Mini Crisis Overcome

I get home Friday not to find any disasters with the dogs this time.. no, the problem was out in the pasture! I had about 15 minutes time between getting home and needing to leave to head out to a meeting and what do I see.. Red out in the pasture where Oakley is supposed to be and Dexter in the corral that opens up to the pasture and Oakley out in the pasture as well... hmmmm Not where they were for their morning feeding, thats for sure!

Here is what I gather happened. Dexter's stall door was shut all the way but not latched properly. Edgar, who gets bored, was lipping the door through his stall window and got a bit pushy and pushed it open a couple inches.. So then Dexter sees this opening and explores it, bolting through (which meant he had to of half jumped over his feed tub which somewhat blocks his stall door. The door was only open just enough for him to get through. With Dexter getting out of his stall, he now is in Red's corral. Red musta chased Dexter out of his corral because the temporary fence poles were all askew and wire was way out of place leaving openings for Red and Dexter to now get in with Oakley. Red took the opportunity to find his way to the green pasture. Who knows if Oakley may have also chased Dexter, but 25 minutes after discovering the mess, all horses were back where they belonged!

The next morning I saw that Red had minor swelling on both his back legs, not sure what that is from, he seems to have cut one of his back legs a little on something, probably all the running around and being silly. He's not lame so I'm not too worried at this point. The next morning the shoer came out for a fresh set of shoes, Jon was nice enough to get Dexter's feet done. It was a bit of a "panic" session as Dexter was pinned next to the horse trailer to get him to stand still. Once Jon had his feet up, he was just fine, its just the approach and initial touch from the shoer that was the biggest issue. He's still not okay with such bold movements. I'm working on it with him, but again my broken record keeps saying.. slow slow slow progress. :)

He is easier to catch these days, hardly even backs away from me in his stall, I have been exposing him to fly sprays and now water from the hose on his legs, also working on getting him to move around me in a lunging fashion via just hand movements and getting him to stop based on hand movements as well and when I shake the lead at him as he is standing, he will back away. Very good progress, he is a quick learner I think the biggest struggle is just getting him to relax with movements and touch still. I might try putting a baggy on a stick and just working that all around and over his body for a few days.

I did a string test from his knees to his coronet and it says he should reach 16.2!! I'm going to try it one more time with a different type of string, see if I get the same result. If so, then I am SUPER Excited because supposedly this is a fairly accurate indication of his full grown height.

I rode Red and ponied Edgar around the neighborhood the other day, Saturday I think it was. As I rode past one house, 3 dogs were pacing the fenceline and making Red quite nervous. I was intently watching as one dog in particular seemed very eager to get out and sure enough he climbed out in the corner of the yard. It was a husky and he immediately went to circling the horses, he definately was considering nipping at their legs, I was yelling at the dog and just stayed put in fear that if I started walking away, he might get more aggressive with the movement. He was coming up to their legs and touching them, I secretly wanted one of the boys to kick him, but the owner came out and it took him a few minutes to catch his dog as it circled away from him, weaving in and out of the horses. A lady down the street had come out and was even yelling at the dogs as she heard the commotion. I safely got out of the situation, hoping the owner has rectified his inadequate fencing. If it happens again, I wont be so nice next time and will have a conversation with him because the 3rd time, animal control or 911 will be called. I know I put myself at risk riding down the road on my horses, but I should not have to endure the added danger from his dogs getting out and acting so aggressively towards the horses.

Derek called down to Cooper's trainer yesterday for his first update.. our little Coopidy Coo (as we call him) has impressed Butch this past week with how quickly he is picking up on training and seeming to love it! He says Cooper is just like his daddy (which is awesome cuz his daddy Earl is a champion dog and Butch did his early training too!). We are so proud of Coopey (another nickname we gave him) and miss him and his obnoxious antics.. He's not obnoxious in training at all, Butch says that is normal for him to act differently at home vs out on the "job". We only wish that they had videos we could watch weekly of our boy and his progress.. We dont get to see him for a couple months still.