Today I had a plan and it failed. I was going to ride Kali  the QH mare on the other side of the creek and tie Perry up to a tree. This way when I was done with Kali I could get on Perry and tie Kali up. I had banked on the fact that Perry wouldn’t like being tied up in the woods because she doesn’t like being by herself out there either. But I also figured that she would chill out in a little bit. Well she did not calm down and instead threw a big fit. She wrapped the rope around the tree one way and then wrapped it the other way, over and over again. I rode Kali on the trails for a good hour waiting for Perry to chill out, but she never did settle down. I moved her to a different tree (land clearing) and then went and got another horse to ride. When I was done with the second horse I untied Perry and took her over to the creek to see if she wanted some water and then tied her back up to her tree.  I then went and got a third horse who I rode on the trails for a good chunk of time also. When I was done with the third horse she had somewhat chilled out and stopped spinning around the tree. I ponied her to the barn and offered her water. Then just to make sure she was going to be good I tied her to yet another tree in our front field and went in the house for about 15 minutes before I went back out and untied her. This time she was standing there resting a foot half asleep (good girl). She got hosed off, flysprayed and put back out with her buddies. I tied her up at around 11:30 and didn’t put her out until 3:30, so it had taken her that whole time to chill out. My plan to ride her didn’t work out at all, but she made the decision that she needed to be tied up more than she needed to be ridden. 

Tuesday, July 25 (Kelsy) Day 51

Perry gave herself a nice puncture wound from being tied to a tree the day before. The wound was right in her left armpit area and seemed to go just under the skin. I had been doctoring the wound with hydrogen peroxide to clean it. At first Perry wasn't sure she really wanted me to touch the wound, let alone flush it out. She would lift that leg and half paw the air, but because she needed to have the wound flushed I would give her a good smack in the belly. I understand that it hurts and she doesn't want me to mess with it. But she also needs to understand that I have to doctor her and that she needs to be a lady about, it or the simple task of health care could take hours of fighting. After her trying a few more times to lift her foreleg up and ecah time getting in trouble, I was able to flush the wound while she stood like a perfect lady. I always hear stories of how it took three people to doctor an injury--one to hold the horse and twitch it, another to try and hold up a foot, and then someone who is trying to doctor the wound itself. In these stories it always takes about an hour and at lease two of the three people get thrown around or hurt. Perry and I had an understanding: I'll go quickly if you mind your manners. No matter how bad the injury is, it is not safe for the horse to misbehave for any reason!

(Side story) Last winter in the middle of December when it was freezing cold Mom's Haflinger Chucky hurt his eye. The vet come out and took look at him to find he had a big, deep cut and was in danger of losing the eye. For about a week he was blind in that eye. I had to doctor him three to four times a day, every day. I can only imagine how much his poor eye hurt, but he let me doctor him every time. Sometimes I had more than one medication to put in his eye. After about a week I didn't even have to take a halter out with me to put the stuff in his eye, he would just put his head on my shoulder and wait like a good boy. If Chucky can let me doctor a significant eye wound for two months like a gentleman, then everyone else can be good too around here.

After flushing Perry's wound out well, I hopped on her bareback in the arena to ride. She was the tiniest bit off on the leg so we just walked, but there were lots of things to work on at the walk. I started by checking out her leg yields because we hadn't done those in a long time. Of course being Perry she did both of them perfectly the first time. I tried to point this out to my horses who were in the dirt lot next to the arena, but they didn't listen. Perry also worked on turning teardrops off of the fence back to the other direction with her forequarters leading (or pulling). This is one of those things you can do to help speed up the spins. After you get the teardrops down slowly, then you have to speed them up so you are powering out of the turn. It's fun once you get them doing it fast, plus it looks cool when done right. Perry also worked on backing circles, which she thought was really hard and it might have helped if I had better timing. To back a circle you bend the horses the opposite direction that you want them to go. If you want to back to the right you will bend them left and slip your left leg back a little bit to help direct their hindquarters. If we are backing a circle to the right, I have to time my hand with Perry's left front foot. When her left front foot leaves the ground I want to lift it out to the side with my hand. If you miss the timing when the foot leaves the ground then you won't get the step out and the circle won't take shape.

After playing in the arena for a bit Ches got one of her new training horses and was going to ride around the track. I thought Perry and I would join in for a leisurly walk. Well that didn't pan out because Ches' horse decided to throw a huge fit the second she asked him to walk off, including rearing and throwing himself on the ground and then running off to his buddies like a mad man more than once. I do have to say the look on Perry's face was priceless as she stood about 20 feet from all this commotion. It was the look of bewilderment like, "wow, what's his issue?". Instead of going around the track Perry got to stand around on a long rein and watch a spoiled fit, but she never once even considered joining in the other horse's energy or tantrum.

 Thursday, July 27 (Kelsy) Day 53


Perry didn't get ridden Wednesday because she had her wolf-teeth out and I thought she might like a day off. For some reason we decided to ride brother and sister together again along the track. The only plan for the ride was to walk through a deep ditch that separates two fields. Perry led the way through it like a champ and she never once thought of not going. She did take a moment to look at its depth, but then walked right through. The field we came out in had not been mowed and it was full of ruts, making it "bad footing training." Perry and I picked our way across the field. She is extremely sure footed for a young horse of any breed. We ended up on a side path off the track that takes us around to a camping area. On the path we played with her bending and a handful of transitions. Once we got to the camping site we bush whacked out the back and ended up going through a little bog and returning to the track. Then we looped around the track over to the elk trail up the hill. We cantered up the hill, jumping the little logs on the way and Perry thought it was great fun. She is always expected to walk down hills like a lady, and on the way back down, even after cantering up the hill, she walked flat footed to the bottom and to home.