March 9, 2009 - Puddle jumping

I took Rory for a walk Sunday afternoon. The driveway had a couple of huge puddles on it and I couldn't resist the opportunity to teach Rory to walk through water. Things started off very well and we walked into the first puddle carefully, but ok. The next puddle had sediment stirred up and was cloudy - he didn't want to come into that one. I persisted and he eventually wiggled about enough that he ended up in it when I backed him up (after he'd crowded up behind me as he avoided stepping into the puddle). The third puddle was easy too.

We went up the driveway and trotted back down - nice trot!! which caught the attention of the horses in the front field. One came over and galloped away and brought another one back with her. So the lesson of the day turned into a polite walk back up the driveway practice. At the top we went and saw the tractor up close. Rory was getting a bit fidgety and trying to go back to the paddock where TOW was whinnying. He managed to get the jump on me and hit a canter before I could get far enough out to the side to get the leverage to stop him and I had to let go of the lead rope! ACK!

All he did was run back to the gate where TOW was and stood there (it's at the end of a little alley between fields so nowhere to go except back towards me) until I got to him. After a little scritch and calm down minute we went out for a little more walking so he wouldn't learn he could escape whenever he wanted. He did try several times, but I was waiting specifically for him to try it and stopped him every time. Then we went back to the field and I put him back with TOW. I do think that if TOW didn't make such a big deal about Rory leaving, Rory wouldn't be at all concerned. He is very good for the first few minutes. Maybe I just need to keep it shorter - or get out of earshot.

He's got ugly baby warts on his nose. Do white nosed horses tend to get them worse? More easily? I did slather a couple with vaseline when I had it out later to do Rory's eyelids - someone in health care said they'd done that. We'll see if it works for Rory.