Sunday morning, out in the paddock…
- “Rawh! My treatz!” says Copper to Robbie, his best bud -
- “Oh-tay, we iz fwends agin… Wut you mean – Buh Beye? I dunna get it…” -
- “Oh, dis wut you mean… One of dese homen-beanz horse gobbling fingz.” -
- “Srsly – agin with de clicky fing? No… Won’t smile… Wanna eat.” -
- “Weh you goin’? …Mom! …Mom!! DON”T LEAVE ME!!! I DON’T NOE ANYONEZ HERH!!” -
- “Told ya not to go…. *insert smirk*” -
- “I didn’t noes fencez bit! Honest!” -
- “Hai… I iz glad you here…” -
- *omnomnomnom* -
We started by picking up the hire float, then fetching Copper in from the paddock.
I prepped him for travel with float boots and plaiting up his tail. Copper walked up the ramp, stopped – had a sniff and a look, then marched right on.
I was so relieved… I didn’t expect any trouble, I know he’s been well trained with floats being an ex-racer off the track, but counting it up – Copper hasn’t been out on a float in over four years! So I was kind of wondering if he’d be easy or a bit tricky.
We got over to our new home in 45 minutes or so – and he travelled really well, no clopping or clattering around – just eating from his hay net. I should take him out more often… :P
He unloaded fine, we walked around and explored; said hello to new pony faces over the fences, and then walked every inch of his new boundary fences. *phew!* That took a while – and less than half way through he was all: “Can we stahp? Bored now… I want munchies!”
Copper was looking fairly settled - still a bit stressed and anxious, but he wasn't pacing or anything. He was eating, drinking, pooping and peeing - very normal horse behaviour, so I went home to fetch a hose and come back to fill up his trough.
In the hour or so that I was gone the dingbat ran through a border fence between paddocks and ended up in the neighbour's paddock!!
He was okay, but had to be rescued by the neighbour. He ended up with some abrasions on the front of his hind cannons - right on the front/under his hocks.
There was also a minor cut that was a bit deep, it had a skin flap that I gently pulled back and flushed with a ton of betadine!
I bandaged the cut, I was hoping that would hold the skin flap on so it would reattach, but the bandage slipped down in the night and the skin flap was half attached, and half dried up when I came back out the next morning.
I fully expected to see swelling and lameness, but he was actually pretty good. So I guess it’s all’s well that ends well – for that kind of incident it could have been a lot worse.
If it teaches him to respect the fence though, I guess that's good, because seriously horse!
Such a silly boy...
But he is all "Don't leave me!!" when I go down, so I do feel sorry for him.
He's uncharacteristically clingy...
He is fretting a bit, and won't go into the actual paddock to eat. He's just staying the lane way down the front which isn’t very large, and doesn’t have much grass at all.
I mean, it's not like he couldn't stand to lose a few (Let’s be real here - a lot!) kilos, but I don't want him to colic.
I have been visiting him twice a day – once in the morning, and once in the evening for the last three days; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, this happened:
Yep, first ride in new place…
There’s not much to say about it, except he was a lot more rideable than what I’d been expecting!
With a little lunge (when he was trotting he exhaled the giant breath he’d been holding… Lol) and some lateral work at a walk, he was listening and felt quite relaxed when I hopped off 20 minutes later!
I was stoked – I feel like the work we’ve be doing towards learning how to relax even in tense moments has really been sinking in! He had all his marbles, but he was nice and forward – I was thinking that this would be a great competition frame of mind. ;)
It’s all groovy baby.
See ya,
bonita
