Paige’s Page

Today the girls had a much needed manicure from the blacksmith.  I was bad and waited too long to call him, so their feet really needed to be done.  Paige especially needed them trimmed, as her front feet have grown FAST since the weather warmed up and got dry, and she was getting a couple of rather large cracks going on.  Luckily they were superficial and she is not showing any signs of discomfort or lameness.

This was only Paige’s second time being trimmed.  Last summer she was trimmed while sedated, and her feet just haven’t grown that much until now.  This was her first time being trimmed while NOT sedated, and I could not have asked for anything more from her.  She was SUCH a good girl!  I was so proud.  She was very trusting and calm, and she only tugged on her feet a couple of times.  Yesterday I practiced holding her front feet the same way the blacksmith does while trimming them, and she didn’t have a problem with it at all.  She trusts me, though, and I wasn’t sure if she would be as trusting with someone else.

We only did the front ones this time (back ones are fine for now), but he did make her pick up the back ones and held them up a couple times to get her used to him.  I feel pretty lucky to have found a blacksmith like him–he’s very calm and relaxed with the horses, and you can tell he loves animals.  He loves on Josie and gives her treats when he comes out.  (The Huskies weren’t out there this time, as I was afraid their excitement might get the horses tense, and the theme of the day was a CAAAAALLLLLM experience for Paige…)

For those of you who are new to this blog, I am making a big deal out of Paige being good while getting her feet trimmed because it IS a big deal! When she was on the PMU ranch, her feet were trimmed on a tip table. She was corraled into a chute, strapped in to the side, the entire chute tipped on its side (horse and all), and she was held down by the straps while they trimmed her feet. She was almost 9 years old when I got her and had never had her feet held by a human, so we had to start at square one! Most horses get their feet handled from the time they are babies so that they will stand there and let you trim and clean them.

Here is a picture of a tip table (aka tip chute):

Here are a few pictures of the girls munching on their reward afterward, showing off their pretty feet:

Notice how Paige doesn’t have a fly mask?  She won’t keep one on, but the flies don’t seem to bother her as bad as Cassie.  I’m glad that at least Cassie leaves hers on.

The girls stand together in the stall in front of the fan every day during the hot part of the day.  The funny part is, look how clean their stall is, and I haven’t cleaned it for months!  Those lovely darlings are taking themselves outside to do their business and are keeping the stall clean!

The girls enjoying a treat of horse hoof trimmings (Josie already had her fill at this point):

And here’s Nook trying to get me to chase her:

And when I wouldn’t chase her, she gave me an earful!  For those of you who have never known a Husky, they are very talkative, but they don’t bark much.  It’s kindof a howling, “rowr, rowr” thing they do.

The Big Girls got new fly masks this year.  Pictures are worth a thousand words…

(Notice our little pond there to the right of Cassie?  Not REALLY a pond.  It’s bone-dry out and that area will not dry up this year for some reason.  I thought there might be a pipe leak near the barn, but I just talked to the builder of the house and he said there’s no pipe buried on that side of the barn.  An underground spring maybe?  I’m at a loss what to do about it.  The only thing I can think of is to have it tiled down to the creek.  It’s pretty frustrating!)

Paige has been on a diet and is showing off her lovely figure here:

Recently I introduced Paige to her bit for the first time.  Here she is when I was just letting her sniff it and play with it.  I hung it on the side of her halter near her mouth.  You can tell how upset and disturbed she was by the whole process:

I have found that tying Cassie up nearby whenever I am working on training Paige has a tremendous calming effect on her.  Here is Cassie in her role as Moral Support:

Falling asleep, very uptight about it all:

Yesterday was her first time with the bit in her mouth.  I have been trying to work up to this point slowly by teaching her to open her mouth when I slip my finger in her toothless gap.  Well, there was no training to be done–she did it automatically the first time and each time thereafter.  So yesterday was the big day.

I was prepared for a possible freak out since I didn’t really know what she would do once the bit was in her mouth, but she was calmer than I ever could have expected.  I had the bit on the headstall only.  Noseband was removed from the bridle, and I had pre-adjusted it as best I could without the bit ahead of time.  She was very calm when I put it on her, and she just stood there and played with the bit.  Tonguing it, gumming it, chewing it.  She let me adjust it a couple times to fit properly, too.  I left it on her for about 15 minutes.  She never quit playing with it, but I will keep doing this for a while until she becomes accustomed to the feel of it in her mouth.

(Excuse the poor quality of some of the following photos–they were snapped with my camera phone.)

We are also making good progress on the hind feet finally, after a long plateau of no improvement.  I have been using a soft lead rope to pick up her hind feet, and this allows me to continue being persistent until she stops flailing that foot around.  I don’t quit until she is quietly holding the foot up, and she is improving!  She just needs to get used to the fact that she’s not going to FALL OVER if she stands on three feet for a few minutes, and I think she’s finally getting it.  Baby steps…

A quick snap from Cassie’s back on one of our trail rides:

The Big Girls frequently hang out in the stall together to escape flies and heat:

Pausing for a drink at the creek.  It’s MUCH greener since the last photos I posted!

This doesn’t look like much, but it was a big job.  Our house has an abundance of landscaping, and I am trying to scale it back in some areas.  Here we created a throughway and planted grass seed–much better now:

Mike watering our Chia Herb Garden:

Nook used to have a rainwater trough at Mike’s house that she loved to play in, so we set one up on the deck here for her:

Josie being self-conscious because her picture is being taken:

AWWWW, two Sleeping Beauties…