A Pleasent Suprise

Well I logged on today and noticed I have a new follower!  Thank you Jenna for coming to my rather mundane little blog.
And Nina also followed a while ago, but I forgot to metion her in the busyness of school.

Would you believe I've done schoolwork every day for seven consecutive days?  Yeesh!  I don't like that, but it's my own fault, really.  I should actually follow the schedule my mother writes out for me instead of procrastinating until I'm a week away from exams!  Really, I should.


My news for the past while.

I have been teaching my horse manners!  (Yay for manners!)  She used to be a grump if you tried to pet her while she was eating.  She'd pin her ears back and swings her head at you, looking as if she were going to bite.  She'd also swish her tail sharply, possibly lashing you with the course hairs.  She only ever threatened to kick the cows or dogs, though.  Never threatened to kick me or another person. 

But anyways, I've been correcting her manners in an extreamly simple way.  Step one, stand beside her and touch her shoulder, and keep touching it until her ears unpin.  If she gave me the "Ima gonna bite you" look, I'd just say "Ay" (Like 'hay', but without the 'h'.  This also works on little cousins.  It's all in the tome of voice)  or I'd snap my fingers.  It's so funny.  She's almost afraid of me snapping my fingers.  I discovered this little trick when I was at the gate to the pasture and she reached over to bite me (not something she does often.  I think she was having a mare day).  The first thing that came to mind was to snap my fingers to warn her off.  So I did, moving my hand forward with a flourish.  To my great suprise, her head jerked up and she took a step back.  I've used that ever since.

The next step I did involved petting her shoulder more, then walking around her to pet her other side.  Because of the setup of my feeder for her (a bathtub with a grate made of rebar and hinges of pipe.  Yep.  Homemade.  Gotta love it.  This contraption is set on bricks and any rain drains out the bathtub drains.  Ingenious, no?)  and its positioning at the barn wall, I began Rosie's manner training on her right side, then added the left later.  It's a good exercise for her mind.

After that I brought my spare lead rope into the hay barn, pulling it out when Rosie came when I fed her.  I would pet her with the rope.  Hopefully she'll be ewasier to catch due to this.

Just recently I've added picking up her front hooves to the routine.  Soon I'll add the back hooves. 

I only do the hooves and rope in the morning because it's light out then and I can spot the icey areas.  I do not want to slip and startle her!  Though my little 11 year old cousin did so when I let her feed Rosie the one time.  Fortunantly, Rosie only sidestepped as Naomi fell against her.  Rosie also gave her an annoyed look, but seemed to understand that Naomi is young and can't quite keep her balence on the ice the same way I can.

And that is Rosie's manners training. She's so fuzzy for the winter right now.


The dogs are doing great as well.  They are both very near to their final height, which is probably about two feet tall.  I haven't really measured.  Cub has retained his fluffy coat, though it is now about four or five inches long (due to the Border Collie hair) and really really thick (due to the Black Lab hair).  It's also rather wavy, which could be a resuld of either breed, I think.  He is built like a Lab, looks like a Lab, acts like a Lab, and thinks like a Lab.  He enjoys tackle games the most.  He is still black, except for his front paws, the very tipmost tip of his tail, and a white stripe on his chest.
Sage is a couple inches shorter than Cub, and is much more Border Collie.  She is built like a BC, she looks like a BC, she acts like a BC with a tad of Lab, and she thinks like a BC.  She's very cute, with a bald face (using horse term here)  Her white face runs down her chest and neck.  Her belly is white and her front legs are mostly white.  The bottoms of her hinds legs are white as well.  The last four inches of her tail is white.  Her ears and the back of her head and neck are white.  She is built for speed and is one fast little blighter.  She chased a guy on a bike down our hill and kept up with him all the way.


Well, that's my news for now.  Mre later!

Enjoy your day, my friends!