So I'm pretty excited about the progress I'm making.
I just thought I'd post an update to let everyone know I'm still
alive and kicking.
Yesterday I put the harness on Lily and we pulled the tractor tire
around the pasture. She is doing well, and is getting the hang of
all the voice commands. I noticed something very cool as I was
driving her.
Normally when I do this kind of thing, I put Gracie away so that she
doesn't interfere with our lesson. Yesterday I decided that I
actually wanted to see how Lily would handle the distraction.
So let me paint the scene for you. Lily (lead mare numero uno) was
in harness and totally calm and cool, obeying all my instructions.
Gracie (a wannabe lead mare and turd extraordinair) noticed right
away that Lily was "busy". So little miss gracie took advantage of
the situation to show that SHE was hot stuff.
I started driving Lily, and at first Gracie followed behind us ...
but very soon, she started getting very hyper and acting crazy. She
basically ran circles around Lily and I (about 40 feet away from us)
bucking and kicking as she ran. I swear she can reach those back
feet up to about 10 feet in the air. You would've thought she was a
bucking bull by how she was carrying on.
Lily was having problems standing still as instructed ... so we
worked on "Woah" quite a bit. When we would stop ... Little miss
turd would run in on Lily, and nibble on her neck and shoulders.
Now I've seen Lily put Gracie in her place a million times. The
first time Gracie came in and started messing with Lily, I was ready
on those reigns to handle whatever happened ... but to my
surprise ... Lily did nothing. She stood there.
This continued for another hour and a half. Gracie tried to act all
dominant, and Lily kept her ears back to me, and was pretty good at
obeying my commands.
I actually think having Gracie out helped my lesson, cuz Lily was
actually focussing on me more. And having Gracie running around
bucking, kept Lily from thinking about getting that harness off. ;)
It was a pretty great day! And just so you know ... the second I
took the halter off Lily, Gracie came up acting all tough, and with
a shake of the head and a charge .... Lily put things back in the
proper order. LOL
Saturday I sandblasted my wagon frame, and this week I should get
some primer on it. I think Lily is a long ways out before I would
trust her with anyone besides me on a wagon, but she's getting
closer. Just gotta keep hammering that "Woah" means "WOAH" UNTIL I
SAY DIFFERENT! LOL
I have a question for any of you that are more knowledge able then
me. Lily is basically hooked up to a logging rig. And the single
tree that I am using lays on the ground like an inch or so behind
her rear hooves when standing still. I was real nervous about it
being that close while she was standing, mostly cuz it would've been
really easy for her to step backwards over it. I think I may need
longer traces. When standing still, and the single tree isn't
hooked to anything ... how far back from the hooves should it rest
on the ground? Thanks for any input you might have to give!
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