Steal the trooper.

Another great weekend passed by so too fast. I snapped this cute photo of Steal an Madeira on our walk Sunday, when we didn't make it all the way to the creek as we usually do, because I had decided to walk Steal without the Caballo boots and he was a bit ouchy. So we ended up taking a brake early and I took off his muzzle so he could take a few bites of grass. He lives for those moments now, that he isn't allowed to eat much extra outside of his regular daily feed, which remains 100% grass mix with no alfalfa.
So Steal has gotten his walk routine down so well that he actually needs no one to hold his "hand" to get himself to the creek for a bite of grass. (I would say that the point to point game has worked.) No barn sours allowed. He walks enthusiastically all the way to the creek and waits till Madeira and I arrive, to take off his muzzle. We are of course right behind him, but Madeira is a slow walker. In order to keep up with Steal she would have to trot lightly, but since her newfound confidence and trust in me, she puts absolutely no energy or effort into trotting after Steal.

Group of riders passing us on the trail.

Unlike Travieso, who trusted me to crawl into his stall and sit with him while he layed down after just a couple of weeks from his arrival, Madeira used to never feel comfortable to lay down to even roll when people were around. Getting close enough to snap a photo of her rolling was a difficult task. You had to be fast and have a great zoom. However for a few years now she has liked rolling on the beach while I hold the leadrope, and slowly she has started to roll in the arena with me standing close to her.

She is an extraordinary horse. She is totally hyper sensitive about everything (which I have successfully developed into a great lightness) and her innately right brain horsenality is extra flighty. But now, here she is completely comfortably laying down after a roll while I go and sit with her. It is a great compliment for me to have her trust me this much, knowing that not just anyone could have accomplished this with her type of horse.

I want to greatly stress the point that I did not make, or even ask her to lay down. (I don't have that savvy yet.) I simply allowed her to roll because she felt like it and as she layed down I calmly walked up to her, gave her a treat and sat down stroking her gently. I also did nothing to hold her down, but allowed her to get up immediately when she wanted to. And after the treats from my pocket were gone, she did. One day she will lay down from a request, and it will be completely from her own will without loosing any dignity. Until then, we savvy up!

I hopped on her afterwards for a bit. One of Madeira's favourite thing is to herd the other horses around, and she will readily do it with me, which is great, because that way I can exercise two horses at once. Here we are moving Travieso.



And afterwards they kiss.

I had to get on Travieso too. He is much more comfortable to sit on than Madeira.

Baby is still coughing badly, and looking more lethargic than last week. All that desensitising last weekend payed off, and I was able to easily take her temperature which was 101.0

A little on the high side I thought, but I was assured by the Ranch manager that it was OK for a foal.

Raul told me when I called on Monday, that the baby is now receiving antibiotics. So hopefully she will soon be OK.

Momma was ridden last weekend for an hour and did great.