The Best Laid Plans…

…are subject to change without notice

As much as I love my horses there are times when I wish I could just say “horses?, what horses"? They can add significant stress when that’s the last thing needed. We had no sooner gotten back to work after Whisper's surgery than he – and all the other horses at the stable – came down with strangles. It was a mild case but he had to have a shot – a big shot – twice a day. The stable owner took care of most of the shots as I had another major issue developing but I was there for a couple of them. I thought he handled them really well but apparently that was only when I was around. I heard rumblings around the stable that he was a less than cooperative patient. Too bad. I had other things to worry about and it was the owner who brought it back from a trip.

He’s well now and back to work again. I think I’ve noted before that the more time off Whisper has the more things he dreams up to be afraid of. Well, he’s been off work most of a month and I was beginning to think he’d completely regressed. Yesterday it took 20 minutes chasing him over hill and dale in his pasture to get a halter on him. Now, I think part of it was that the three brats were having a great time ripping around the place. Funny part was every once in a while Spice or Doc would stop and come over to see if I had a treat for them. Then they’d tear off again to chase each other around. Whisper finally deigned to let me catch him and we had an excellent work session. He went over a small jump several times and over poles and did very well with his transitions. We worked quite a bit on desensitizing as I’d like for him to be at least as calm as he was a month ago.

Interestingly today it only took a few minutes to catch him and he is calming down. He’s truly a horse whose active imagination needs equally active channeling.

We’ve added a new member to his training team. Samantha will oversee his training and Callie, one of her students, will be doing the hands on work. She lunged him for the first time today. Whisper was initially nervous around her but as they worked he settled down and responded very well. She agrees that it is time for his first rides – I’ll try to get that set up for next week – and in the meantime we’ll both try to work with him every day. We’ll be doing groundwork but also just grooming and walking and generally handling him. Did I mention he is a high maintenance horse?

When I caught him for the second time today I just walked up to him. Then he and Doc got to go to the hayfield and graze for awhile. One thing I have neglected with him is just to wander around. He needs to realize that everytime he is haltered it doesn’t necessarily mean work. I am really happy with his progress this weekend and feel that with the addition of Callie we’ll be able to move forward toward our goal of making Whisper a contributing member of equine society.