Feet Feats

Today Granny, my fiance's mom, came over and watched our daughter for a half hour or so while Fiance and I worked with Nine. Nine doesn't know anyone as well as he knows me, but he adjusts to other people quickly enough. First they just got to know one another, and Fiance lead Nine around a bit (he is leading much better now) until they got to me. Then I tossed a rope around Nine's body, eventually getting to his back leg. After a couple of tries while Nine stood there like nothing was happening, I got the courage to just reach down a little and grab the end of the rope, forming a loop around his leg. I tossed the loop around, up and down his whole leg for a few seconds, but as he wasn't bothered to even twitch, I went ahead and got the rope around his pastern, then asked him to pick up his foot. He did pretty good about that; he stepped away from me for a step or two every time I asked him to pick up his foot, but he didn't run. Maybe because my fiance was holding his lead rope, but I'd like to think it was also because he had a clue as to what I was doing.

I repeated all that on his other side, but rather than learning to pick up his foot, he somehow got the idea that I was asking him to walk around in little circles! So I had to take a step back and do the same thing on his front foot, which he picks up like a pro now. Then I tried again with his hind foot, and he did seem to get the idea. He won't hold it up, but he will take it off the ground now without trying to kick anyone or any thing.

After that we thought it would be a good idea to let the lesson sink in, so we just rubbed Nine for a while. He spooked when Fiance's big gloved hand rubbed under his belly, and when I caught him again he spooked (again) from the Gloved Hand of Doom, and halfway through his spook-spin the side of his face collided with my cheek. Gosh, that hurt! I was seeing stars for about a minute after that! But I have already recovered and Nine probably didn't even notice, so all is well. My fiance also worked with Nine's front feet, and Nine let him pick them up and look at them. So, once I can come up with some extra cash I will get our farrier out here to trim Nine's front feet, at least. Even if Nine isn't ready for his hind feet being trimmed, it's really just his front feet that need it. Maybe to even out the costs the farrier can trim one of the goat's back feet, because they are really long as well.

Tomorrow my daughter has a doctor's appointment in the morning, but perhaps that afternoon we can work with saddling again. I will post an update if that is the case.