Went super early today, since they said they were doing chores early for the Fourth. Ended up getting there well before everyone and I was able to check on the baby and feed the horses, which was really nice. The foal was very springy today and popcorned happily around and very much enjoyed getting some attention and pets, and Sushi is doing super well. You can barely tell she had a baby literally yesterday, and she’s really chill about letting people be around her and her baby. She’s more interested in getting treats and attention herself than anything else.
We helped put horses out, and they put mom and filly outside, but they had to move them to a different area because um. Jarro had a fit at the sight of the foal, he was terrified of it. So they gave them the big pasture D, and it worked pretty well. I did have to tighten the lower wire next to the gate, because the foal did um. Figure out the wire was low enough it could step through.
It really wanted pets and also when a car parked nearby it wanted to go out and touch the shiny red object, so uh. I did what I could to make sure the fencing was a bit better. Thankfully it seemed to work since the babe went back to following mom around and occasionally sunbathing on the hillside.
The biggest problem today was Q, who decided to first run me over while I was bringing him into the pasture, and then panicked at the sight of the lead line still attached to the halter on his face and he went cantering away through the field like an idiot. But I was kind of glad to see that he actually ended up going over to huddle up with Zara as well as Quattro for safety once he finished panicking.
I’m glad she’s part of their little herd.
We mucked. It was. Horrible, hot, humid. But tomorrow should be a lot easier.
So today, I also introduced Quattro to a bow. Because I didn’t know how he’d react, I got what’s literally like a kiddie bow. He absolutely didn’t care about it or the blunted arrows in the crossties, and I was really pleased with that.
I also uh. Found a tick on his head, poor boy. I pulled it carefully off. Thankfully it hadn’t started to feed yet, it was probably still trying to find a good spot to attach.
I took him outside and reintroduced the bow, then tried firing it. He uh. Didn’t care in the slightest. I was actually able to get on him with the bow and he was super calm about it. He did really well today, and we just concentrated on that. I didn’t try an arrow until the end, and all I did with that was get him to stand still so I could carefully nock an arrow and then shoot it a short distance into the ground.
I mean any distance is “short” fired from this bow, I don’t think it could even puncture a person at close range. But that’s exactly what we should be starting with before we even consider moving up to anything bigger, and he has to learn that it’s not a scary thing. Which he figured out pretty fast today, but now we have to get to the harder part of me being able to get the bow on and off. He did have a little trouble with me nocking the arrow, too, because he didn’t like the sight of the arrow sticking out of the bow while I was on his back, but that will just take practice, and repetition.
He’s a smart horse. He’ll learn.
I uh. Did end up chasing him and Q around the pasture, trying to spray them with fly spray. Q finally gave up and let me cover him. Even though Quattro got the tick, Q ended up being the one covered in flies. I don’t know why they like him so much.
So yeah. A good day.
The only other notable thing is that Shiloh is back and Jenna is gone. He was trying to be nice and grooming Pascha, but every time Pascha tried to groom him back, he would scream at him furiously.
Well, he’s trying, at least.
