Happy Birthday, Ellie

Blu was grazing in a pasture that is shut off from the horses--he walked through the fence and broke several insulators, sigh/laugh. I put his halter on and kittens promptly poured out of the barn. I put Griswold on Blu's back so I could pet him. I took pictures with my cell. Next thing I knew, another kitten appeared on Blu's back. Apparently, Leo jumped on from the fence. Leo and Griswold played. They both almost fell off once and clawed their way back up. Blu did not even flinch, he just kept eating.

When I tossed the kittens back on the fence, Blu smelled them. The kittens did not get frightened by him, so Blu was able to completely satisfy his curiosity--he nose kissed them to his heart's content.

When we left the pasture, Blu had to walk under the wire that he'd walked under to get in. He braced, so I just waited. Then he went under with no problem.

As we went here and there on an adventure to rescue the blanketed Ginger from the blanket-attacking Connor, Blu was not being a very good partner. He would take the slack out several times and he did not seem able to read my thoughts, sometimes. In this preliminary exercise, I concluded that I would not have time to play with him by the time that he was ready to actually play. It was a sort of hypothesis, and I was right: he braced before going into my arena, which means that it symbolizes something negative to him, once inside, I spent the whole time sitting on a barrel while he was introverted for the most part. He did ask me to itch his neck and he rested his head on my knee, but other than that, it was all just waiting.

When Blu woke up, I took off his halter and he followed me away. He paused at the shore to the muddy/watery section before the middle gate. I decided to go to the gate out of the pasture, because that seemed to be what he wanted. He backed out of that gate and I moseyed him to the barn. In the barn, I put hay in his stall, then put him out. He went into Hoosier's stall, even though he had seen me put hay in his stall. I waited for him to solve the puzzle and he finally lit up and went to his stall.

Next Blu session, I would like to do a sort of approach and retreat with my arena, and in the end, feed him inside the arena. Food is the way to my horses' hearts.

Happy Birthday, Ellie,

Natural Horsewoman Out.