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?