Apparently Cinder figured out if she wiggled her nose/butt/body against her stall door hard enough, she could get the latch to work its way free and the door would open. She did it once while I was at the barn, but I had been in her stall earlier and figured I hadn't latched it correctly. She's done it twice more over night and been loose when the morning feeder came. Both times she didn't appear to have gotten into anything, or done any damage except pulling halters off hooks and chewing a fly mask. She's super people oriented and is easy to catch as she walks right up to you. She now has a clip on the latch so she can't work it loose.
Since she's started displaying bad boredom behaviors, I've started doing more ground work again, including teaching her to lunge. I had used voice commands for our in hand work (trot, walk, whoa) so when I put her on the line she already kinda knew what to do. What she didn't know was how to stay on a circle. The first lunge experience was me basically water skiing behind her and Cinder being confused as to why I was there. A round pen would make it so much easier, but we'll work with what we go. By the second time she was able to make egg shaped circles and mostly going off my voice and by her third session she was pretty darn good. We only do 5 minutes mostly walk and trot, and only 2 times a week but I'm super happy with her progress so far.
Last week the ponies got their spring vaccines. Cinder had broken out in hives a couple of day before the appointment, but they had gone away in a day. So of course she broke out again the day of their appointment. She's not bothered by them at all, but some were pretty big. The vet wasn't too concerned and vaccinated her anyway. He did have me give her some banamine that day and the day after. Since then most of the hives have gone away, but if she breaks out again she'll go on steroids. The barn got a new shipment of hay the week before she broke out, so we figure there's something in it that's bothering her. The distribution of the hives is mostly on her barrel and girth area, so she must be rolling/laying down in whatever it is.
On Sunday I convinced A to come out with me and help me free jump Cinder. I don't want to do too much since she's not yet 2, but a couple small fences shouldn't hurt. We made a chute and started sending her over just a ground pole. It then went up to a cross rail, then a small vertical. She did maybe 4 jumps in total. She was pretty darn cute over fence and didn't seem phased by it at all. She even trotted it once on her own after we finished and were taking the chute down. Hopefully she continues to like jumping as she gets older!
We don't have a round pen either, but I used jumps to section off one small end of the arena to create a sort of "round pen" for ground work. Super helpful to have a smaller area
ReplyDeleteOh man, she's a smart cookie! You're going to have a lot of fun with her!
ReplyDeleteHaha - my pony used to let herself out. And then she would go let the goats out, too. None of the other horses, just the goats. So weird!
ReplyDeleteRound pens are so useful, I was sad horsepark didn't have one but used a corner of the smallest arena I could to teach Dante to lunge. Cinder is too smart and so cute over the fence!
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