I screwed it up again -times two

Man, so I suck at this.

I see how people do special things for the 100th post, etc...so I decided that the next time I hit a milestone of some sort I would do the same thing.

Turns out that would have been my 1200th post. HolyMother of God that is a lot of bitching and moaning from me, huh?

But guess what happened? I screwed it up. This is 1,202. The last time I noticed, it was 1,193.

Oh well.

Yesterday's only injury was walking into the handicapped parking sign in the parking lot at WalMart and smacking my head--as usual, I was doing three things at once, and not paying enough attention

Another thing I screwed up---I have been waiting since Friday for the transporter to pick up Mojo. I got all the paperwork out on Tuesday--I remember laying the health certificate out on the kitchen table along with some other detritus from my purse. Then I went out of town. Thursday I got out the Coggins. ..which is new, so I knew I had it, but there is always a pile of them to sort through and hell, half my horses are named almost the same things, so I live in fear I will send the wrong one.

Shipper finally showed up at 10:30 Sunday nite. Guess what I cannot find--the health papers. Crap. We tore the car apart looking for them after I went through every piece of mail in the joint. And of course, it was too late to call Kevin to get a new set issued.

We got the horse loaded and I was hoping the shipper would let it slide or go to sleep and wait for me to get the new papers issued at 7 am. I looked until after midnite for the papers and finally fessed up that we could not find them--he decided to take me up on the second option and go to sleep.

Barry was driving me crazy with the "didja look here, didja look there" crap. Of course I did. Then he went through the trash can in the garage and BAM there they were.

That kept us up until almost 2:30 this morning--or it did me.

Bottom line, Mojo is on his way to Courtney and Holly, but first he has to go to Virginia to drop off a TB. That works out okay since they have had a blizzard in Pennsylvania yesterday and today. He should arrive late tomorrow nite or Wednesday.

All that time at the farm did let us get Tango wrapped--she is swelling up again after the swelling seemed to have gone down. It does not FEEL like swelling though, which is what throws me, her joints are not hot and she is not off in any way. I am probably being a neurotic fruit loop. These are her wet muddy legs on Saturday and they looked normal. Now there is no definition above her fetlocks--they looked okay here, and this shot was taken after she had been off of all gran for three days. She got one pound of Strategy to put her Bute on Saturday and Sunday they were bigger again--not puffy at all, just bigger.

What this leads to is that I did not get to work as early as I would have liked-I hate starting out Mondays feeling like I am running behind. I have no lunch partner for the mandatory lunch today, so I guess I will go to the farm and feed then, or to the gym---if I wait and go to the gym later today, then I can talk to the neanderthal about his defective equipment.

This weeks goals:
1--quit being so boring.
2 -work out four days
3 --go to grocery story to get stuff to make for a board thanksgiving party tomorrow, then make it and remember to go to party--so probably tuesday will be no workout day
4--continue with gutting of kitchen drawers etc that started when looking for paperwork tomorrow
5. be excited that Barry did all the laundry and put it away!
6. Consider taking Tequila to the vet and maybe do it, if her back end goes berserk again.
7. Deal with Tango and her issues.
8. Go home during daylight errors to take pics, as I feel like I am in a rut and very very very boring
9. update website per many requests for new pics of now yearlings, etc
10. get show results to update Hutch's website
11. Get together books for new giveaways-- I have about 6
12. Start damn Twilight book
13. Mail Mojo's papers.
14. Finally send in Gypsy's DNA
15. Finish a couple pics for Uno's registration, which might be due today. CRAP

If I can get half of this done today, I might feel like I am not so far behind

Friday's Paige-asters

Today I have for you a special offering for the Paige-is-not-fit-to-leave-her-house-files.

Since I worked so much this week, I was eligible to leave after 5 hours of work today--and I did. I went to check out my mom's new bathroom, which is pretty. Then I went to the gym, I shit you not. For an hour.

And that is where the second Paige-aster occurred.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill. Because I have the weird circulation, that is not as easy as it sounds---I have nerve damage in my right leg and right foot, which means I do not feel much there. Oddly, that does not keep me from having horrid shooting pains sometimes, but the most common problem is that it sometimes feels like my foot is in a vice. It went pretty well today. That probably made me cocky.

I did my favorite leg machine, and several arm machines. I was more than done, since I had 5 errands to run and wanted to be napping by 5 pm--after all what is the point of getting off early if you cannot go to bed? Just before I quit though, I did that leg machine that you stand facing it, and lift the weights by swinging your leg across--there are like five positions you can to--it is good for hips thighs and your butt. All things that I need desperate help with.

I got all set up, and started the movements--I was doing great, controlling the movement well, like you are supposed to do to in order the get the most out of it. As I finished the first segment on it and was letting the weights back down to switch legs, guess what happened? The plate that you stand on as part of the machine shot out from under me! The stupid thing is supposed to be bolted down--but was it? Clearly not. It shot out towards the glass wall and threw me on my ass--knocking my ankle into the side of the machine, scraping it up and making me bleed all over the place. It also hurt like hell, by the way.

Man did that make me mad. Thank goodness no one else was in there to see it, but it would have been nice had that neanderthal owner been there to deal with it. I noticed some other machines like that too. He needs a wake up call that his little liability release does not cover his failure to maintain the equipment. I am such a bad ass for someone who was laying in the floor thinking about crying and wondering where her camera was when she really needed it.

I managed to live through that, and went to do the 14 errands-post office, water place, cleaners to see if they will replace the zippers in my jeans that don't work, bank to get money to pay Madison, stuff like that. It was already after 4 and I was not even close to asleep for my nap.

That raises the issue of my zippers. I love these jeans I have found, that are cheap and fit good and are comfy and look okay--but the zippers do not last long. Earlier this year, I took them to the Han guy who fixes things, and he refused to replace my zippers! He did one or two but would not do most of them, and tried to show me how to use a zipper. Dude, I know how to use a zipper, and I am confident they need new ones when I am walking around and cannot keep them zipped. Really WTF was that about? Anyway, I dropped them at a different place and they will send some out for me to be fixed--I only took 3 but it is a start. I probably have 3 other pairs that can use it. This is the sort of thing that excites me, having pants that do not expose my roll.

So I got all that done and got to the farm and thank Goodness, Madison was halfway into the feeding. It is a mess out there, it has been raining most of the week and there are places it seems like the water is almost a foot deep. This is all I could see of Target.

I am kidding. I could see more than that. But this was the cute part--all those little ear hairs sopping wet. He is not amused as I am.

We brought Gramps in and stripped his blanket off as he had himself all jacked up--Barry will put any ol blanket that is laying around on him, whether it fits or not. This time, Gramps had a belly strap BEHIND his legs and was so tangled up, he was walking like a geisha. When we stripped him off, I saw that he is looking pretty good, which is odd since turns out she has only been feeding him 5 pounds of senior with his beet pulp and oil---I thought she was feeding him 12 pounds of senior. What ever she is doing is working great, I was pleased with how he looks. We left him nekkid since he is staying in tonight, which was probably the wrong decision since Barry came home and said it is going to be in the 20s tonight. Gramps won't like that at all.

Now here I am with the long long post again, and I was trying not to do that. But I still have things to complain about. For example, Mojo was supposed to leave today. This is why I was out in the dark and rain last nite This is Mojo complaining that his schedule got changed. Now the transporters will not be here until Sunday evening. While that works out well for us in that Barry will be here to help, and they get along better than we do, it is not so good on the Pennsylvania end.

Boys will be boys--and more school

Today started out a typical way for me--we had a nice brunch at a friend's restaurant, and I made sure to make a fool of myself on the way out. I got through the whole meal, and after I paid, I knocked over the specials board. Leave it to me--it made a huge clatter and evidently, I said "oh shit". Imagine that. So Billy, the owner tells me--"hey, this is a f%$&n family restaurant". Which of course made me laugh even harder, so anyone who missed it that I had knocked everything over knew then.


Oy. Next step was to get some odds and ends done at the farm. While Barry was teaching Mojo how to get in the BIG trailer, instead of the three horse which is much lower to the ground than the Mack Daddy trailer, I watched the 3 year old geldings play. Note: It was doing some sort of weird precipitation thing out there that I will not call snow, because that is blasphemous, but there was a certain dampness that could not be ignored. Especially by me, in tshirt and Crocs like every other day.

This is my precious Radar aggravating Boogie--Radar is almost always the instigator of Playtime. Biting, nipping, rearing and kicking and striking are how colts play, and how they provoke each other to play back--no damage is done in these episodes, but it is a miracle sometimes, as they can get really rough with each other.

Young horses like this, especially geldings, play hard but have short memories--they are kind of like a pack of first graders. They can have it out in a game, and be cuddled up together the next minute. I do not know if that is because of short attention span, or just an unwillingness to hold a grudge.

However, there is always one in the pack who is more sensitive, and here it is Boogie--he is more timid, and gets his feelings hurt---I know he would rather be pounded on than ignored, so I know he enjoyed this. It cracks me up to realize how much I liked watching him get in the fray with the others

Boogie was quick to jump in and play hard with Radar. I have not seen that a lot as he is normally standing off the side like a wall flower, hoping to get picked.
He played awhile but he was also quick to call it off--after he got his licks in, of course. Lest you feel sorry for Radar in that he got popped early on, don't--he starts it and Boogie was not his first victim of the day. Most of the time, they do not even make contact when playing like this.
And see, they made up. Ignore that doofy line of fence--we were moving horses all over and did not put it back correctly until we were done.


This is what first got my attention---Radar and Hawk, who are two peas in a pod and best friends, were circling each other. I know were that leads, so I just kept clicking away.


Round and round they went for a while, like boxers waiting for the other to take the first poke.


I do not know if Hawk did not really want to play, or what his deal was, but he threw a kick in early.
Which did not even slow Radar down--he upped the ante by popping up on him and the game was on.
They crack me up how they carry on.
After this, I started wondering about Radar's sexual orientation, so I will stop this line of photos right here. Note how Hawk's ears are forward like he is fine with this behavior. He is an odd one as well.
Poor Target tried to get in the game and BAM--see what he got for his trouble? Poor fool. I think he feels left out sometimes too, since Hawk and Radar are attached at the hip. He did not play much in this game today, but instead stood around and posed for me. Everyone knows someone like that, don't they? He is the one that would rather look pretty than get dirty in the game.


Much more went on after the games were over. Hawk was on the schedule to be one with the trailer this week. He was going to get the 24/7 trailer experience this week, as he knows full well how to get in the trailer, but may not choose to do so on any given day. And when Hawk decides he is not going to do something, he is NOT going to do it.

But as you see, he ruined my plan by getting in and out of the trailer four or five times so easily that it seemed kind of silly. I wondered in the back of my mind whether something had scared him on a trip and lead him to his refusals to load--but evidently not. He did so well loading and unloading repeatedly, he got to go back to the pasture.As I said, Mojo learned how to get in the big trailer. He was so cute. It really is a much bigger step than he is used to. No problem though---look at his big effort trying to get out. Isn't that funny?
He had some other milestones today--he HATES having his mane brushed and I had not messed with his tail much. Today he got a good grooming, and his tail braided just because I could not think of anything more we could be doing with him, and he leaves on Friday. He also got his vaccines and more loading practice. He did so well, he too was chucked back out in the pasture.
Next, we did baby booster shots and gave them all a hit of ivermectin---and I noticed that Tango's hind fetlocks are goofy looking. They are much bigger than anyone else's. There is no heat, she is not off. It does not feel squishy like it is swollen, but it is also not just hair making them look puffy. They feel like normal joints, but are clearly larger than everyone else's.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what in the world might be going on there?


All in all, a productive day. Trailers are all moved around so that the transport company can get in and out at the farm on Friday. That means that there are SIX trailers of some sort in my yard at my house--two horse trailers, the boat on its trailer, the red flatbed trailer, the small trailer for the lawnmower, etc, and Barry's work trailer. We look like hillbilly heaven.

Mojo's march to Pennsylvania

Gracious, he is handsome.
Almost every day we work on a skill to get Mojo ready for his great move to Pennsylvania to be with Holly and Courtney. Sometimes they are things we have already done. Obviously as a 2006, Mojo is used to having his feet done, but that was today's job.
But I do not always have pics to show his new owners to show the special tricks he has. Please ignore the horse poop in the stall--when we got there, Madison had stripped three stalls and they had not been re-bedded yet---so of course, he pooped the minute he got in it. You know how horses are.
I realize none of these pics are particularly good, and he needs to be groomed, and he lives in a hovel, blah blah blah blah.....but the point is to highlight his trick. And it is actually a trick all our horses do because Marvin the Magnificent teaches them. That is to stand there like a good horsey to get your feet done, and not require a handler, or to be tied, or anything at all other than some discipline that he instills in them when they are quite young.

His other trick, taught to him by Marvin, is to move whatever part of his body that Marvin points at--and to sidepass away from him. It cracks me up, because he can get tiny tiny babies to do it. It is particularly satisfying to see Mojo do it too.

Marvin enjoyed Mojo tonight--he always does as he loves a challenge, but Mojo is a whole other deal. He too sees the difference in him, which does my heart proud.

Catch up Monday

Paige is sick. She has the sinus infection, or the flu, or something that is kicking her ass. And you know it must be bad, since she hates people who speak in the third person, and here she is doing it.

I thought I was sick when I kept waking up sweating last nite, but it was only 60 degrees in the house. And of course, I could never get back to sleep, so I ended up watching a whole bunch of episodes of "17 and Counting". That is what usually happens when I have to get up early for something, and today I had a vet appointment at 7:00.

When the alarm went off, I begged and pleaded Barry to go and leave me alone to sleep, but he did not believe me that I was sick. He thought I just wanted to stay in bed. I may have cried even, but it did not work. He was on the not so great husband list this morning, and I guarantee you that he does not care.

I went to the vet, where it was not even 4o degrees, and still I was sweating. Two preg checks that confirmed things are as they should be (Fuzzy is NOT pregnant, but Diablo still is, hallelujah). Yay for that deal. By the time I got home, I was so worn out, I emailed my work and went to bed---no reason to torture me and everyone else when I felt so crappy.

I mostly slept and sweated all day. I needed to sleep more and sweat less, and I needed someone to shoot those dogs next door--what could they possibly need to bark about so much?

Today is my mom's birthday so I had to get up to go out to dinner. On the way, we stopped at the farm to feed, and we had enough time that Barry could work on Mojo's first loading by design attempt.

Mojo had his first lesson on loading in the trailer because someone told you to, instead of because that is where the food is. I did not know what to expect from this, as he can be one obstinate dude. He was wary at first, and I wondered if perhaps we should set up his pen so that he knew he was stuck and maybe would be more willing.
It did not come to that though. Within just a few minutes he was happily checking things out on his own.
And before I knew what was going on, he put a foot right up in there.

Then some more feet went right up in there. All in. And he is a great backer -outer. He loaded three or four or five times, getting better with each attempt. Barry is really good at teaching horses to load, but I did not expect it to be this easy with him. For his reward, he got turned back out instead of being stalled again for more work tomorrow.


I gave Diablo her PK1 shot, and had Fuzzy returned to her pasture. That was all I had in me--I was not even doing the work, just telling everyone what to do, and I was sweating.

We met mom and dad for dinner at Pasta House, where I had the craziest thing happen. I only ordered garlic bread and soup, since I think sick people eat soup, but I could not even chew my bread without my jaw or my ear or something go berserk--it felt like I was being shot in the head. Turns out I was not, but it sure is miserable feeling like this.

I have many funny things from the meal to report, but this typing is making me sweat.

Maybe tomorrow

Mojo's next skill to master--trailer loading

Keep in mind that this is Mojo we are talking about--a different sort of dude who is wired differently than other horses. This is no ordinary colt, but he has to get some ordinary skills, even if he does not like it. Which means we do not like it. This is about step 4 in his fast track learning plan--but the first of them that he has truly never been exposed to before. He has about three weeks to become a push button loader for his trip to Pennsylvania.

All that makes tonight's developments more than a little noteworthy.
To make this development even stranger, these photos are posted in reverse order of what really happened---so that they appear to make sense. Keep that in mind. What happened tonight does not make a bit of sense to me--except that I know enough about how horses work (and mine in particular) to not be surprised about this.

Above is Barry and Mojo talking to each other. This was the tail end of trailer intro 101 tonight. After all the action went down. Or didn't actually--that would be more accurate.
This is Mojo contemplating the interior of the trailer. Note the interested ear indicators, and lack of his giraffe-you-cannot-make-me stance. I never saw that tonight, not once.



This is the first step of the evening--when Barry went to fetch Mojo from his stall to bring him to his new meet the trailer pen in which he will be residing for the next 48 hours or so, I hurriedly removed Ammo from baby tying position (which was pretty dang funny in its own right) and rushed her to her stall so I could document the loading lesson.

We had already decided that we would not even attempt to load him, but rather, put him in this pen we attached to the trailer, show him that food and hay will henceforth be served in the first slant of the trailer, and then we would go out to
dinner for Hutch's birthday. But before I had Ammo through her stall door just a few feet from where she was tied, Madison let me know that Mojo was actually IN the trailer.

Surely she was kidding, I thought. We were not going to do that. I wanted him to get comfy with it before he got his defenses up so that he would decide to argue about it.

But no one made him get in that trailer--Barry walked him into the pen, stepped up in the trailer to see something, and Mojo followed him in. He stood there for a while, Barry gave him a handful of hay from his hay bag so he would get the point that his food was in there, then Barry backed him out of the trailer.

The whole time Mojo was happy as he could be.

Now lets see what he does with this information he has just gotten. Especially if it really starts to rain like it is supposed to do.

It is up to him.

I am actually having fun out-thinking the boy.

Dark skies

When I got back from lunch, it was 84 degrees and beautiful. By the time I got home from work, it was getting rainy, and the temp was dropping. These two photos were taken within seconds of each other as the dark clouds rolled in from the east. Look how dark it got in just seconds. Needless to say, most of our work did not get done, as it stormed like crazy for a few hours.

Mojo had a few lessons tonight. He really does not want someone to lead him from his right side, or approach him on that side. Barry had already worked on him when I got back from the grocery store (where I went while it was raining too hard to get out of the car), and he said he was just like yesterday in that he scooted around in his stall for a while and did not want him to touch his face, but he came around within a few minutes. While Barry does not think that is improvement, being able to touch him at all especially in his face is way more than we had a few months ago, and even Monday nite. There has definitely been improvement in him every day, even if it is not easy every day.

What we accomplished tonight: let me catch him by stepping on his rope, and took less than 30 seconds to give in on the touching. He did get really mad one time and paw hard, but he got yanked down in a second. After I discovered how wonky he was about his left side, Barry worked on that a bit and he gave in on it as well. He is definitely not comfortable there though. However, my favorite part is that when Barry returned to his left side, Mojo immediately dropped his head and visibly relaxed.

Mojo also got about 1/3 of his man brushed and while that sounds like very little, it it something he does not want done under any circumstances. The hairbrush freaks him right out.

On a good note, he will let you pick up all four feet and stand there all nite long with a foot in the air. Marvin has taught him well, and this totally confirms for me that it is the approach taken with him that determines him---Mojo knows he has me buffaloed, so he is worse for me than anyone. Barry is next, and Marvin can get more from him than anyone.

Interesting evening, for the very short time we spent on him tonight. He was to be turned out tonight for a break from the stall which I know takes a toll on him, but with the storm, it was a bad idea. He will go out Friday afternoon, after his Coggins, etc

Mojo is going away

And today started the countdown to all the things you have to do to get a horse ready to move. He came in from the back pasture to get ready for the vet to come do Coggins and health certificates, get dewormed, take his fall shots, etc.

Tomorrow he gets his hair tended to, to get the cockleburrs out, and if it is not raining, he will get his trailer-loading school after work. Mojo needs a lot of remedial education, so that is what will be happening over the next few weeks---such as more tying, he needs a farrier appointment, etc. He lacks a basic respect for authority, which oddly does not culminate in him being in your space all the time--which is nice. Most of these babies learn things on their own, and I honestly do not know how much time has been spent teaching him to tie, etc, or if he just does it like the rest of them do.

I guess we will find out. He is going to have a great life in Pennsylvania.

The Mojo Project-for Holly

While I was out doing yet more photos of the baby during lunch on Friday, I got a few of other horses as well. Mojo caught my attention doing his impression of his father, with his "look at me" stance. It freaks me out that they all do it--it is like they have some sort of camera radar in them, and stop to find it when it goes off.

I am saving Mojo for the Secret Weapon late this summer. I bet he will not be bored by this one!

It did not last terribly long though, and he moseyed off in search of something better to do than watch me watching him.

I love days like this when the sun is shining just bright enough to make everything shiny looking. I cannot wait until everyone is slicked out.

For Robin and Holly-- a dual purpose post!

Lookie here Holly, Mojo getting ready to touch me--man he is starting to look fat as a house, isn't he? Well, I guess that makes two of us. He was really distracted tonight, the tractor was running in the dark, he had a donkey hollering at him from just outside the round pen--and it is COLD!But he did it, although not well tonight. I had to leave the pen once as he was not paying attention to me.

This pic is for Robin--see, my hair is frozen! And I had my swimming suit on under those clothes, and it is about 20, so I could only last so long before I had to give in.

A little out of my element

I cannot believe I actually did this. I tried the Cardio Boxing class at the gym. I thought I could do it because when I peeked in last week, they were taking 30 second breaks.

Once again, I totally misjudged my abilities. First I did ten minutes on my favorite leg machine which you should not measure in minutes, but I know ten minutes is approximately 200 reps--for some reason it was kind of hard. I must be a little sore from water aerobics yesterday.

It was a BIG mistake to do that in addition to the class. I almost died. This is no exaggeration. I thought I was going to have a major cardiac incident in the first ten minutes. I got dizzy and when he told us to lay on the ground, I was thrilled---until he said get up and that was part of the routine. No thanks, I just laid there. He made fun of me, but I did not care, as I did not have the energy to get up.

It was pretty fun to punch the bag, then kick the shit out of it--particularly because I was pretty riled up at an internet person. I kept picturing her whiny face as I whacked at that thing. I may have gotten carried away, and perhaps that is why I almost died.

At the end was some yoga stuff. I had to remind ol boy that I am a fat old woman and cannot be expected to be as good as these scrawny little nymphets in the class, and he would have to bear with me. Plus Iwas holding up a whole lot more weight on my toes and elbows. I was not as embarrassed as I thought I would be, but that is probably because I was not getting enough oxygen.

In any event, I lived through it and I liked it enough to try it again next week. I DEFINITELY got a workout and this is the first time I have felt like I was really working hard since I started this program again. The water aerobics was not easy yesterday, but it certainly was not this! I am pretty sure that it is a good thing this happens once a week and not more!

Then another strange thing happened. I went to tend to Mojo tonight with instructions to not click until he has maintained contact with me for a count of 2. That was kind of hard for him, but we will get it eventually--he likes to brush his nose all over me, and I really want him to put it somewhere and leave it for a count of 2. We will get there. The wierd thing is that today he was fascinated with my face and my hair.

He has never done that before. I thought he was going to sniff my hair right up his nose. When he would sniff my face, I tried to hard not to move lest I scare him, but it tickled and made me laugh. I realize that I probably smelled like a goat, but that is not unique since I have been going there after the gym every day.

We practiced him standing at a distance from me and not approaching until I told him to. That will take some more work, but he is starting to get that too. I need to change things up some as I was getting a little bored with touch my belly, touch my leg, etc like we have been playing

A hitch in the progress

Well here is an excuse you do not hear often--I could not do Mojo's work tonight because my hair froze.

I know that sounds ridiculous and it is. I fully intended to go to the farm after water aerobics. However, my hair froze. That combined with the second splitting headache in two days sent me home instead of to the farm. I kind of suck

So I took a shower, made dinner, did some laundry and told myself that I would go over after American Idol. Then I got on the horn with Missy and here it is 9:03 pm and Barry says it is ten degrees so I should not go.

I am such a pile of crap that I am agreeing with him. It is friggin COLD out there.

Barry has to go anyway because for some reason, the watering did not get done today and he had to thaw the hoses. He has been so helpful lately--for some reason, Rock is fighting having her eyes doctored, and only he can get it done successfully--so he has been doing it. That makes me feel much better because I know the job I was doing was not great.

Tomorrow is tanning, regular workout and probably cardio bozing. If I get to work early enough, I will go to water aerobics before I do all that other stuff. THEN, I will for sure play with Mojo, I am excited to try Holly's new idea about the lead rope.

The only other news for today is that I am watching the stallion auctions pretty closely--I have a bid in on one, and plan to bid in a few others once I know what happened with this one. I am after Meradas Blue Sue and Boonsmal Cee Lena, as well as some alternates. Please do not go steal them from me!

Cross your fingers for me

Mojo is outpacing me

Here is a problem I never thought I would have. I have been trying to do what Holly said and not push him too hard this week--let him settle into the eating out of my hand, get used to the real clicker, etc. Since I took off yesterday, I thought we would have to back up a bit today.

Not so much.

He picked up right where we left off. I tried a new trick of touching my belly or my leg or something, and saying "touch" and he would. He liked that more than my hand I think. He was not perfect but pretty dang good with touching wherever I told him to.

Another thing I tried was when he touched my hand, I would try to brush my hands across his muzzle or whatever he touched me with before I clicked--trying to desensitize him to ME touching HIM. I did not make as much progress as I would have hoped with that. I got in a couple of good ones, without him freaking, but I would not call it a success.

We did hit a snag that could be a real issue--once he actually seemed like he wanted to nip at me. I think the feeding from the hand will have to stop. We will see how it goes.

Any thoughts on the next step? He is not ready for being felt up yet

Mojo met the real clicker

And he does not care!

We had just a few minutes this afternoon as I was wiating for Dr M, and I did not have my clicker yet. He ate out of my hand willingly.

I just got back with the clicker, and contrary to Holly's concerns, he is not scared of it. Not a bit. The first couple of times he heard it, it was for touching my hand with his nose, and he would pull back about 3 inches, but then come in for the food. After a few rounds of that, he did not pull back at all.

I am amazed. I cannot wait til tomorrow to do it some more!

I took a series of pics this afternoon of him as he came to me from his other bucket, but they all came out blurry--too bad, it would have been a neat demonstration of how well this is going.

Mojo's journey

Last nite was nite number three of the Mojo Clicker Training Experience (sans clicker).

We started with treating him when he came to me, which he remembered. I could tell he was not going to go for the clipping on of the lead rope, so I tried something Holly's other idea of getting him to target my hand.

I held my hand out with it full of grain in an attempt to get him to touch me, rather than me trying to touch him. He wanted no part of that. I tried several times, and he would just look at me.

So I did what she said, and I left. I put his bucket of feed outside of the round pen and walked out to doctor eyeballs. Boy howdy did he not like that, I could tell by the way he looked at me.

It was kind of like this. Yes, I realize that the camera made his eyes red, but I am not convinced that he was not shooting fire out of them anyway.

But, by God, it WORKED. When I came back, we started again. While he would not take feed from my outstretched hand, he would approach it and breathe on it. Occasionally, a whisker would touch it. He did not want to approach if I looked at him, so I had to look the other way and wait to feel his breath. When he did it, I would bring my hand in slowly and put it at the edge of the feed scoop---shake feed to the end of the scoop and into my hand and wait for him. And HE DID IT! He ate feed out of my hand! He got braver and braver as we did this for about 10 minutes. This is what he looked like when he did right--I wanted to take a pic of him eating out of my hand, but I could not since I only have so many hands and did not want to scare him when he was doing so good.



After he would take a bite, I would walk off, call him to me, and we would do it again. Once or twice, he would even take food from my hand when it was not at the end of the scoop. If he took too long to take his feed from my hand/scoop, I would say OK and walk away and he would follow me and do better the next time. Considering how terrrified he is of being touched, it was amazing.

This is really wild. Maybe when I describe it, it does not sound like much, but if you could see how sensitive he is about new things (including people, who are not so much new). yo uwould understand how amazing that in three days, he is following me like a puppy all around the round pen.

I guess this clicker trainer (sans clicker until tonight) is not so different than anything else--you have to put in your time. It does make things black and white though.

I am really enjoying it.

Holly says to just do this for a week or so. She anticipates a little setback when I bust out the real clicker, as he is so sensitive, it may scare him. Our next goal will be to touch him at my will,. and not his. After we get that down, I bet he takes off like a firecracker.

The Mojo Maneuvers

Unless you know him, you cannot know how momentous an occasion it is to have young Mojo haltered and acting like a normal person.

This miracle occurred Sunday nite. I have been asking Barry to get him hatlered and out to the round pen forever, but it never happened....I did not want to see him go nuts like his sister Rondee does when she is in a stall for any time at all.

Finally, Barry got on it, and within ten minutes, he had it done. Mojo calmed right down fairly quickly and even got his first lunging lesson in---he caught on really quickly to it.


I told Barry I would be shocked if he was still in the round pen today, instead of out of it and into the middle pasture, via that low panel back there. Do I know my kids or what? LeaAnn called this afternoon and said he was AWOL, but that she had lured him easily back into the round pen. That shocks me as much as getting him there in the first place.

This gelding makes me insane, as he is a challenge in so many ways. Then again, the really intelligent ones usually are and he is definitely that. His athleticism is so impressive to me as well--he just ripples with muscles and scoots around like I have rarely seen. He is as likely to have his belly on the ground and his butt up as he is to be standing normally, but when he runs and stops hard, he folds up like a clam. I have already seen him pull tail hairs out, and that is hard to do when you only have a yearling tail!

More silly behavior from youngsters

Mojo is a goofball. He has removed a board from the hay feeder and essentially crawled right up in it to eat.

I guess it is better than dragging it out and peeing on it.

I hope he pays attention and realizes that although Rock, who is stalled directly behind him, cannot see and thus kick his ass for looking at her, she will eventually be able to see (I HOPE), and not likely put up with him being this close to her stuff!

More inmates

Young Mojo is also under house arrest, learning how to be civilized. It is slow going, but we will get there. One indicator that things are getting better is that I could not take a photo of him without him sticking his face inmy camera--that would not have happend a few weeks ago. He still does not want to be touched by people, but I will take any improvement we can get.

Because he is Melody's child, I am looking to see the stall insanity mindset set in---so far, it has not really reared its ugly head. It sure would be good news to see he did not get it! Her first baby does not have it, but her second one sure does, and her fourth one has it, but since he is just a baby, it may not be the same thing with him.

Every day that I see him, I am impressed with him. He has amazing conformation, and God knows he has more than his share of personality. This picture does not do him justice, but at least it is not just his nostrils!

More on the yearling front

The only one that has not had his photo up here lately is Mojo. He is one big strapping colt, but I have not measured him yet-there just are not enough daylight hours lately. He looks to me like an adult already, which is so strange. He has the prettiest dapples in his torso--they are kind of golden.

He always leads the pack when the three are doing perimeter runs around their paddock---it cracks me up to see him instigate play time with the others.

He definitely has Sly's cocky look as well--which is one of my favorite parts of them both. Mojo was one of my favorite babies of last year, so it is particularly satisfying to see him turning into this guy. I am actually surprised he is still here--he would be a great all around horse