Baby Steps

With Cobre's known and unknown past, he needs a lot of baby steps. He is very unsure and lacks confidence in himself. The first evening (2-25-17) he was at the new barn, he was terrified and pretty shocked.

 Everything that he knew was safe, was no longer in sight or smell. Thankfully Karen told him about me and I spent that first evening just talking to him.

He did allow me to pet him and did start to doze off standing next to me. It was amazing!

I told him to rest up and I would be back in the morning (Sunday) to hang out with him some more.




Sunday 2-26-17 
Around noon I arrived and walking down to his barn I turned the corner and yelled HI COBRE'! and he spun around and threw his head up and looked at me. He knows his name! :)  I ended up just eating my lunch and talking to him (mainly telling him that he needed to eat his grass hay). A bit later I went into his run and petted him for a bit then decided it was halter time. I was sure he was going to try to get away and at first he did move away but once I put the leadline around his neck, he was fine getting the rope halter on.

While standing there I did brush him a bit and he seemed a bit startled and scared of it. He flinched a few times but I let him know that I wasn't going to hurt him and he would look a lot better after a good grooming. He allowed me to pick all four feet up as well.

After that I took him for a walk around the entire property. He has the funniest nicker/whinny I have ever heard.  I'll have to try and get it on video at some point. He did great and at one point I was sinking in the mud and he had to help me out a bit and he knew how to do that without being afraid. I let him eat grass and every time something would make him unsure, he would walk and stand behind me and when he felt it was safe again, he would away back and graze.

We ended on a good note. I am not expecting much from him due to his past. One day at a time. Baby steps.


Monday 2-27-17
I wanted to take him for another walk, but Mother Nature had other plans in the form of wind, snow, rain, and the high in the 20's. ICK!  I decided that I'd clean his stall, see if he ate his grass hay (he eats the alfalfa just fine), groom him and probably call it a day.  I walked down to his barn and he was inside but came out when I called him and he saw me.

 I cleaned his stall and was happy to see that he had a solid normal poop right in the middle of his grass hay. LOL Sure tells me what he thinks of that. He ate all of the alfalfa though. I told him he wasn't getting anymore alfalfa until he ate the grass hay. We'll see tomorrow if he ate it or not.

He followed me around and wanted my attention, so I haltered him and took him out. Groomed him a bit, picked all four feet, and he seemed to not want to go back... so off to the indoor arena we went.
I wasn't sure how he was going to react but he was calm and took it all in. While there we met another boarder who made friends with him by giving him cookies only in return if she got to pet him. He liked her and liked the attention and thought the treats were great.

I walked him around the arena a few times so he could check it out. He seemed fine with it. I tied him up to see what he would do and he stood there just fine. A horse in the row of stall in the indoor called out to him, he answered back and made it a point to prove to me that he HAD TO go over and say hi to this other Paso. They sniffed and rubbed each other like they knew one another. It was pretty neat! Also this other Paso looks a lot like him too.

 

We ended the day on another good note. 

I hope the weather is better tomorrow.