. She
came out tonight to watch and get acquainted and will be in
with the horses next time. To help keep her occupied we let
her work with Ladybug and Maji just so she could be near
horses again. We also had another visitor, Lalani that
hopes to join our group soon as well.
Nancy started out working with Magic. It took her a few
minutes to catch and halter him but once haltered he was
very well mannered. Nancy picked up his front feet and just
took him for little walks all over. She worked him for
about 45 minutes. Then of course she just had to bring
Moose out. These two are becoming quite the couple. Nancy
put a bareback pad on him and worked him around a little
with that and then went right back to the horse blanket and
he handled that very well again. As you can see he was very
relaxed.
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