Week one: Overview

Well, what an exciting & eventful week this has been.
Here’s a small list of some things from this week:

-The float ride home, nerve wrecking.
-Facing up to me after she ran off the float, WONDERFUL!
-Confidently approaching me, yay.
-Leading around a bit, FANTASTIC.
-Running away, therefore getting the rope/s caught in all sorts of places, not so good…
-Getting eaten alive by Beau, not too good.
-Just being fantastic? Haha, lots of brownie points.
-PATTING ALL DOWN HER NECK! That felt so wonderful! Never did achieve that again though…
-Just standing there, no feed, just in a complete calm state, patting her head.
-How good it feels when she starts chewing from relaxation.
-And lots of other things!!

Really, it’s been fantastic and the biggest learning curve for me! And she’s getting so used to be already, she’s learning so fast. Imagine what she’ll be like at the end of…week 3? Who knows!

Actress Diary #8

(It seems abit weird, this being #8 diary when its been 7 days...)

Sunday 29th of June 2008

Well, it’s officially been a week since I bought Actress home, I still can’t believe, I actually own a horse, I own a brumby, and I’m training it! Woaaah!
So I’ll start of with what I just did. So, went out with the evening feed, I’m going to start adding the copra meal to her diet (just for a bit of flavour?) But, now I’m thinking I won’t do that, I’ll add carrot first so when Haylee visits on July 7th Actress will hopefully be eating out of my hand.
Okay so anyway, Actress wanders over to me, as per usual. Which is great, but tonight’s a bit different, my little brother is on his motorbike, so she’s a bit distracted by the scary trail bike, yet, even when she’s run off a little because of it, she ALWAYS came back to me!! Yay!
And since she was a bit distracted and flighty because of the motorbike I decided to only work on achievable things, like approaching & following me. Which Actress is getting quite good at now.
She even follows me at the end of the session, empty bucket (she’s probably licked the bottom clean too) and I’m not too interested in her, I turn around and there she is, following me! Ha, oh well, good thing suppose.
And I managed to take the second lead off for her, she just let me grab it – good girl (: and calmly let me take it off, she didn’t even flinch, just stood their, calm look on her face, ears pricked forward! Not like yesterday, sticking her bum in my face and getting me all worried she’d hoon around all night!

Okay, so earlier on today I went out with the morning meal, my memory is really shocking, but we basically worked on just her approaching & following, nothing challenging, I didn’t try to take the lead off either.
And at around 10:30am she had her mid morning nap with Cheyenne. Basically, I just went out there to say hey, and Cheyenne trotted over too, I just stood their watching them interact with each other. I must say it’s amazing to watch, and so tender! And then Actress felt comfortable enough to go to sleep while I was around! Awwh! Not lying down of course, just standing, but still…that felt nice.

Actress Diary #7

Saturday 28th of June 2008

Well, I’ve nearly had Actress for a whole week. And I suppose, its been very interesting for me. But I’ll do the weeks overview tomorrow.
Let’s move onto today. Well being a Saturday I had a lot of time on my hands. I went at like usual in the morning, however, I couldn’t grab her lead rope at all, and she was a bit apprehensive as well. So after this morning’s visit I felt like a bit of a failure, not achieving anything. But I know it’s not her fault, I mean, the lead rope was always underneath her so it was just hard. And after a certain amount of time she will just go away to the fence.
Also, she was very interested when I was picking up her manure. She didn’t run away at all, and tried to approach me a few times, although when she saw the big scary blue thing she decided she was better off eating grass.
I’m usually only out there twice a day, so I wanted to just hang around her, get Actress used to me.
And at one point Cheyenne’s “mum” Dana was standing at the fence (unexpectedly) so I chatted to her for awhile, while Actress hung around and did the whole “I’m walking over to you, oh wait you saw me, no I was just eating grass, not approaching you, ha!” routine.
Around this time was a really good learning period for her too, because there was a gay and his son next door lighting their big bon-fire, and then Dana and her two sisters and mother (and dog) where hanging around, as well as general passer-Byers.
In the afternoon I went for a walk, and it was very cute, because when Actress saw me walking up a hill near her paddock she trotted over (naww) and then on my way back she saw me and was all very interested.
So, when I went out to give her, her night time feed, I managed to do some leading – yes she was following the bucket, but that essentially meant she was following me, and then I attached the second lead rope to the other one just for some leverage.
I popped the bucket down, and wanted to work on just touching her head, but, alas Actress got spooked and ran off, I did try really hard to hold onto the rope, but with both of them sliding through my un-gloved hands, I couldn’t hold on. Leaving Actress with the long rope draped over her back and trailing on the ground.
She didn’t settle for awhile, and me being the worry wart I am got all panicky that something was going to go horribly wrong.
So I called Colleen, lovely Colleen (Victorian Brumby Association) and told her what happened. Colleen assured me that she would be fine, and if it snagged on something she would just stop because she is a smart, sensible horse.*
I really need to learn to relax, but I just don’t want anything to happen to Actress. Plus, she’s my first horse as well, so…I guess it comes with the territory.
So after I got off the phone from Colleen, I tried to approach Actress again but she wasn’t having any of it, she was fine though.
And perhaps having the lead on her back will help in the future when we want to start her.

*Note: All Brumbies are smart, sensible horses because they're just so wonderful! :)

And as you can se in the top right, there is a piccy of Actress I took today. She's such a dork sometimes, she's got her tongue out here, as you can see, she does that quite often! Haha. And you can see her 'lipstick' or the pink skin on her lip.

One step forward, one step back: Actress Diary #6

Friday, 27th of June 2008

Discovery: Actress works better in the mornings.
Why: Probably, because she’s rested, refreshed, and abit lethargic. Obvious reasons really.
What happened: Well, I wasn’t planning on working on anything too serious, just the usual getting her to approach me (Which she is doing FANTASTICLY!) I was basically on the other side of the paddock to her (say, 80 metres away?) and she wandered all the way over. Anywho, so there’s little Actress eating away in her bucket, I’m patting her forhead, and then I’m patting between her ears, and before I know it, I’ve rubbed almost the full length of her neck! This was amazing, truly amazing, too be able to touch her somewhere other than her face, to run my fingers through her thick hair. Oh it was fantastic!

Later on today…

Dilemma: Lead rope is over her neck and hanging on the other side. If she steps on it when she walks her head is jolted in a twisting movement. Distressing for me and her!
What happened: Actress wasn’t too keen on approaching me, seemed very nervous, and Beau and Cheyenne were not helping by messing around and fighting.
How I attempted to fix this: Well, since I managed to pat her down the neck this morning, I’m sure she’ll be fine with my trying to get the rope off. No such luck, while doing the usual patting her on the forehead while she eats, she wasn’t even letting me do that!
Overall: Unsuccessful, I’m hoping she’ll go for a gallop and the lead will fly backwards and end up on the other side, chances of that happening? Not too sure…she does hoon around a fair bit. We will see how she is tomorrow morning.




Also got an email of Colleen today:

Hey there!

The blog looks great!

I have emailed Krystal to ask about the trick training day and will let youknow. I hope you can make it - when you're here, if you like, I can show youhow I normally teach the Brumbies to start with lungeing, which once Actressis feeling more confortable will be her next step.

I'm so glad she is leading for you - that is a big leap in trust. Wildhorses follow their herd leader, so the fact that she will go with you,speaks well for your relationship! It also goes to show how people specificthey are - particularly in the early stages - as she was leading quite wellfor me, she just needed to know that you were her herd leader too!

Talk soon,

Colleen

Actress Diary #5

26th June 2008 (Thursday)

Well last night was incredibly windy, I feel sorry for little Actress, she doesn’t have much protection, but I’m sure she was fine.
However, I think battling the strong winds and me trying to push her too far yesterday say her not so compliant this morning.
Really, she didn’t do anything wrong, I was just finding it hard to grab the lead so essentially, we didn’t do much this morning except worked on her approaching me, which is always a good thing.
Still lovely however

Later on today…

SUCCESS! WE HAVE SUCCESS!
Lovely little Actress, she’s so fantastic!
So I went out to her paddock this afternoon, armed with a scoop of chaff and an extra lead rope – determined to do something productive.
And well, we did!
The main things we worked on today were leading & head patting.
I have the greatest urge to groom her, but I know I can’t…
Anywho, so with the leading, armed with the chaff, we commenced leading. If she stopped walking, she’d have pressure applied to the lead, and I would do clicking noises and show her the bucket, once she took a step forward, the pressure was released, clicking noises stopped and the bucket hidden.
What’s lovely however, is that when I do lead her around, the lead is so loose I might as well not be holding her.
Wonderful lesson today!
I love my baby.

Actress Diaries #1-4

These entry features the first 4 diary entries I have written about Actress since the first full day of having her (Sunday the 22nd of June 2008).
Future posts won't contain multiple entries.

22nd June 2008

Well, yesterday we bought little Actress home! A very fluffy little black brumby! She was fine with the float ride home, checked up on her about half an hour into the trip and she was fine, the most tedious part of the ride home would have to be going through traffic lights! Then we got home, after a 3 hour drive, and getting her off the float was very scary for me, and for her…I untied her and fed her some chaff mixed with a bit of copra meal, she started to “spit” chunks of chaff back out, looked at me with the saddest face and made this soft, almost squealing noise that would be the equivalent of a small child, whilst crying going “owwh mummy my tummy really hurts”. This worried me so much! I nearly cried myself; I didn’t know what was wrong with her. Actress then began to jolt around in the float, and one thing I learned is that floats make the noise A LOT louder than the noise actually is. To cut the story short, Actress ran out the back of the float herself, leaving me with a blood blister (ew) but she’s fine. I tried to lead her through the paddock to her water, but alas…leading isn’t her strong point, so I focused on yielding her hindquarters for a couple of turns and then some head patting before just letting her go. Almost immediately her two neighbours Beau and Cheyenne were up at the fence incredibly interested in this little black thing! It was very cute watching them sniff and trot up and down the fence, Beau and Cheyenne were just so into her, they were like “wow, you’re like…new here and wow we just want to look at you”.I left her for the night with some hay and went to sleep.When I woke up this morning she was still at the fence with those two, but I found some evidence she’d been around the whole paddock.For our games this morning I approached her with a feed bucket and did some more head patting and hindquarter yielding, mainly head patting. I tried to lead her but this isn’t a strong point in the little pony (by now I had ditched the feed bucket under a tree) so I want back to some circles. I put her lead rope on the ground and said “now baby I’m just going to get the bucket” I went, picked it up and just stood about 12 feet away from her, and to my surprise she walked up and had a feed, I walked forward again and the same thing happened, I repeated this till I got to about the middle of the paddock, and introduced clicking noises so she kinda associated clicking with her walking towards me. Very happy with her, she’ll be great in a few weeks time. Will go play with her some more at lunchtime (8:42am currently) and some more at dinner, plus she’ll get a lot of visitors today!…later onWell, we had most of the family over today and poor little Actress, well maybe poor little me! I was so stressed out because everyone wanted to go see her and I know how scared she is and rarghh! I think she was tired and just really over people.But what was nice was when I put her hay out for the night and a salt lick and she didn’t run away; she came up to the hay, had a nibble and then licked her salt.I know she’ll improve greatly, and will enjoy me being at school this week (haha)

23rd June 2008 (Monday)

Well, I’m sure Actress will be happy today as I will be at school so she can just chill out and relax, plus I have deb practice which goes till 5:30 :( Which, isn’t that great because it means I don’t get to play with her this afternoon…Well yesterday, Actress went for a fantastic run. She’s so beautiful, and to just see those powerful little legs jet across the paddock, mane flying behind her…awww…She reminds me of a Morgan or a Friesian, the way she moves and looks, but a little one...who knows, maybe there’s some in her background? I doubt it, but it’s a nice thought.This morning it was so dark! I had to wait till 7:15 to go out and see her, when I did, she was lying down next to the fence with her two protectors standing over her, naww she looked so sweet. When I came back with the chaff, she gave Cheyenne a little nose kiss and then headed towards the bucket, we made a couple of frequent stops on our journey to her hay, but at one point (And I’ll remind you, I don’t have the lead when we do this) we walked quite a fair way without stopping, it was fantastic. She is an amazing little horse, she’ll improve quickly I can tell. I just sit and watch her, she’s fantastic. Later on today… (Night time)Well, my stress level is VERY high! I had deb practice this afternoon till 5:30pm, so when I got home it was practically pitch black & couldn’t go out to my baby, but she had plenty of hay, and her paddock has so much grass she’ll be fine! What my worry is, is 3 year old Cheyenne next door, leans on our fence to get to grass (and Actress) I haven’t seen the damage but mum seems pretty certain that the fence can break at anytime! This is horrible, firstly, how do we fix something like this? And secondly, I’ve seen those two in a paddock with a new comer, if they do break the fence, and get in with Actress, they can cause some serious damage to her… Also, Beau has been biting Actress…argh, I wish things could just be ‘perfect’.

Also got an email today of Colleen:
“Hi Melissa,I'm so glad that things are going well. Trust is such a big thing for thebrumbies - I know that Actress will settle in really well with you and startto trust you VERY soon! It sounds like she is already pretty close as you'recatching her etc! Sounds like she coped pretty well with the trip -I'm sorryyou got your blood blister though! Sounds painful!She's great at approaching you, isn't she? She always seems more comfortableif she comes up to me, than if I go up to her and I like to encourage themcoming up too!As you've discovered, food is a wonderful motivator, but don't use it allthe time - you need to know that when the food isn't there, she will stilldo things for you. It is a great tool for helping her to feel comfortableand provided for by you though!The pic is so beautiful - she does have amazing eyes, doesn't she?!Keep me in the loop!Colleen”

24th June 2008 (Tuesday)

Well this morning when I went out with the bucket of chaff, she started to walk towards me before I’d even stopped! That was wonderful, then I made her follow me a fair way before giving her a feed. Did some head patting which is always marvellous, then I tried it without the feed, ehhh…she wasn’t too happy with that, so I worked on yielding her hindquarters, and after a couple of goes she remembered to stand still, yay! Then I tried to work on leading her, I did it with the bucket, but applied pressure on the lead and hopefully that did something.Has to be short cause I’m running late today.Deb alterations at 4, atleast that won’t take too long.Ciao!Later on today (5:30pm)Well, when I got back from deb alterations at 4:40-50 I put some hay in a bucket, and Actress strolled over to me, then decided she didn’t want too, but then decided she did…but then, she decided she didn’t like hay and walked away! Hmph..So, I put two halfish scoops of chaff into her bucket and gathered her up again. I tried to introduce the ‘stick’ today, but alas…it is scary despite Colleen saying she’d already been rubbed down by one, ah well. Did some circles, did lots of head patting, I can now touch her all down the front of the face, but not the side, I tried three times but she didn’t appreciate my efforts. I noticed her attention wandering and decided she’s already had enough, let down the lead, and then decided to see if she would yield without the lead, naww precious girl did! Once, the second try she freaked out abit.Naww, she’s so precious, I think today nothing new was really learnt but I managed a couple of achievements.

25th June 2008 (Wednesday)

Well today…WE LED! Yaaaaay :D The morning started off with me doing the usual, getting the chaff…and little miss Actress wandered over to me, ah I love it when she does that. Then I decided we’d have a leading lesson today, so, with the feed bucket in front of me, and the horse behind we began to wander around the paddock. I never offered her the bucket unless she was refusing to walk, other than that; she generally couldn’t see the bucket. After about 15 minutes I thought that was enough, she’d lead all over the paddock in numerous directions. I popped her feed bucket down, and then had a little thought of, well lets see if you lead without the bucket, and she did! Oh so precious! Not for very long, she was probably sick of it.Later on today (lunchtime)Well, failed. Failed. Failed. But it doesn’t matter, I understand that she is probably restless because its soooo windy! And the sun has finally come out after many days, and of course, Cheyenne and Beau have been messing around and not setting a good example for her.I won’t go into details (its not that exciting anyway) but I’ll say, she only happily approaches you if theres chaff, not hay, and I started doing some yielding and she freaked and ran off, I tried to face her back to me but I just couldn’t, leaving me with a sore hand & ankle.Ahhh, well, two steps forward one step back right? Will just try again tonight to just have a pat, and standing there calmly.
Okay so I went out there, and ah, things didn't go to well...I definatly think the wind hasn't been helping. We'll try again tomorow...maybe I'm pushing her too far?