On Monday we had her delivered. Big huge chaos panic on my part, but Trent, my bf, seemed to take things all very calmly like this was a normal, everyday event. Of course this should of helped me stay calm...but it didn't. Instead, I hurled things at his head because he just wasn't moving fast enough for my liking.
The trailer came, parked, and I pulled her off the trailer. We signed the bill of sale, forked over the cash and went to acclimating her to the herd. It actually went very smoothly. So smoothly that it was almost unatural. Dusty, our dominant gelding, welcomed her right into the herd and even though I feed them three seperate piles of hay morning and night, he'll allow her to eat off of his hay pile. Shiloh is a little different, of course. She's the mare...and where as before she was just beta to the alpha in the pasture, she's now alpha mare. She will not tolerate the new filly's presence around her food. Typical bitch.
Feeding time is interesting. The two original horses, Dusty and Shiloh, are fed in the run-in shed by use of corner feeders that're bolted to...well, the corners. I feed Dusty first, then Shiloh. Then I put a few handfulls in a feed pan that we have and take it out to the new girl. She's learned very fast about how this works. She knows not to enter the run-in while theres food in there, and in that respect, she waits patiently for me to bring her the pan. This helps out a lot with acclimating her new grain as well. She's not as rushed to eat it as she would be if she was hounded or competing for food, and she's not in any danger of getting anymore than what her body should for the moment.
So today, seeing as though things have settled down, I decided to see what she'd do if I let the leadrope lay over her back while she ate. I tossed it over her...not even a flinch. So I let it rest there while she ate. I take that opportunity to brush her down as well. She's not sure why I chose then to primp her up, so every now and then she'll pause and move away from her food and I drop the pressure so she'll return. She's getting a lot more used to being fussed over while she eats though, and she's not aggressive with it at all. Just not quite sure why I'm insisting on doing it. She ignored the lead rope, like I said. So I went to sliding it off her back and tossing it back on there a few times. No problem with that as well.
If she wasn't as settled as she is, I would definitely hold off on that and wait for her to relax. But as of right now, she's so easy going with everything and very accepting that I'm not sure a leadrope on the back will stress her out in the least...as she's actually shown me. At one point in time she took a quick walk around a portion of the pasture after eating her grain and transitioning over to her hay...the leadrope was dangling off her back and forgotten.
I'm going to continue with the leadrope a day or two longer and see if she has the same reaction with a saddle pad. We'll see.
I still haven't picked a name for her. All of the names I thought of are strong and powerful, but she's a petite little curious thing. I was thinking Cinder, but as a friend pointed out, people will be calling her Cinderella...to which then they'd die a horrible death and bleed out their eyes. So Cinder is out. She'll tell me when the right name comes by. It'll fit.
Heres a picture for your viewing enjoyment
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