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.