Sweetwater Day 18

 In the morning I worked on some desensitization with a big piece of plastic.

She actually didn't seem to mind too much with me approaching her with it.

 I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but she is starting to accept it, at least at a distance.  She never spun to take off or bounced off the fence as in the past.

 After a little bit I put it in her feed tub and put the hay on top.  She was none too happy about it.

 But she did approach it from several sides,

 Inspected it thoroughly,

 and finally decided it was ok to eat the hay.

 I then put it under the tub for the rest of the day.  I think I'll get a bigger piece where she will have to stand on it next.  Food is a strong tool in desensitizing.

Then in the evening I just worked on being able to walk up to her and stand next to her and rub her.  There might have been a breakthrough.  I got he lead rope on after about 5 minutes without too much drama.  Then she actually relaxed.  Not sure if it shows up in this picture but her lower lip is very relaxed. 

And she had a relaxed rear leg.  I know it does't seem like much but she also stood still while I walked from one side to the other and let me brush both sides without moving off.  She is leading some better too.   Then this morning when I just fed her, I brushed both sides without a lead rope and no moving off.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sweetwater Day 17

I didn't start out with the idea of tying her up but that is what we ended up with.   

 My plan was to just work her from up on the fence, making her go back and forth until she would stop and stand next to me.  Her idea was to stand as far away from me as possible.   So that lead to a tug of war and me wrapping the rope around the post for leverage.  There was a lot of drama at times but the post, rope and halter all held.

 She learned to keep the slack in the rope but did a lot of pacing.

 She would stop with me on the fence with her head next to me but I could never work back toward her back without her starting to pace again.  And when I stuck my foot out to touch her with it, it was like starting at square one again.

 That all took 2 1/2 hours.

 In the evening a veterinarian pathologist that competes in 100 mile endurance rides all over the county and breeds and sells endurance horses internationally, stopped by to see Sweetwater.  

 He worked with her for an hour and got to touch her face.  His advice was to send her back.  He came to the same conclusions that J and I have; she doesn't like people, she doesn't like rubbing as a reward, the more you push her the more agitated and aggressive she gets, she is more interested in inanimate objects than she is in people.

Can you tell he has Arabians?  He also say I was doing good at getting weight off of her (he didn't see the before pictures).  I said, getting weight off? I'm trying to get her to gain weight.  He said don't get her too fat.

In Bloom at the 4R's and Sweetwater Days 15 & 16

They're here, 

 the peonies are starting to bloom.

 Just a few for now but in a few days it should be glorious.

 The Siberian irises are very dainty.

This is some sort of defective bearded iris.  I have never had one that looked like this before.

 This rust is the normal color of the irises in that location.

 And the coreopsis are in full bloom

 Saturday morning I had to get Sweetwater in the barn so J could get in a heifer that was having trouble calving.

 V helped and we ended up being able to pull it by hand, no calf jack this time.

You can see Sweetwater was very interested in the proceedings.

 When I went back later in the day I found her with the halter now broken.  This had been a new halter at the start of this adventure.   It took some work but I was finally able to get a web halter on her and actually buckle it from the left side.  But I still have a lot of difficulty approaching her to snap on a lead rope.  So I still just basically work her without one.

 Today I did a lot of work with desensitizing her to the rope.  I was able to get it around her middle and put pressure where a girth would be.  She took it ok, no bolting or bucking.  She still acts like she would like to charge me.  When she does this I make her back up then send her off to lunge some more.

 And I was able to comb a lot of her mane out.  She is starting to look better anyway.

Sweetwater Day 14

I worked with Sweetwater this morning getting the halter back on, again, brushing, approaching and leading.

I used the twine to get the halter over her neck then decided to just run it through the loop and use it as a lead rope.  While I was leading with the twine she never tried to bolt so no new rope burns on my hands, YAY.  Still making slow progress.

Sweetwater Day 11 & 12

Same story different day.  One step forward 4 steps back.   Sorry for the poor quality pictures, they are 

screen shots from a long video I took of trying to get the lead rope on her. 

 She was doing good, facing me up walking up to me when I walked away, letting me rub around her head and neck,

 Then when I tried to reach for the halter she moved away.  I added some pressure to my neck rope

 And she bolted again.

 I was a little afraid she had tried to kick at me.  But after reviewing the video I saw her just pushing off with both rear legs to get away.

 Then it was around,

 and around a few times,

before she would stop and face me again.  After a little more work I gave up on attaching the lead rope for that session.
Then this morning I found her halterless again.  I had a brief 20 minute session this evening where I was able without any drama to get the neck rope on her and try to work on leading.  I now have a new problem of her throwing her head up and coming at me faster.  Her ears are forward so I don't think she is charging me but she is breathing hard and  she doesn't seem to understand my boundaries.  I've worked so hard at getting her to come to me, now I have to work on her staying away.

Sweetwater Day 10

HUGE day with Sweetwater today.

 I think dragging the lead rope for a day really helped calm her with ropes.  It is not too much trouble now to get a rope over her neck.  I twisted it so she couldn't duck out and get away.  She even has started to lead a little.

 Then she let me touch her nose.  That was a first!  She got pretty comfortable with me rubbing her face as long as I stayed below her eyes.  Then in the afternoon I spent some time just sitting on a bucket in the lot with her.  She slowly worked her way toward me over 30 minutes just inching a little at a time.  She ended up coming within a foot of  touching me.  It is really hard to sit still on a bucket for that long.

 Then with some patience and ingenuity I was able to get the halter back on, without any pharmacological assistance.   You may notice it is tied on the right instead of the left.  In the barn she is much more comfortable with me working from the right.  So I tied a piece of twine to the headstall and let it across over her neck like I had been doing the rope.  I was then able to get the nose piece on and tie the halter.  It was a little tricky but she managed to hold still.

And I was even able to remove her tag/number.  She is now officially Sweetwater and no longer 8303.  Officially in my book anyway.

Sweetwater Day 9

When I went down to the barn this morning I found Sweetwater like this. 

 Notice anything missing?

I almost cried.  How on earth am I ever going to get a halter back on her?  J has suggested a dart gun.  I'm sure a cc of Dormosedan would do the trick.  But this evening she seemed so much calmer with the rope and letting me get closer to her head that I have a little hope back.   I was wanting this to be more up beat because Saturday evening,  after having drug the rope around Friday night and working with her 2 hours Saturday morning, we had such a successful session Saturday evening.  She was no longer bolting and pulling the rope out of my hand, lounging both directions bending toward me, and yielding her hind quarters, sort of.

She has even sniffed me a time or two and walks places instead of head up trotting hard.

 And I had some wonderful company on Mother's Day.  They all went with me to the barn to see Sweetwater.

The horse girls E watched from the barn and V stayed on the other side of the fence, but non horsey Mike braved the lot and actually got pretty close.