My Pets

My gallery · by **Naeco** » Thu May 03, 2018 3:38 am

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My gallery · by **Naeco** » Thu May 03, 2018 3:45 am

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My gallery · by **Naeco** » Thu May 03, 2018 3:51 am

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My gallery · by **Naeco** » Thu May 03, 2018 3:57 am

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Gender: Mare
Height: 17.2hh
Age: 2 years
Dam: Unkown
Sire: Unkown
Offspring: N/A
Alanie is a typical chestnut mare.
She is sour, sassy, and down right
moody. Alanie is a mare that you
don't want to mess with, I promise
you. She has not gone through starting
yet mainly due to her personality.

First Halter
Color: Cyan/Aqua (#00FFF4), Yellow (#F2FD00)

Today was the day, the day I would put the first halter on this feisty mare. I walked out of the house with a beautiful aqua - colored nylon halter with gold buckles. It had a matching lead as well, but I decided to put that in the barn as I did barn check. All of the other horses were perfectly fine so I went through the barn, past a large arena made of dark oak wood with birch trimmings, and through a large, stone opening. This opened up to a four-foot-wide cobble path lined with railroad tie flower pots. Each pot had a slightly different array of flowers, from day lilies of all shades to even the tiniest bluebells. As I walked on the path, it slowly merged to an old dirt road on the property, signs that the farm wasn't quite complete yet. I continued down the beaten path until a Y emerged. Left I took. This lead me to a large opening with two 10-acre pastures. The pasture on my left was empty due to being fertilized and left to grow grass. The one on my right, however, held a single horse, Alanie. This pasture, earlier in the week, had been split into a much, much smaller section. The section, close to the metal gate, housed only an half-acre of land. Two days ago, Alanie had been herded into this section to begin her training.

As I made my way through the two gates and into the make-shift round pen, Alanie perked her ears and rose her head. Sniffing the air, she was very curious and up-tight. She could tell something was new, different. This mare has had a halter on her before, but that was a terrible experience in which she had been beaten into a trailer and dumped in the middle of our property by who-knows-who. I slowly entered the pen and walked up to her, showing her what I had. Any other horse would have came over, all curious. However, Alanie was different; she took off bucking and snorting. She was afraid, terrified of the unknown. I walked out of the pen and went over to the nearest corner of the pasture where a somewhat large stack of hay stood. I grabbed a few flakes and dropped all but one just outside the round pen. This instantly got her attention. See, Alanie is somewhat of a pig, all she wants is food. This was the perfect opportunity.

I tossed the flake down on the ground and watched her eat it. Within a few minutes, it was devoured. I then proceeded to bringing in two or three flakes. Laying one on the ground first, then the halter, and finally covering the halter with hay. Alanie pranced over to the small pile with her nose grazing the ground. I could tell that she was nervous yet curious. This is exactly what I had wanted. She began to eat the pile, nudging this way and that, eventually discovering the halter. Alanie jolted at first, but calmed down and realized that the halter was not going to do harm to her. This action took place for a while, about 30 minutes to be exact. Once she was done with her hay, she stood quietly instead of trotting off like she had done previously. I took up the last flake of hay and walked over to her slowly, with the halter in tow. The flake was tossed on the ground and I positioned the halter so that Alanie would have to stick her head into the halter to eat. She was hesitant, for a whole whopping 20 seconds. That is when she realized that there was food there. Shoving her nose into the halter, I quickly did up the buckles and backed up.

This caused her to trot off into the distance, rearing and bucking along the way. I watched her until she calmed down, and then walked out of the pen. Normally, I do not leave halters on horses, but this was a break-away halter. This means that if she gets snagged, it would break and she would not be injured. I closed the round pen and the pasture, taking one last look before I left. The last view I got of Alanie was of her grazing peacefully. *sigh* This was going to be a tough yet sometimes easy horse to train.

First Walk

Alanie had had her blue halter on for about a week now. I figured now was time to train her how to lead in a halter. Walking through the barn, I took up a brown rope halter and matching lead. It was a training halter, something that I would not mind being broken. She was much easier to catch and halter this time around, a breakthrew, I thought. I then did up the lead rope and asked her to walk forward. The first step was hesitant, I gave her a pat and then a light tug on the lead. She began to toss her head. I stood, with tension being even, not wanting to cause a fight. Alanie took a half step forward, and I released tension. She then saw a dog, Milo, dart into the woods and slip into the pasture. I hollered at him, hoping he would leave. That he did, but it was much too late and Alanie went absolutely nuts. She tossed her head, reared, and bolted over to the side. I was unable to release the lead in time from my hands and tension was created.

I released as soon as I could resulting in Alanie taking off towards the far side of the pasture. It took me an hour to reach her and grab the end of the lead. By then, she was peacefully grazing again. I asked her to follow me and she hesitantly took a few steps forward; I rewarded her by allowing her to graze. We continued this process until we reached the round pen. I walked her around the round pen a few times and she followed me without fear nor tension. Deciding to end the session there, I slipped the halter off and released her into the pasture with no gear on. Progress has been made.