June 4, 2008

Billie has opinions. This was evident this morning. I pulled hay from the round bale we brought in from the farm for her (square bales are WAY easier, I think, but the round bale is what I have) and she was impatient to eat. But I think she was impatient for the grain I had brought out to her pen, not the hay! I was cramped for time, so did not do the usual pen cleaning while Billie ate her hay; I started to bring the grain in and she SO ambushed me! I could not get the critter to back off so I could safely enter the pen! I finally tossed the grain outside the pen and closed the gate. Billie had a little fit then, tossing her head and making a slight horsey sound. I then had to play "get away from me/the gate" till she went to the other side of the pen. When she did that (and stayed) I brought the grain in and she got to eat that.

Later today, Bev brought me a beautiful bamboo pole! We headed over to the barn and she got Cola out so that we could rub the pole on him and get it all horsey smelling. That took a bit of time getting Cola to know that the pole was supposed to be massaging him! He's a good boy, though, and was licking his lips and then standing so nice and quiet.

I then took the pole over to Billie's stall, thinking I would just walk around and let her see it while I held it upright (like a flag pole). She was real interested in it! Yippee! I let her mouth and lick on it, then decided to try touching her wither area...oops! Did I mention she's a wild mustang?!?!

Sorry, but I just don't have the stand still or walk calmly thing down just yet. I had to scoot around her seemingly shrinking pen to stay out of harms way! Yikes!

Funny horsey, she would settle down almost right away and come back over to mouth the pole that I was holding either upright or parallel to the ground, sniff, mouth, sniff, mouth, chew, yada yada yada. But when I touched her, a switch was thrown and she was wild horsey again! I decided to leave the pole in the pen on the ground and just let her play with it for awhile.

I was over at the fence chatting and a couple of times looked up to see her picking up the pole with her mouth, step on it, or whatever, and then she would be wild horsey again! She was wild horsey a couple of times--glad I was OUTSIDE the pen!

I later scooped a bit of poop and brought her more hay and grain. She was her usual playful pet-me self. Did I mention that she lets me pet/stroke her neck and mane? Why am I using that pole?!?! Oh, right...I need to get to her whole body! Sometimes it seems that she would not mind if I clipped a lead rope to her halter and led her outside the pen. She just doesn't seem to mind me messing with her halter. That doesn't mean I've taken the halter off yet. No sir. But maybe we can get there in another week or two.