Successful Failure

Whisky, who's name will change as soon as Glenn makes up his mind and picks a new one, decided to take off his own halter Friday night. He still wasn't letting us touch him and our only way of getting a hold of him was that halter. So yesterday morning I took his feed up, but didn't dump it in his bucket this time. I sat down in his hay and held his bucket out and just waited. We talked about all manner of things, but especially how the weather was nice and warm and wouldn't he like to be caught and go for a walk in the grass? Either he got tired of listening to me blabber on or he just got hungry and decided I was harmless while sitting on my butt, but he finally walked up and shoved his head in the bucket. I still wasn't allowed to touch him -- as soon as I so much as moved my thumb towards his nose he would jump back. So I left him alone to eat, just happy that he was that close to me and hadn't swung his butt towards me for a kick yet.

Last night we went thru the same process, but this time after eating out of the bucket for a few minutes I put some in my hand an offered that instead. He didn't think twice and gently lipped it out of my hand. Woohoo! Now we're getting somewhere! Maybe I'll be able touch his nose now... nope! He didn't jump back, but he threw up his head and shook it at me. I spent the rest of dinner handing him food and behaving like a good human. At that point I thought it would be at least another week before he trusted me enough to come to me and let me put a halter on him. I didn't want to lasso him again and force myself on him. The truce needed to be on his terms.

All that went out the window this morning when I woke up and looked out the window. Willow had gotten out of the field and was enjoying the lush grass in the yard. But there were still four horses in the pasture and none in Whiskey's little run. Oops. He had freed himself at some point during the night, probably around the same time Willow decided that barbed wire was really not enough to keep her away from our yard. At least she didn't lead the rest of them out for a midnight tour of the neighborhood! So now we have Whiskey sans halter in a six acre pasture with the other horses. Yippee! This will be fun.

Glenn grabbed the lasso and I had the feed in my hand. Once we were up at the barn our other four came running as usual. Whiskey followed up to the barn, but then decided it was too scary so just ran around it a few times. After the others were tied up and eating we led Willow back out as bait. He loves the younger mares and they are now in full season thanks to him. Good thing he hasn't dropped yet, we certainly don't need any more babies!! He got fairly close to Willow and I was able to prove to him that I had food in his bucket and fed him out of my hand for a bit. Every two bites I'd move back a couple of steps and he'd slowly follow until we got him right in front of the barn door, then he wouldn't come any further. We took a few minutes to stew things over, him just staring at his food bucket, us staring at him. I finally put his bucket down and stepped away. He dove for it without hesitation. A few bites later I walked over and moved his bucket back into the barn. Again, he walked right in. Once his butt was past the gate, Glenn shut the gate on him and now he was effectively penned in the barn (machine shed in disguise as a barn) with Willow and Kita.

We tied Willow up and asked her to flirt with him to bring him closer. She had no problems raising up her tail and looking lovingly at the little guy. Good thing he still thinks girls have cooties because I doubt he's tall enough to do any good. After a few minutes Glenn got in a lucky shot with the lasso and we had him! He panicked just a little, but as soon as he realized he wasn't going anywhere he settled down for the rubbing and petting and finished up his breakfast. WHEW! I got a halter on him with no problem then we took off the lasso and he just stood there chewing. Once he finished breakfast and we were frozen it was time to move him back to the cattle pen so we could fix his fence. He led beautifully this time! It helped to have Willow and Kita walking ahead of him, but he only walked a few feet away from me this time and wasn't trying to escape.

When we were halfway to the pen I stopped walking and said "whoa". THE LITTLE BUGGER STOPPED AND LOOKED AT ME. Could he be that smart?? Or did he have some remedial handling at one point in his life and now everything was coming back to him? When I started walking, so did he right beside me. Oh, maybe just maybe this was going to be easier than I thought! Once in the cattle pen we rubbed his face and neck for a few more minutes then dropped the lead rope and let him do his own thing while we got hay and water. A few minutes later I walked over to him to see what he'd do. He walked away a few feet then turned and walked TO me! Note the lead rope is behind him in the pic below.

I grabbed the lead rope with little fuss from him and with only a little tug on the halter we took slow steps over to the water buckets. Once he had some water we made much fuss over him and got more photo ops.

These hardened manure balls may not come off until he sheds, but with a little more time and a lot more patience I may get a pair of scissors under there to take care of things.

He must have rubbed his neck raw when locked in that stall. I'm just not sure what he would have found to rub it on. He isn't tall enough to get that part of his neck over the stall wall.

Time to put some warmer clothes on, grab the carrots and brushes, and go see what kind of fun we can have. :)