Saturday, January 10, 2009

Day 5 Seperation

Well I went into the paddock to get Garbo and he walked up to me as did Maraschino. I haltered Garbo after a chew on the halter (by him not me), and took him into the washbay to take his cover off and put oil on his hooves. Maraschino wandered off in the opposite direction and started grazing.

After removing several ticks I took Garbo to the gate that leads to the float and Maraschino didn't even look up from the other corner of the paddock. He was closer to Coco than to us. I have noticed the last few days that Maraschino and Coco are grazing closer together than before, which is good.

So - off we went out of sight. It was about 10 minutes later Garbo blew air out his nostrils that gave the game away - we had gone right round the other side of the barn and Maraschino could see us on the other side. He looked up and then saw Garbo, so I took Garbo back to our normal retreat spot but Maraschino was not there waiting - he stayed where he was (about 40m away). He carried on grazing.

So off we set again - there was heaps of gun fire from a couple of neighbours away - goodness knows what they were shooting plus motorbikes a few paddocks away - you couldn't see them - just hear them. I took the opportunity to not just make it a grazing session for Garbo but some sideways and also some patterns round the float. I squeezed Garbo down one side between the float and the pile of topsoil with weeds on it, and I climbed onto the wheel well and drove him back and forwards, and squeeze, from there (kind of Zone 3 which moved to zone 5 and 1 depending on where he was.) Then he got to snack. I could also peek through the side float window, out the other side window and see what Maraschino was doing. It was a good 20 minutes before he even looked over - even then he just called out, so I backed Garbo up a bit so Maraschino could see his hind quarters.

It was such a successful session on all accounts I ended it there.

Tomorrow I think I will do the same but ride Garbo - I can get on by standing on the wheel well.

1 comment:

Cilla said...

yes! i am really enjoying reading about your progress, and what progress it is too. its going so well. well done vicki, G and M. nice to hear Coco is getting some peace and quiet too lol.