Honey Bunny.

Ohh, it was so cold today!!  And misty drizzle, just enough to be annoying, no actual rain.  And just enough to keep my snuggled up inside reading Karen!!  (Rohlf that is, I have just started her book, and I'm finding it very interesting so far!)

But I did venture out for a little while this morning, I went for a walk and got the horses.  I usually go on the bike, and it was nice to walk.  The horses all stayed with me and we walked home together.  I put them in their yards as we came up the driveway, Ruby wandered off, and I went to find her and put her in the last yard, and found her standing on her piece of rubber mat at the shed waiting for me!!  She is such a good girl.  She got a carrot for smart thinking for that one.

The weather set in and I came inside for a few hours, then went out with the intention of riding Honey up to the bus stop to collect Jack.  Honey was so full of prickles it took me about 45 minutes to get her deprickled enough to put her saddle and bridle on!!  Then she was full of thresholds, and we only made a few hundred metres before Jack turned up on his own!!!

Honey was having thresholds in true Honey style.  She doesn't panic, just walks a little and stops and looks.   Honey finds stopping very easy!! Instead of getting frustrated I thought I would play with it.  I would ask her to go, with some energy, and if she only made it 10 steps I would make a big deal, rub her, and then ask again.  After getting a tap on the rump with a savvy string the first two times, she decided to go at phase one the third and subsequent times.  Progress!

On the way home, we had the opposite problem.  Honey had lots of energy, was bracey, and in a hell of a hurry to get home.  Well, it was dinner time, and Honey has never been accused of being late for dinner!  I wanted to play with pushing her sideways until she relaxed, but then had another idea.  I have been riding figure 8 patterns with her, and there were two cones on the side of the track, so I thought I would combine the two.  I rode figure 8's, and pushed her a few steps sideways in the middle, then around the other cone, few steps sideways etc.  She was bracey to start with, and I didn't have a stick with me, so I just gave her a little help with a string to move her ribs over off my leg.

She soon got it, stopped fighting to go home, started to drop her head, relax, and then did lovely soft blowing, and heaps of licking and chewing.  I hopped off there and we mosied home as it was getting dark and I had six horses to feed and hay up. 

I can't wait to get back out tomorow!  I couldn't work out who I wanted to play with, so I kept all six here!!