I can hardly believe it's almost 2009 and that I've owned my little filly for over six months now. We weighed and measured her again over the weekend, and she's now 834 lbs at about 14 hands. Unless she's a late bloomer, I think she may stay pony-sized. I'm not too tall, so I won't feel bad if that's the case. She might make a good kids horse someday if she has the training and the temperament.
Although Halo won't technically be two until April, she'll officially be two on January 1st for showing purposes. There's an open show at the end of January that I briefly considered taking her to, but I've decided against it for now. Firstly, I would feel bad making my fuzzy mutt filly compete against horses that may or may not have been blanketed and kept under heat lamps for the winter. I don't know how serious people down here are about that sort of thing, but given that it's a quarter horse show and they're serious about quarter horses here in Texas, I don't want to take the chance. In addition to that, I think Halo looks a bit underdeveloped for a two year old. I think by April she will have come into herself a bit more.
The next round of open shows starts in June, and I think that would be a good time to start taking her out. Hopefully some other people from the barn will want to go, and we can get a group together. It'll probably be me and a bunch of preteen girls, which would be funny more than anything else. In her own way, Halo is a preteen girl herself!
As Halo has gotten bigger and stronger, she's had a couple of minor bratty episodes. I think it will be time soon for a reminder groundwork session with the dressage whip. The other day there was a huge event at the barn, and it was also insanely windy. I walked Halo around in hand to take a look at all the goings-on. She was mostly good, if a little bit spooky about the wind. But then we tried to walk past a bus belonging to the sherriff's posse, and she decided it was a vicious horse-eating bus. Fortunately I held onto her, but it did take me a bit off guard. We then practiced walking back and forth in front of the bus. She got a bit better about it, but never completely relaxed. I would have spent more time with it, but there was a picnic table full of people that she would have plowed down if she got up to any more antics.
More recently, we had a nonverbal argument about her walking through a puddle. The princess doesn't like to get her feet wet! And when I led her out of the round pen this weekend she took off trotting down the hill (thankfully stopping before pulling all the rope out of my hands). I don't think she's doing any of these things maliciously, but as she gets older and stronger I think she's testing me to make sure I'm still boss. I noticed she no longer makes the baby face at other horses she talks to over the fence.
I'll keep records of problems and progress, but I'm not too worried. I'm not a timid woman, and I expect a mannerly filly!
2 comments:
ow's the new barn working out? Is all the moving done yet or still to come?
The new barn seems great so far, and all the moving is done, thank goodness. We are hoping that we can stay in our new house for a long, LONG time and not have to deal with all that fuss again. We're only about 15 minutes away from the barn now, which is much more convenient than 40 was!
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