Genesis – 07/06/09

Since the last post, Genesis has been a fairly busy girl.  It was a big surprise to her to get the idea that she was being asked to work.  WORK???  What is that?  She thinks her job is to be adored and petted.

She learned the rudiments of lunging.  I think she was very interested in it once we got her to quit eating long enough to lunge. 

She got towel training with the help of Morgan, my riding student.  If you are interested in a description of this, you can look back at Hunter's posts for it.  By the time we were done, she had the towel flying through the air landing on her head and she never spooked.  Granted, she was curious and thought we were nuts, but not spooked.  We tightened the towel around her to simulate girths and she was not sure if we were asking her to go forward or what, but she got the swing of this too.

Last year, I bought a tiny saddle for tiny cowboys and cowgirls. It is very light.  Genesis got to examine this and had it all over her.  She easily adapted to the saddle being swung around and being saddled.  That little saddle is well worth the money.

Bit training got worked in. The nice rescue lady had a rubber one for me to use.  I used the trick of smearing apricot jam on the bit.  After Genesis sucked the jam off, she mouthed the bit, which I had tied to her halter.  She got used to that right away, too and stopped mouthing.  I hope the young lady that has adopted her has a bridle that fits her that she can be trained in.  Genesis has such a tiny head, I have nothing that fits her.

I decided that as cute as she is, Genesis has a few flaws (as do we all)  that could be camouflaged with a clever haircut and she has some nice features that can be emphasized as well. She may end up being shown by the adopter, so why not teach her to clip? Scissors were used as I don't have electric clippers at this time. Bridle path was a decision.  Western, English or what?  I finally decide to cut back to show the delicacy of her throat, but not the thinness of her neck.  We hope her neck will fill out as she muscles up.  The bridle path now displays a darling white marking that crosses the mane.  I pulled out her 'eye whiskers' to minimize some extra folds around the lids.  That cutened her up a lot.  Ears got a show pony cut.  She has really pretty ears.  She did object a little to the ears, but did fine for what I am sure was her first cut.  I will have to try the legs another time. 

Then the big news.  She got ridden by my great nephews.  Ok, she was sat on by the little cowboys, not ridden.  But they were up.  She was great.  I had  bbq in the horse pasture for the 4th and she stayed tied down by the party for a long time when not being ridden or fawned over.  A couple of balks while she was being led, but I think that was because a niece of mine was turning to face Genesis and inadvertently cued her to stop.  Genesis was quite the party girl!  There are pics and they will be coming soon.

-- Anastasia