Cob Jockey

Earlier in March, we put up top strand electric around Disco's field.

And unfortunately, the first morning it was electrified, as soon as the morning shift took off his halter, he marched straight up to it and...bit it.

Inspects things with his snoot

On the one hand, I'm not upset that my stud colt will well and truly respect the fence going forward, although I wish he'd become acquainted with it in a less dramatic fashion. On the other hand, he seems to think that the gate was somehow responsible for this atrocity, and he's now afraid of it.

He's starting to look more horse-shaped these days

So we've been working through that, slowly at first, because I assumed it would just dissipate with time, but I really doubled down last weekend since it hasn't. He's not even bad about it, he just stops, wide-eyed, as he approaches the gate, then tries to rush through it. But it's a polite rush, because it's Disco, and he's a 100% Grade A Good Boy.

So every time I bring him in or out, we go through the gate at least 3-4 times until he does it quietly. I give him time in between each repetition to stand and think, to process, to stare at the gate and hopefully realize it's not going to kill him. 

I've also just started bringing sugar cubes to the gate with me (even though he's still weirdly not treat motivated!) just to try to give him some positive associations there rather than negative.

Mary telling me how dirty my baby pony is, lol

It's just going to take time to get past this bad experience, and that's okay. On the positive side, it's great to see what his reaction is to something he genuinely fears - he stops, assesses the situation, but charges through anyway, even though he's scared, which I love.

Last weekend we had our first early taste of spring. And it was glorious.

It was warmer than it has any right to be in early March, going from wool socks to tanktops in the same week, but I'll take it! On Saturday, Mary, Annie and Jeffrey came down and helped me and Leah put up electric rope around Connor and Disco's turnout field. We used EasySnap insulators to do it, and I can't say enough good things about them. It went SO fast.

They just snap onto the vinyl fence and then you put the rope through and click it shut.

I left the boys in the field while we did it, and we all just kept an eye on them. Disco thought it was THE COOLEST THING THAT HAD EVER HAPPENED TO HIM!!!!! and alternated between checking out our supplies and running around like a maniac.

Connor looking oh so fit lately, if I do say so myself

After that, Annie rode Connor, then I rode Connor, then Jeffrey, Annie and Mary all rode Zippy, Disco's geriatric buddy.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of the three of them ever. Look at Annie finally fitting into the breeches I bought her two Christmases ago! We used to have to roll the heck out of them.

Sunday was more of the same in terms of weather, and I was motivated to get my life in order.

Making a month's worth of supplement baggies for the boys:

Putting the first coat of polish on the Celeris stiff boots I can finally ride in now that it's not freezing cold:

These are going to age so beautifully. I cannot wait.

Cleaning my jump saddle:

And the Fairfax bridle got fully disassembled and cleaned:

It felt like the world took a deep breath last weekend, and even though they're projecting snow and a high of 33 this coming weekend, we're getting closer and closer to spring.