Our first day

I got a whopping 6 hours of sleep on Saturday night. As soon as the sun was up, I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see my new horse, to see what he looked like in the light. He was standing in the corner of his paddock by the mini's, his new best friends. I grabbed a carrot and walked over to him and he came right over to me. It appears he was treated well in the past because he doesn't seem to have people issues. He is super sweet.

I wanted to see how much messing with him I could do. Would he pick up his feet? Could I brush him? How is he with his ears? Eyes? Nostrils? Nothing phased him, he passed with flying colors. Some of this may be because he is tired after the long trip, but if that's the case, then at least he doesn't get pissy. On a scale from 1-10, this guy is an 8 when it comes to being affectionate.

My neighbor to the west turned out her horses in their arena so they could see Red. He acted like a mare when her OTTB gelding came over to see him. Silly boys. They ran up and down the fence line a few times, but Red never got too excited. He did his floaty extended trot and cantered a bit, but that was all. It's probably just him being tired, because he seems pretty mellow.

Later that morning, Ryan and I stood out in the field with Red. He came right over to us again and just "hung out". Ryan started scratching his neck and that was the beginning of the end for Red! He used Ryan as his scratching post for a good 10 minutes, and he loved every minute of it. So much for him being my horse!

When it warmed up to about 60, I felt it was time for a bath. He has mud caked on all 4 legs and under his stomach. He also has something funky on his neck. He has patches of hair missing, and the hair around those patches is scabby. The patches are also raised, so he has bald bumps on his neck.

They looked a little like a fungus to me at first. My neighbor said she thought it was lice. Either could be true. I thought, a bath will do him good.

He did great for the 1st 10 minutes. He stood there like a champ while I washed his neck. I don't think he knows how to tie, and I'm not about to find out by trying it out on my vinyl fence. He started to get bored so I went and got him a flake of alfalfa to nibble on. Now I was able to get mud off the legs, and 10 minutes later he's bored again. So we go for a short walk and he is pawing at the ground and I knew he wanted to roll, but no no, we're not going to do that, you can when I'm done. But apparently that was only a minor suggestion and he went down anyway. I stood there thinking, "Please don't get tangled up in the lead rope that is STILL attached to you."

Well he gets up from rolling and takes off, he is gone like the wind. Lead rope still attached. So now I'm just hoping he doesn't step on it and break his neck, and he doesn't. He did one lap around the shed and that was it. He had his fun. He let me catch him and back to the bath we went! He took it for a few more minutes and I decided enough was enough, I had pushed my luck with him already. So we went for a walk around the pasture to relax (not that he was worked up, a walk did him good) and on that walk he decided to roll again! Well this time I wasn't going to let him run off after. He tried, but I hung on tight and after a few seconds of trying to get away, he gave up. We finished our walk and then I decided to call it a day.