Sunny afternoon

Jools trimming Garbo while he supervises

It rained all night but the sun came out this morning - and stayed out.

I left the boys in the yards and opened the washbay gate (letting Coco out) and Coco spent most of the day in the washbay... it was so wet I thought they'd most likely hand out up there anyway with nice hay.

This afternoon I got some time to play with them all for a little bit.

Garbo

He's always first.... lol - funny how you procrastinate over the things that are difficult. I have never de-wormed Garbo by using a syringe in his mouth - so today I was armed with a syringe and some apple sauce. I managed to give Coco a little taste first - he got a bit of a fright when it squirted apple sauce into his mouth - then I tried Garbo.... he flicked his head up just as I was squirting it out and he got the sauce all over my sunglasses, my forehead and in my hair - thanks Garbo. Hmmm ok - we need to work on that a bit more - and I need some less chunky apple sauce!! I couldn't syringe it up...

Next we got the plastic bag flag out - and oh my goodness - he was pretty calm about it all over him - not 100% but 80%... I upped the ante a little and waved it above my head - he didn't like that much so I kept going - walking away from him with him following till he could walk without stopping. Then I stopped. He sniffed the bag and licked his lips.

Then we did some sideways with the flag - I am bot sure if his sideways has got worse since his hip was sore or if it's something else... we made some small improvements at walk anyway.

Then - but wait there's more - we tested out head down and yay finally - he kept his head down for about 30 seconds - major breakthrough (this is from porcupine at the poll - he always did fine with using the halter to bring his head down - probably because I was down there too lol)... he tried quite a bit throughout the session to sniff me for treats - so I had to use some blocks - the habit was creeping back in and becoming a bit dominant.

Maraschino

Well - I sat on the fence and rubbed him while he stood next to me (both sides) - interestingly the farside was so much harder for him to line up next to me (and the fence) yet if I moved my stool away from the fence he was ok with me being next to him up high in Zone 3. I spent ages rubbing (we'll work on the fence tomorrow).... and then I leaned over his back with my upper body and dangled my arms down the other side and rubbed him. He did several things, one after the other, he would turn and look, try to groom me, try to itch an itchy spot under me, and then he just relaxed. I rubbed him all over and then just folded my arms under my chin and leaned on him for ages - about 5 minutes.

Then I got the plastic bag flag out - he didn't even blink an eye lid - I was waving over his neck, all round - nothing - then I waved it in the air - and he followed (same as what I did with Garbo - he was pretty good. I then got the carrot stick and string and tried helicopter... he was a bit wary but mainly because he's so tall the string was nearly touching his ears!

After that he had a big syringe of apple sauce which he loved - I even put it in like real de-wormer - he normally tries to bite the syringe.

Coco

He didn't move far away with the plastic bag or the helicopter, and he enjoyed the apple sauce... every day I try and lift his feet just for a second... today I asked him to lift his foot off some poop while I picked it up - and he cocked his foot while I scraped it off his hoof sole too.

It was 17 degrees today - for early August that's just crazy!

I listened to half of the July CD today (got home too soon)...all about not making assumptions when you haven't ridden all winter.... I kept that in mind today with Garbo - because it's getting to the point where I am dying to ride him again.