Pictures

 Little Love is shedding.  Actually, I think the worst of it is behind us as there is more and more short hair appearing from under the dull and gray winter coat of hers.  Here is a picture I took three days ago with my cell phone (unfortunately many of my pics are cell phone pictures since I don't usually have my camera with me).  I was brushing her while she was soaking her front feet and I literally scrubbed off three pounds of mud and half her hair!

On Sunday my husband came over to set up a fence in the pasture.  Becky is worried about Col consuming too much grass and either getting laminitis or having too much energy.  When she told me she wanted the horses to be outside only three hours a day, I freaked out!  I suggested we build a fence across the front end (it's L-shape) pasture and let the horses have grass for the three hours and then move them into the smaller fenced area to hang out for the rest of the time.  Since they'll be hanging out there a lot, the grass will never have a chance to grow real long and lush.  After some thought, Becky agreed.  It's not ideal for Little Love, but at least it means she isn't standing in her stall 21 hours a day.  Here is a picture of all the people, dogs and horses putting up the fence.  At first Little Love was horrified by the white plastic fence posts.  She took off at full galop down the field, but then soon came back and decided to take a closer look at the scary objects.  Good for her :-)  Then afterwards both Col and her wanted to help in putting the fence in!

Yesterday I gave Little Love a paper bag to play with in her stall.  Last winter when I visited my friend Sam in California, I saw one of his horses, a Haflinger gelding called Hans, play with a feed bag.  He would pick it up, toss it in the air and attempt to kick it with his foot as he cantered by.   I had never seen a horse have so much fun with a paper bag.  So, inspired by that, I wanted to see what Little Love would do if I gave her one.  I gave it to her in the stall (rather than in the arena) just because when I got the idea she happened to be in there and in general she feels safer in her stall to investigate strange things.  I actually didn't think she would even touch it, but turns out she wanted to lick, bite and paw it.  I was overjoyed, because she has always been quite reserved with objects of any kind and this is the first time she actually did something else than just sniffed and looked at the object.  Of course it might have helped that it smelled like feed!  (At one point she had half her head inside the bag)  Maybe I'll try this in the arena as well...