March 17, 2009 – Horse-eating monster!



Rory's warty nose


I haven't counted the warts yet. I did rip one off on Sunday. Rory didn't seem to mind but I did pick a little one and not the huge ugly giant wart. It's supposed to get the body's immune response kicked in to fight off the virus that causes them. We'll see. Many of them seem scabby and I can't imagine it's comfortable when they rub on things.

Last night a friend offered me a pony rainsheet (she sold her pony) for Rory. He'll outgrow it quickly, but it might be useful this spring if we get a cold rainy day. So naturally I wanted to try it on him to see if it would fit. And naturally Rory thought it was a horse-eating monster.

I folded/wadded it up and rubbed it on him after encouraging him to sniff it. Then I let it fall open a bit and rubbed some more, let it sit on his back and scritched him for being good. Eventually I had it open (if inside out) and could see that it might be a little big yet, but would certainly work well enough. Rory still didn't like it much, but he stood still and let me shift it a bit to check the sizing. He got lots of scritchies and a bit of carrot afterwards for being good.

March 16, 2009 - A sunny Sunday stroll...

I took the little boy for a walk again on Sunday. Sounds nice doesn't it? A nice stroll with one's horse, under the bright sun on a nice spring day...

He started early this week. We went over to the barn where I'd left my vaseline so I could grease his eyelids and chosen warts, after which we wandered down the hill. All well and good, but coming back up he jumped forward, swung round when I hung onto the lead, and then proceeded to rear and leap into the air and kick several times and pulling back in between. His saving grace? He didn't once throw a hoof in my direction - I did half expect him to in the rear phase, but he didn't. We went back down the hill, backed up, turned around and tried again with similar action from him. I got a little firmer and made him back up the hill, then turn around both ways before I led him into the barn and out the other side.

As I'd hoped, once we got a bit further out of earshot of TOW, Rory settled down and walked or passaged politely beside me. We had a couple of tries at coming back round the front of the barn again before he behaved. Then we walked most of the way down the driveway, watched the four wheelers go by and walked back up the driveway. Not as easily done as related. We did stop several times and back up or swing hindquarters around to ensure he was listening, but he was quite good considering.

I really need to get someone to take pictures next time. He's getting bigger and starting to shed out. Those baby warts are REALLY ugly in the sun. He's getting more of them too.

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.