Leading Wishes

Sunday, Dec. 16th, Wishes seemed suddenly to be very wary of me, and didn't want me touching her face or lifting her feet. She even started running around and bucking and kicking out. At one point, she ran right into one of the pipes of her stall and almost knocked herself out. She was quite stunned. I was completely confused as to what was causing the problem.

On Tuesday, Dec. 18th, Rachel came back from Oregon and wanted to go out to Shiloh, so she and I loaded up the babies and went out. The first thing I noticed was that the two foals that had been in the stalls next to Wishes had been moved, and a halter and lead rope had been tied to Wishes' stall. Ah ha! Someone was trying to move her. Again, she acted upset and nervous, especially since she was all alone. She was crying and calling to the other horses a lot.

I worked on petting her and trying to calm her down, but didn't do much more than that.

Katherine was there, working with Ace, so we chatted a bit and visited with other horses. Just when we were getting ready to leave, Jill said that she and Sally had tried to move Wishes to the "Geezer Pen", but couldn't catch her. So I said, "Oh, do you want me to move her?" She said, "Yeah, that would be great." I don't know why I offered to move her, because I had never put a halter and lead rope on her. I was still trying to desensitize her to ropes, because she is terrified of them. But, Katherine and Ace were nearby and I asked her to help me. Fortunately, getting the halter on her was actually very easy. The hard part was going to be the lead rope. But, we got that on her and I begin trying to lead her across the ranch to the "Geezer Pen". Thank Goodness Katherine was there to coach me! I was very nervous and couldn't remember all the little things I was supposed to be doing. Long story short, we made it across the ranch without too much trouble --- truly, I owe a great deal of the credit to Katherine. Without her there to help and guide us, I don't know if we would have made it! Thanks again, Katherine!