Hmmmm ....

I am so glad I had a trainer come out and work with Kahlua and I.  The method I was shown seems to be really working and has me much less intimidated, especially since I do not have to get in the trailer with her.  This morning, I went out to the pasture and haltered her up, worked with her a bit on backing up off the wiggly lead, and instead of 1 or 2 steps, she gave me about 5.  Walked her over to the trailer, opened it up, she stepped in and then tried stepping back out, quickly realized I wasn't going to accept that, and then she hopped right in.  Once in there, she quietly turned around, licked her lips, and sighed.  I closed the trailer.  Opened it up slowly, too the lead rope, asked her to take a step back and then gave her permission to step out of the trailer.  And it went as easily as that 2 or 3 more times.  We took a break and repeated the exercise with the same result.  I cannot tell you how rewarding this little exercise has been.

Recently, my decision to buy a horse and a horse trailer were brought into question, and that's really bothered me.  I don't know why I've let this get to me, but it has.  I don't need to justify my decision to anyone.  But Kahlua has been a perfect example of how I handle things in life, or don't handle them.  If I don't like something or I'm not comfortable or can't handle the pressure, I generally walk away from it.  Like Kahlua.  I couldn't get past the trailering issue, so my answer was to sell her.  And that's bothered me.  There's nothing wrong with her, and any horse I get will have ... something ... that I'll need to work with.  And I need to step it up.  And that's what I'm doing now.  I am going to work it out with her, and continue building a good relationship with her and stick with this.

Next week, I'll trailer Kahlua out to the trainer's place and take a few riding lessons so I can finally get to know her and figure out what she knows and what she doesn't.  And then we'll be able to go riding in the Owyhees, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. 

On to Cruz, he's been really fun to raise.  I have him in a crate in the dining room, basically in the center of my tiny house.  If I don't cover the crate, he'll whine me right out of the house.  So I cover it.  Lately, there's been this funny thing happening.  Here's the covered crate.  See the issue?

See it now?

Here's a view from the inside!

I asked him how come that keeps happening, and he tells me he has no idea what I'm talking about.

Grass is starting to grow in the backyard.

The cherry and plum trees are blooming.

I just now noticed the lady bug bokeh in this next shot!  How funny.

Nice camouflage for the lady bug, eh?

And Shuck is in duck heaven.  Here he is watching over his ladies.

Cruz checking out the ducks.

I can't tell you how sick I am of these box elder bugs.  I guess there's no real point in complaining about them because they aren't going anywhere.

Here's a couple of random shots of a filthy Cruz in the house.

Had a really cool rainbow come rolling through today.  I need to edit the photos, but here's a sneak peak.