Sunday morning was spent travling back home from Augusta. I got to my friend Debbie's house around 11:15 and then helped her hook up her trailer as she brought her two boys over to ride in the ring and also help with Merry.
Got home a little after noon and showed my parents all my pretty new stuff, ate a quick lunch of mac and cheese, and headed back out to the barn. Over the weekend my parents made the roundpen a little smaller (awesome!) so I could hopefully gain some ground back with Merry. It again was NOT a good day. She still didn't want me to touch her, and would just run around and around.
My working cowhorse trainer told me that he'll actually work some wild horses on horseback himself (aka out of harms way) so I decided to take his advice and give it a go. I saddled good old Itty Bitty, my 16.2hh bay gelding that is quiet as can be but doesn't take anything from anyone in the pasture. Entered with Itty and was just met with flying hooves, bared teeth, and pinned ears. Merry even kicked my foot one time! I eventually decided this just wasn't working, as Itty would not fend for himself with me on his back. I exited stage left, and went back to the drawing board.
The only other thing I could think of was to run her back into her stall (which went MUCH more pleasantly this time... got her inside in about 10 minutes!) and put a slightly longer drag rope on. Once accomplished I put her back out and left her be. This new rope was now long enough that I could grab it and still stay out of kicking distance.
Debbie and I went ahead and rode the other horses and left Merry to her own discoveries. I'm proud that I even got Debbie into an english saddle and over a few crossrails! Woohoo! Debbie went home after that and I went to cleaning stalls and bringing the other horses in for dinner.
Merry still won't eat any grain, so I got the idea to feed Blondie (my princess) directly in front of Merry out of a bucket. I think I got her interest up, and she was definitely watching me scrub and pet all over Blondie. Put Blondie up and said goodnight to everyone, and thought I would try one more time with Merry.
She let me brush her in the roundpen again! I was thrilled with the small victory. I was able to get my hands on the longer drag rope and led her around a bit and just brushed and scratched and walked away. Now lets hope tomorrow she remembers again and doesn't revert one more time!
Heidi :)
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