Boots!

Raven bought me boots today!! (Thank you my love!) He bought boots for himself as well, which is wonderful! He previously had said that I would never get him into cowboy boots. After dealing with the dirt that gets inside regular laced shoes and boots however, and after Stella stepped on and bruised both my feet in the space of a few weeks (I was wearing sneakers, having nothing more protective), he changed his mind. He could see the usefulness of and purpose for cowboy boots at the stable.

Things were crazy at the stable today. There is a seminar going on all weekend, and there were horses, people, and trailers all over. Last night a few of the horses for the seminar had already come in and things were off-schedule so we ended up cutting Stella's time out and about short. She was not at all happy about the sprinklers coming on in the outdoor arena when we were in the adjoining pasture. The sprinklers in the pasture came on not long after we left it. I really don't want to think about what would have happened if they had come on while we were still in there. I don't know if there was actually a person turning them on or if the auto stuff just got messed up, since the sprinklers in the pasture weren't scheduled to come one for another hour.

Stella was somewhat mollified when she didn't get outside this morning by getting lots of petting and brushing instead. Some days I think she would rather just get pet and not have to do anything to earn it.

Along with the horses that came for the seminar, there is also a huge mule. Turns out Raven had never been up close to a mule before, so we went to say hello to it when its person had it out for the lunch break today. It is a Percheron cross, so it is an extremely large, quite sturdy animal. It also makes a noise that Stella finds amazing and intriguing. When we had her out this evening (just walking around the drive since both the inside and outside arenas looked like we weren't supposed to use them this weekend) Stella wanted to go and see the mule. The mule's owner says that they smell different than horses, and Stella makes me believe it. She doesn't care one bit about the other horses when we walk past them, but that mule really got her attention. Its braying also made her stop and pay attention. The first time she heard it, Stella spun around with a "What was THAT?" expression.

Even with the excitement and interest of the mule though, Stella will be happy when the seminar is over and she can get back to going out like normal.

A Little Bit of Stella Love

Hello again. I know it has been a while, sorry, life was happening and then I got . . . stalled. Anyhow, I'm back, and there are more pictures of Stella!

Where Stella was fairly brown when we brought her home, she is getting darker again. When she is really brushed down and clean she sometimes looks like the BLM might have been right when they labeled her "black." Usually though she is now just a dark bay. And her white flecks are growing more and more numerous and have spread to her cheeks and the top of her back.

Stella goes out and walks around with us in the mornings. This weekend I upped her distance from .70 miles to a full mile. Most days we walk that distance twice a day, so she is getting in two miles of walking most days. Mondays and Wednesdays are the exceptions, since there is a horse riding class at the stable those evenings. After Stella dragged me across the gravel because of those students I now just stay in stall and love on her. Not that she complains much about the extra love and attention. Love from Raven, love from Mom, love from me, she really doesn't care as long as whoever is in the stall with her is petting and loving on her and giving her attention.

Stella loves getting pet and scratched so much that there are those days where I think she would really prefer to just get loved on and not go out walking. I don't think she would ever turn down going out to the grass pasture though, she loves her grass, and since she only gets to go out to pasture if she goes walking first, she is willing to walk with us.

Horse in a Hat

I wore a hat to the stable to see how I would handle it (My MS means that I usually cannot handle having a brim, and sometimes not even a beanie). Since I was handling it ok, I decided to see how Stella would handle wearing a hat.

She didn't care. At. All.

For that matter I'm not entirely convinced she even noticed until it fell off when she put her head down into her feed bin to eat.

She did give me a bit of a look though, as if to say "Really?" Then I put it on her while we were walking around the indoor arena, and she walked along without any issues. I think she might even have held her head still as she walked so she didn't drop it. 

Stella is adorable, and now I am going to knit her horse hats! I found a pattern for a Santa hat, and reindeer antlers, and a leprechaun hat, and . . . well, I found a few patterns. And she will be ADORABLE!!

A Man on a Brown Horse

I discovered a fear of Stella's today. Up until today she has been sensible about almost everything (with the exception of cars starting up right beside her, but I completely understand that one). Today there was a situation that she was not sensible about, and it took Mom and I a moment to figure out why Stella was reacting so strongly.

There was a good amount of activity going on around the stable this evening. There was a lesson going on in the indoor arena. There were two riders on brown horses in the outdoor arena. The fact the horses were brown will be important. 

Mom and I decided to take Stella out to the grass pasture to let her graze and see if either of the two arenas opened up while we were out there. Now, the grass pasture shares a fence line with the outdoor arena. Not a problem, Stella likes the grass on the other side of the pasture best anyway.

Well, walking out to the pasture Stella was pretty antsy. She had to stop and take a good long look at the two riders in the outdoor arena. I understand that, she has only seen one other person riding in there before. In several previous experiences of Stella's there has been a woman riding a white horse around the arena. Stella has watched this woman ride around, but has not shown any great concern, just interest. But these two riders really got Stella's attention and she wanted to hustle past them at a quick walk, keeping an eye on them the whole time.

We got into the grass pasture fine and Stella took a few bites. Then the man on the brown horse in the outdoor arena began to lope. Stella's head shot up, her eyes showed white, and she ran circles around me, spinning to face the riders as quick as she could every time. Stella was scared. Really scared. She didn't try to pull away hard (there was some pulling, just not what I know she is capable of), but she circled me. Once she took a kick in my general direction when I wasn't running with her, as though she was trying to get me to move and run away too. I held my ground and she stopped circling and stood stock still staring at the man on the brown horse as he went around the arena.

It occurred to Mom first. All of Stella's experiences with men on brown horses running are probably bad. There were almost certainly men on brown horses there chasing her and her herd when she was captured. It was probably a man on a brown horse that cut her away from her dam and her herd. It was men on brown horses who cut her out and drove her into the trailer when I adopted her. Men on brown horses are dangerous to her. They do bad things. They destroyed her world and took away everyone and everything she cared about. Men on brown horses have hurt her and chased her and scared her repeatedly for her whole life. After I realized that I understood her fear of men on brown horses.

We spent at least 10 minutes in the grass pasture, and by the end of the time the riders had stopped running around the arena and were standing at the far gate, and Stella settled down to eat grass, but always with an eye or ear monitoring the man on the brown horse.

Stella was still a bit dancy when we led out of the pasture, and Mom and I decided that she'd had enough excitement for the evening. She certainly got her heart rate up (and mine too).

Back in her stall Stella got brushed and groomed and her feet picked. The farrier was out to do the hooves of one of the other boarders and I went down to see if he had an old rasp he would part with (The stable owner said that he might, since he just throws them away when they get worn down). I want to get Stella used to getting her feet worked on more than just getting picked out. The farrier was working and so I went back up to be with Stella again, figuring on going down when he was finished.

Then the owner went into the barn with the farrier from the lesson she had been giving, so I got in the car an we headed home. I am trying to interact as little as possible with the stable owner. Apparently everything I say or do, especially when I ask a question or voice a concern, is a complaint, and she will kick me and Stella out if we complain about anything more, so my current plan is just to keep my head down, my mouth shut, and avoid interacting with her at all costs and the rest of the staff as much as possible.

Stable Issues

Well, I didn't get kicked out of the stable where I'm boarding Stella. Almost, but not quite. Now, the stable owner has decided "we'll give it another month and see." Apparently Mom and I complain too much. So now we just need to keep our heads down and avoid interacting with the owner or anyone else at the stable for any reason whatsoever, and maybe Stella will get to stay.

Right, there was a rant after this, but it's not worth the risk.

So yeah, really shitty day at the stable. Here's a picture of my sweet little Stella eating grass:

Stella's Weekend with Raven

Raven got a full time instructor position at a community college, where he teaches Monday through Thursday and doesn't get home until about 10pm. This has done two things: 1) I have become the primary cook during the week [I have started blogging about my cooking adventures here], and 2) Raven only gets to come out and play with Stella on Friday and the weekend. Since he gets to see Stella so much less, we spent this weekend making his time with her count as much as we could.

Normally, I take Stella out and work her in the arena while Raven watches from the side. Not this weekend. This weekend I was the one watching while Raven worked with Stella. He even got her to trot around the arena with him the first day! I can hardly get her to trot more than once and even then not for a whole circuit of the arena.

Raven also took Stella out to the grass pasture for a few minutes of munching and relaxing. This pasture is entirely for enjoyment, not for work. The whole point is to stand around and eat grass.

It only took her one visit to this pasture for it to become her new favorite place. Now, after just two days, when we start to head that direction her ears perk up and she gets a bounce in her step. She really likes this pasture!

Grass! And a New Halter

So, as I understand it, Stella as a Mustang isn't supposed to get anything but grass hay and alfalfa, and whatever they find out at pasture. No oats, no carrots, nothing like that. Her stomach digests differently than a truly domestic horse I guess, more used to all-day foraging instead of scheduled feedings.

I have a hard time not giving my horse something special. So I thought about what I could give her that would be ok. And I decided on fresh grass in a watered pasture. From what I have read online turn out time in a pasture is just fine, as long as the Mustang gets eased into it, since they might not have had any access to fresh grass when they were in the BLM facilities. Besides, Stella loves finding all sorts of weeds along our walking route, so I figured she would like getting grass even more.

The stable has a turn-out pasture that they water every night so it has green grass growing even in August. This isn't manicured grass either, this is wildish clumpy grass that seems to only be mowed down by the horses who go out into the pasture to munch it.

I took Stella out to this pasture for just 5 minutes of munching. I don't want her to make herself sick on fresh grass. She was quite happy to get to eat fresh grass, as you can see. After her 5 minutes she was fine following me back out of the pasture, and she didn't even pull much to get to the weeds that she usually tries to go for along our walk.

Stella's lack of pulling may come from the fact that she pulled me down again (sort of) yesterday, so I put a new halter on her. I say "sort of" because she pulled away and took off and I actually did let go in time, but then I stepped in a hole, rolled my ankle, and fell down. It was stormy, and Stella's feed bin was empty, and she was pissed off. I guess she figured that the first time she pulled away it had worked, so she would try it again.

You may notice that the halter she has on in this picture is blue, while her other one was red(ish). This is a rope halter called a Be Nice. It is designed with knobby bits across the top and the whole thing tightens up if she pulls back hard. It's not enough to cause pain of course, but it is enough to be uncomfortable. As soon as she stops pulling back it loosens up again and is a nice loose halter once more.

Stella did in fact try pulling away from Mom the next time we took her out after she got away from me the second time, but Mom kept a tight hold of her. Stella seemed startled and disappointed by the fact her pull-away trick didn't work. I switched her to the new halter anyway, since my little filly is too smart to think that just because she can't get away from one person means she can't get away from anyone. 

We'd had the Be Nice for decades now, having gotten both a Medium and a Large for our horse Sam, not knowing what size he would need. He took the Large, and Stella fits the Medium. It still had its tags on. We didn't use the Be Nice for the control factor on Sam as he was old and couldn't be bothered to spook or get jumpy anymore, but it is also really easy to take on and off compared to other halters. We just flipped the knobby bits over so they didn't press on his neck. Sam seemed to appreciate not having to fuss about getting his halter on and off for more than a second or two. Stella also seems to appreciate how fast it comes on and off, and hasn't shown any more or less willingness to get this halter put on than the old one.