The Day After Yesterday

After rewriting this like 3 times, I finally figured it'd be easier on anyone who reads this if I just started out with some background things going on in the past few days.

For starters,  I've had a horrible time with Moose's draw recently - he'll just stand there and lean on the pressure. Sometimes he'll be great, but other days he'll be awful. It doesn't seem like unconfidence, so I wasn't really sure what to do about it. Then, I thought about make vs. want, and realized he should LOVE to come to me. Well, it's not exactly fixed yet, because it's a new invention of his, so to speak, but in the past 3 days he's came to me 3 times at liberty, so a GREAT start!!

Also, I've been thinking about Bella and Moose's confidence levels a LOT lately. Bella is an attention hound and is very curious about things, so I think she loves to learn and has no issues with people. And I had a sort of light bulb moment when I thought about Moose. I don't think he likes to learn. I am still developing this theory, but I think to him learning is stressful (kind of like how Allure used to be a very unconfident learner, just that Moose is not nearly as extreme). For example, the other day I had plans to play with a saddle we've got laying around here. I brought it up to Moose and let him sniff it. He sniffed it, but immediately after walked away quickly. On the other hand, Bella comes up and just says "OMG!! You have an English saddle! What's that taste like?" So then, I put it on the ground near Moose and walked away. He was really curious about it then. Situations like this one lead me to conclude (Ha, I sound like I'm writing a science paper) that Moose has confidence issues with humans. I will definitely have to lick and chew on that for a while!

Now onto my ACTUAL post. Starting off with yesterday: the day didn't go so well. I was trying to stop Moose  from throwing his head away from me every time I go to halter him. Basically, he had other ideas. And I started getting frustrated and emotional, and eventually just quit. I knew if I kept going things were just going to go even further downhill. Although, Dancer did roll near me, so I can't call the day a complete failure.

Now on to TODAY!!  Objective of the day was to help Moose gain confidence with the tarp. So, I grabbed one and went to work. We ended up playing at liberty, because I never haltered him. It seemed unnecessary, because he was responding alright without it. So, I started out with him sniffing the tarp. Once he sniffed it, I'd walk away. Eventually, he'd lick his lips, so I'd let him think for a little while once he did that. Once he was alright sniffing it, I tried to pet him with it, but there was a threshold about touching him anywhere else but his nose. A saying popped into mind here: "If he's scared of blackbirds, get him used to eagles." So, I wagged the tarp around and retreated until he looked at me. The first time he looked at me was about 20 feet away, at a guess. Well, I continued approaching and retreating, until I was about 6 feet away. Then, he came to me and sniffed the tarp, and blew a few times! Now THAT is a sign for session over!

In comparison of the 2 days, it's interesting how things work out: I can play with the horses for a whole 3 hours some days and have everything go wrong that will. But other days, like today,  I can have 30 minutes, have a GREAT time, and get more done than in that 3 hours. "How interesting!"

And I almost forgot. . . (as if I could forget). . . I got my braces off today!! YAY!! So, after 2.5 years of scrubbing and yanking and grinding and pushing and pulling and all those other things us teens go through to have nice teeth, I finally have them. Can't say they're perfect as of yet, though, because they hurt like the devil at the moment. But in a day or two, I should be pain-free and acting in Orbit gum commercials.

Throu gh

Ever heard of Rebus puzzles before? Anyone . . . anyone? Well, if not, then here's a few examples.









I won't give away the answers until the bottom of this post, but basically that's what they are. Just word plays. Though, some are obviously going to be harder than others, as you can see. Anyways, the reason that all this is mentioned is because the title is a Rebus puzzle. So, see if you can figure it out. It should be easy-schmeezy if you read the rest of this post. But again, the answers are posted at the bottom if you have trouble.

But onto the reason for this post: a Throu  gh!!!! 2 of them, actually! So, it was an exciting day today. Now, seeing as it is Sunday, I have more time than normal with the horses. So, I went outside today with the intention of just spending undemanding time. Undemanding time with: an apple core, a halter,  12' rope, tarp, carrot stick, AND a brush! Not to mention that I'm all bundled up in snow pants and boots and gloves. Needless to say, I felt and looked quite silly! At least the ponies certainly thought so. . . lol.

I was very pleased with Dancer, to begin with. She was the first to greet me today, and thus earned an apple core for her effort. She also let me brush her which was incredible. Considering that the other horses get jealous whenever I LOOK at her, it was nice to be able to show her I care for once.

Back to the apple core scenario: Moose decides to come over, being hungry/jealous, and he let me brush him! That may sound like, "oh. . . whoopee," but for him that's amazing! If I hadn't brought all that stuff out, I probably would've left right then! So, I think our relationship is getting better in baby steps.

Afterwards, I messed around with the tarp. Sidenote: I made a decision that I'm not going to ride Moose until he trusts me enough to accept the tarp on his back. Key phrase there: until he trust me. If I feel that he trusts me enough without the tarp, then it'd be unnecessary. It's just that if he won't accept a tarp, how's he going to accept a saddle or blanket, or even a HUMAN on his back? As Pat says, "If he's afraid of blackbirds, get him used to eagles." So there was my original motivation for taking out the tarp, until Bella side-tracked me with her uber-curiousity.

Which leads me to the other 'throu gh' that happened today: Bella accepted the tarp on her! At liberty, too. While we still have more progress that can be made with it, it's a great start! I can put it over her back when it's bundled up, and I can rub her with it. I'm not keeping it there for very long yet, but she's still doing pretty good! And to make a long story short, the horses were really hungry today, because Bella started eating the tarp. I think it is only going to have a few more weeks longer to live, lol. She tore quite a hole in it. But that's okay, we have an extra.

Answers (from right to left):

1. Up for grabs


2. A friend in need


3. Painless operation (if you got this one, you must be a frickin genius!! Or you've seen it before, lol)


4. Wake up

Drumroll please . . . and the answer to the title is . . .

5.   Breakthrough

Thanks for playing! If you thought these were interesting, you can find more Rebus puzzles here.