Happy Days

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture and the video, they're taken from my Ipod.  I can't find my cord to charge my camera so until I do, no good pictures.  Which I desperatly need, I don't have any good recent pictures of Artemis but lately we've been too busy working with her to take pictures of her. 

For the first bit of exciting news, this blog no longer has an expiry date.  I don't know if I've mentioned this because everytime I thought about it I'd start hyperventilating and want to crawl up into a ball and die, and how I wish I was exagerating about that, but Artemis was meant to go up to my dad's once she was weaned, probably at the beginning of October.  I, for many reasons, didn't want this.  For my own reasons, I wanted to be able to keep working with her and I can't bear the idea of rarely ever seeing her.  Also, there's already sixteen horses up there, including two other foals, and my dad barely has time to work with any of them.  My dad and I, while we were camping, argued about this but we came to an agreement.  He saw my point and in the end we agreed that she would stay down.  I have more time to be able to work with her than he would.  I just had to talk to the stable about it.  There didn't seem to be any point in boarding her in the paddocks, it's too expensive to keep three horses in paddock board, especially when one of them is not yet ridable.  Our stable has some horses out in a larger pasture but they don't offer pasture board.  My mom convinced me to email them anyway and ask if we could keep Artemis out in the pasture.  I procrastinated for four days because I was afraid of the answer.  Which is also why I haven't mentioned that any of this has been happening.  I haven't been this nervous about anything in a long time and I was afraid of jinxing it.  Finally though, I made myself email them, and they said yes.  So Artemis will be staying with me. 

The next time we went out to the stable we ran into E, one of our BO as he was feeding Socks and Artemis.  We talked to him about Artemis staying and I don't think he was disappointed.  He was so excited when Artemis was born, as my mom said, they get to enjoy a foal without having to be the ones to get kicked or bitten :).  We then discussed weaning her.  E said that the best way to wean her would be to put her in a stall so she would be safe.  As he was telling my mom this I caught Socks and took her out of the pen, leaving Artemis in it.  We've been working on seperating them.  Artemis started calling and ran around her pens a few times and then stopped and started eating.  E just started laughing and said maybe she wouldn't have to be put in a stall.  In the end we decided against putting her in the stall.  The plan is to put her and Socks in a larger field with three other horses and then wean her there, leaving Artemis with the other horses and taking Socks away.  The other horses are all mares, two old mares, the younger one is twenty, and the BO's two year old filly. 

We've been working with Artemis away from her mother.  We've been taking her on walks around the stable and in the back hay field.  The first time she was great.  She hesitates but she'd come.  The second time she was horrible.  She kept trying to knock me over and race ahead.  I became so frustrated with her that my mom took over.  That is why I appreciate my mom coming with me all the time, if I become too frustrated she'll take over so the lesson doesn't end on a bad note, and I do the same for her.  Last time we were out we took Artemis to meet the two mares she was going to be put in with (that day but I'm getting to that).  Here was their meeting.  Flip is the paint mare and I can't remember the sorrel mare's name.  Artemis' chewing motion is basically a horse's way of saying "I'm a baby, please don't hurt me."

After their meeting, which despite what I say in the video, I think went pretty well, we went and grabbed Socks to put them in the field with Flip and the sorrel.  I led Socks and my mom led Artemis.  I was a little nervous about putting them in together, mostly because Socks is such a dominant horse.  Luckily Flip and the sorrel stayed back until we'd taken the halters off of our two.  Socks and Artemis immediatly went to the top corner away from the two mares.  Flip and her friend followed, and the sorrel got to close to Artemis and Socks went at her.  She bit her on the neck and kicked at her but luckily didn't connect.  Flip was smart and got out of there and her friend soon followed.  Socks and Artemis then explored their new field.  It's right next to their paddock so they've been near Flip and the sorrel for weeks, which I hope will make it easier for them to get along.  Ebony, the two year old, will be put in with them soon. 

I'm really glad Artemis will get to have the herd experience.  Once she's weaned her, Flip, Ebony and the sorrel will be going out in the pasture with four other horses, including Charlie, the other foal.  I also want to say that I think I have the best barn owners anyone could possibly have.  They've been so great and supportive about Artemis.  I don't know what I would have done with them.  They're true horse people too, E used to breed horses before they opened the boarding stable.  He told us the other day that we were doing a great job with Artemis, and coming from him, that's the best compliment I could ever have gotten.  I can't help but worry, given my limited experience with foals, that we push her too hard or not enough.  I do know that my barn owners are going to get a special christmas present from us this year.