End of the World

That's what Gambler thought yesterday. Don't worry, he was wrong (*cough as always). Everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying the warmish rainy weather. The supposed end of the world is a lengthy story, so I'll start at the beginning.

Remember Kezi? Pfft, of course you do. Well as gorgeous and fun as she is, Kezster has a slightly problematic trait . . . she is always in heat. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but not by much. So Marguerite, my barn owner and Kezi's owner, has decided to spay Kezi in hopes that it will calm her down. It will help with Gambler's training as well, because with Kezi in heat so often, he displays a few stalliony tendencies.

An exciting side note: Kezi has a blog! Technically, Marguerite does. I'm so happy that she's joining the blogosphere. You can check out the blog here. 

Back to the story, since Kezi is going to be spayed in the near future, she has to be weaned off of hay and put on a grain-only diet in preparation for the surgery. This means from the days leading up to her surgery to a few days after, Kezi will have to be separated from Gambler. I'm happy about that, because I've struggled with Gambler being herd-bound in the past. This is the perfect opportunity to show him that I am his human herd; he doesn't need Kezi to breathe.  

The process began yesterday. After bringing the horses in and giving them their grain, we kept Kez in her stall and brought Gambler out into the arena. In retrospect, I could have let Kezi out into the pasture, because with the arena sectioned off from the pasture, they would have been separated enough. If Gambler had been able to see Kezi he wouldn't have freaked. However, I am glad that I didn't. I was expecting a freak-out, and I think it's good to work through these things on my timetable. 

I brought Gambler out into the arena and walked him calmly to a place where the footing was decent. About halfway, he realized that something was different and started prancing. I ignored him. We played the circling game like we do everyday. The difference between yesterday and everyday was that Gambler insisted in cantering wildly when I asked him to walk calmly. He cantered and bucked and called and fretted.

Honestly, it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. My confidence with horses has definitely grown over these . . . ten months? Wow, I can't believe I've had Gambler for ten months already! 

I started out by driving Gambler forward. He wanted to stop and stare at the barn, so I asserted my control over the situation by driving him forward. I am his leader and I said that no matter how upsetting the situation was, he needed to listen to me. Of course, Gambler wanted to bolt and soon was just running in circles ignoring me. I should point out here that he was on the 12' rope and while he was bolting he never pulled the rope from my hand, in fact there was always slack in the rope - proof that even in his panicy state, he was respectful of my leadership. 

After a few circles and changes of direction, Gambler calmed down enough for me to bring him into my space and switch to the 22' rope. Again, even though he was freaking out, he never even used all of the rope. To stop his mindless running around me, I switched to half-circles, making him switch directions over and over and over. At first he ran through my signals, but soon I barely had to ask. He started using his brain, lowering his head and licking and chewing. Soon after he slowed to a calm walk. 

I decided to call it a day. I brought him back into the barn to dry off since he had worked up a sweat and then let him back into the arena area. We kept him and Kezi separated for a few more hours so that we could give him more hay. 

So I didn't get to ride my horse yesterday (and I probably won't get to today) but it was still a productive day. I'm impressed with his performance. He never stopped listening to me and calmed down in only a few minutes. I don't know exactly how long it was, but I'm guessing around thirty minutes. I was expecting him to be much more disrespectful, crowd my space or even rear. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a testament to how far we have come (and how much further we have to go).