Cuties

There is a new foal at our barn and he's adorable.  He's so obviously warmblood.  Look at his giant ears!  He's very brave and friendly.  But mostly adorable.

 Speaking of adorable, my pony was happy to see me.

I know, this looks like a picture of horse poop.  But what it really is, is evidence of how neat and tidy my pony is.  This is her stall on a day when she did NOT get turned out.  Nice little piles of poop in the back of the stall.  Good, clean pony.

 Here she is in the dreaded wash rack.  I would like to point out two things.  One, she is interested in me and alert, but not dancing around like an idiot.  Two, there is no poop in the wash rack.  I have been putting her in the wash rack after every ride and then walking away.  I don't groom her in there, I don't wash her, I simply walk away (taking my nervous nellie energy with me) and go about cleaning tack etc.  I'm two steps away from her, but out of sight.  She can probably smell me and can definitely hear me, but we don't feed into each others anxiety.  In two sessions of this, she has relaxed considerably.  I am going to take my ever loving sweet time and will add (in this order) grooming after rides, untacking after rides, grooming before rides, tacking before rides, cleaning tack with water in the wash rack but not going anywhere near her, spraying the ground, spraying her feet and so on and so on.  Any time she shows any anxiety at all, I am going to stay at that level until I get total relaxation.  It will be a long process for us, but I think it will fix her wash stall anxieties for good.

 Also, at the risk of jinxing it, she is the cleanest damn pony I've ever owned AND she's a grey!  She has not been bathed since the beginning of summer and even then it was only halfway done.  She doesn't even get her feet hosed off and look at how sparkly clean she is.  Amazing.  And kind of weird.