Yesterday Terry got a halter on Toffy... We walked up to him, and he said that we had missed the rodeo the other day. I asked him how that went and he said, "Awful." The reason for that is that when they tried to get her to eat and slip the halter on, she wouldn't put her nose in it for them to slip it over her nose. I don't know how, but in the process of trying to get the halter on she freaked out, and rammed her butt against the latch that holds the barn door closed. Well, she wrecked that, and also got an inch gash on her butt. They put her in Ana's stall, and she threw herself against the door and bent it so that they couldn't get it open. They got the door unbent, and somehow in this whole process got the halter on. Today, that gash looks okay.
Today, when we eventually caught her, she almost freaked out, but I got her to calm down... then she exploded! She almost ran over Aleythia and Carter (Terry's grandson) and Terry too. While she ran around the inside of the barn, me trying to get her to stop, I came to the realization that I was not going to be able to stop her because I'm not strong enough. So while she was dragging me around I asked Terry if he could grab the rope while she went by. I let go, and he grabbed the rope. He did get her to stop, but got a rope burn in the process. I did not want to let go, because now she knows that she can escape.
Well, I got her into the back pen we have, and she escaped from me again. She also wouldn't let me come up and grab her rope, so I chased her around. What was weird was that every time she reached the fence, perpendicular to her, she would almost do a sliding stop. Terry was watching, and he told me she's thinking about jumping it. Eventually, she did. I was trying to make sure that she didn't stop in one corner, which happened to be were the gate was, the lowest part of the fence, and she jumped it. She made it over, but not cleanly. She hit the gate with her back legs, and cracked the gate off it's top hinge. I asked Thad (Terry's son) if he could catch Toffy for me. He didn't get a hold of her, but he herded her into the barn, and got her into Ana's pen. In there, he led her around a little bit, and she settled down. Then I went in and led her around and rubbed her all over. Terry got me a sponge and we gave her a sponge bath because she was way too hot. The injures she got from jumping the gate was a line of rubbed of hair, with some rubbed off skin at the top on her right back leg. The other injury she got was higher up on her leg, above the knee. It basically just cuts in, and isn't deep. She was favoring her right leg a little, but was fine after standing there a little bit. She wasn't limping as far as we could tell. We squirted some red stuff on the wounds, and I worked on rubbing her all over, and patting her on the back. Then I desensitized her to the rope, and even flipped it around her eyes. I think it took me over an hour to give her a sponge bath, desensitize, and play with her ears. She was a pretty happy horse when I was done. We are keeping her in Ana's pen for right now and I will work with her in that pen tomorrow morning, and Terry will work with her in the afternoon, because I am going to a sleepover tomorrow evening.
The other horses did fine. Coffie and Frosty were fairly easy to catch, and during Toffy's explosion, they were pretty calm. Aleythia and Carter worked a little on desensitizing, they brushed them, picked up feet, and fiddled with their ears. Aleythia said they did pretty good. Dash kept avoiding Aleythia so that she wouldn't get caught, so Aleythia stopped with her when Dash let Aleythia come up and smelled her hand.
I guess the day was bad, but not all bad. I was able to end on a very good note with Toffy, and she isn't seriously injured. Yes, the gate is broken and will cost $250 to replace, but we now know that an actual round pen might be a good idea. Aleythia said it wasn't the first time one of the horses have tried to jump the fence. Coffie, Frosty, and Dash were pretty good, and none of us got injured. Ya gotta look on the bright side somehow.
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