All is well with Little Love. The main news was that she was happy to see me! Before, when I have been gone for a few days, it always took us a day to connect and be "comfortable" with each other again, but this time it took a whole second. When I got to the barn, she was in the grass field with Col. Looks like Becky has finally seen the light and has been letting the horses just hang out in the field all day. I'm so happy about that, because this means they have so much space to just come and go. Apparently they have been spending the hottest hours of the day inside. Which makes sense.
I walked into the field from the back gate and said hello to both horses. Then I went to the barn to muck the stall. Two minutes later Little Love showed up. She entered Col's stall and hung her head over the wall and watched me labor over her stall. While I was gone, Becky had changed from shavings to a mixture of shavings and straw. I knew it was going to happen, so it was no surprise, but I had forgotten how much more labor goes into mucking a stall with straw in it...
When I was almost done with my chores, Little Love was visibly impatient. She kept pushing onto the chain across the stall door and pawing at the floor. So, I hurried up and took her in the back where I soaked her feet. I inspected her hooves and was happy to see that they didn't look too bad. I trimmed them right before I left, so it was interesting to see how my trim had affected her angles etc. Pretty good, I think we are on the right track. The only thing is that her hoof wall is still quite brittle, but Claudia (my hoof mentor) said it would take a few hoof capsules before that problem would go away. Patience is a virtue.
Also, Little Love's skin looked better! I'm not sure what is the main cause to this, but I suspect that the work my friend Shelby has done on her has something to do with it (thank you Shelby!). I did also wash her with the medication before I left and bought her a fly sheet. The fly sheet was a good call, since the insect population seems to have just exploded in the past week. Little Love hates insects and the fly sheet gives her at least some cover. She doesn't like blankets, but I think this one will help her get through some of the bad days. The forest next to the barn just seems to breed the biggest and nastiest horse flies I have seen for a long time...
The whole time Little Love and I hung out, Col watched us from over the gate. Sometimes I swear he is jealous. Nobody ever just hangs out with him, it's all about riding and moving him when he gets out. I'm hoping to find some time to just go to the barn and sit in the field with the horses, connecting with their energy. Perhaps this is something that will benefit Col as well, who knows?
Right before I left the barn, Becky's husband came back with the trailer (he had to get it inspected for the Swiss authorieties). Since it was hooked onto the car I thought I would use the opportunity to practice loading. The minute I got the ramps down, Little Love ran in. I gave her some grain. Later, when we had been in the arena and the trailer was still there, she made an attempt to go to it again. The front ramp was up, which meant she wouldn't be able to go through. She followed me in, but when she realized the front was closed, she stopped half way. We stood there for a moment and then I asked her forward. She came in and I gave her some banana. She grabbed it quickly and started backing out. Loading is obviously no longer an issue; now the issue is staying in there when it is closed. I followed her calmly down the ramp and then walked her back into the field where Col was waiting for her. We will keep working on this, one day at a time.
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