Sorry about the lack of a post from yesterday; I really have nothing good to say about that; well, I got Nine to lift his front feet again pretty well, but then he even stopped letting me do that.
But today is another day! I decided to employ the method I heard from a woman who has 11 horses; if the horse doesn't want to stand still for saddling, make him run around the corral for a bit. If he still doesn't want to stand, he gets to run more. Then the horse will learn that in order to get a break from running (or in the case of my minuscule round pen, trotting) he has to have something on his back. Given that Nine is a 3 year old who hasn't had hardly anything to do in almost 2 months, he had a LOT of energy! Probably half an hour went by before he would really stand still for the saddle blanket. Luckily, after that, it was only 15 minutes or so before I
had put the saddle on and taken it off twice. Then he caught his breath and I had to run him quite a bit again. However he seemed to have the idea pretty firm in his head, so it was only two tries before he stood for the saddle a third time. Then I let him wear it, uncinched, while I ran water for the cows. Then I just slipped it off again and called it a day.
Once I recover from suspected dehydration and minor heat stroke, I plan on spending the rest of the day with Hammar, who will most likely make me do it all over again. If I live, expect another series of updates starting next Tuesday! Maybe I will even have some pictures!
5 years ago
2 comments:
Be careful about heat stroke! I got dehydrated one Saturday. Monday morning I was having SEVERE chest pains! Had to go to the ER! Hubby drove me. After numerous tests, the doctors ruled out heart problems. A friend, who is a doctor, suggested...DUH...it might be dehydration. Turns out, SHE was right! Now I drink plenty of water. I even mix it half and half with Gatorade or an electrolyte mix that I buy at the health store! BELIEVE ME, it is much better to drink the water than to end up with muscle spasms like I did!
Cheryl,
I'm glad your okay! I had that same problem in high school during a hike; I had been drinking water, but not replenishing my electrolytes. Mixing Gatorade into your water is a good idea. After the hike I ate a lot of potato chips for the salt, and I drank loads of Gatorade. It helped a lot.
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