Feb 25, 2008 - Buck is his name

Yes, my colt has officially been named Buck (short for Lily's Buckshot).

I just got done spending 1 1/2 hours with them and have some pretty good progress. I feel so behind with the colt now because I had to leave for 3 days, but we're getting back to some kind of relationship. He only tried to kick me 3 or 4 times tonight. That is a pretty good improvement. I spent lots of time brushing Lily, and cleaning her hooves. (BTW ... I just have to say that Lily is so much better mannered now with her feet, not that she was bad before. I guess dropping that baby made her more comfortable! lol). I spent a lot of time nearly on my knee's rubbing him under Lily. Everytime he would try to come in for some milk, I would blow in his face, and rub him on the side. After trying to kick me once, he calmed down a little, and was more tolerant of me.

Then I started reaching under Lily with the curry comb and brushing him very gently. It was funny to see how torn inside he was. You could almost see the dialog, "I'm going to kick you ... but then again, this feels good ... that's my butt, now you're going to get it ... but it feels good". I got a hoot out of it. I kept that up, and he got brushed with a curry comb, finishing comb, and even a mane and tail comb.

It's a good thing he doesn' t have teeth! As I was cleaning Lily's rear feet out, Buck would come up behind me and stick his nose everywhere ... and I mean EVERYWHERE! I could barely clean out Lily's hooves while he was digging around in my armpit. My son got a good laugh out of it (he was standing on the gate rubbing Lily's nose).

I'm pleased with the progress and feel like I'll be able to handle the colt again in no time. I am so glad that I gave him his tetanoid shot before I left for Houston. He let me hold him then. I hope to get back to that point soon!

Sorry for the updates. I know most of you have done all this a million times and are probably annoyed by me, but since it's a first time for me, I figured I'd post my thoughts and progress so that A) you can correct me if I'm doing something wrong and B) so if someone joins this forum that is in my boat, they can find these posts and see what it was like for me on my first time. Thanks to all of you who give me feedback. I want to make sure I do things right and be the best owner for these horses that I can be.