Deworming

Here's the little princess in her new halter.  I still find myself calling it Cas' halter and not Artemis' but I suppose that will change with time.  I like how it looks on her and it's just generally a much better halter than her old blue one.  L, the barn owner's daughter, informed me that she likes the blue better and doesn't think I should have changed it and I should go back to the blue one.  I hate to disappoint her but blue was never meant to be Artemis' colour.  I still haven't decided one for her (I'm weird and like my horses all to have their own colour) but I like the red and black much better than blue. 

We dewormed them last week.  Socks was good.  She hates it but she always lets me do it.  She's just angry afterwards and unfortunately for her, this one was apple-flavoured.  She HATES apples.  She will not eat them and gets annoyed if you try to give them to her, as C, one of the other boarders discovered.  He couldn't believe that she wouldn't eat them.  My horse is picky, what can I say?  And apple flavoured dewormer is probably her least favourite thing.

Artemis was great.  Really, I was surprised.  She was pretty good the first time she was dewormed but this time around she was really amazing.  I was expecting some head tossing, some half-hearted fight, but she did nothing.  She stood there, let me squirt it in, and then just chewed a bit and swallowed.  There was a bit left and she let me give her the rest of it, no problems.  I was really impressed with her.

Jimmy on the other hand...was a nightmare.  We've been working for months with him to prepare for this.  He had no issue with us putting things in his mouth...then we put the dewormer in and he figured out what was going on before I could get it in....and we were done.  I love this horse...but I really wanted to kill him.  He never used to have a problem with it but the last few times he's been horrible.  We had to get E, the stable owner, to help us out.  So we're back to square one with him and deworming.  It did get done at least. 

We're watching my dog for a while (she's usually up at my dad's) so we brought her to the stable with us today.  While we rode Socks and Jimmy, we let Artemis and Si (dog) wander around the arena.  They were playing together.  I wish I'd gotten video.  They were taking turns chasing each other around the arena.  Artemis also decided she wanted to eat the mounting block.  She thinks it's the greatest toy ever invented.

We've been working a lot on her and being alone in the barn.  She used to throw the biggest temper tantrums but she's actually gotten much better.  She stays calm and relaxed as long as she can see us, but if we have to go into the bathroom or to our back locker where she can't see, then she starts throwing a little fit.  But I think just the fact that she can now stand in there without any other horses without even stamping her foot is a big improvement.

She's also growing again.  Her hind end is huge.  I hope she evens out a bit, it's bad right now.  Here's a picture I took to show what she looks like compared to my mom.  My mom is fairly short about 5'2" or 5'3" but still.

I haven't measured her in a little while but last time I did she was 13.2 and a half.  I did measure her hind end too just for fun and that came to 14.1.  The other boarders like to tease her about it, it does look pretty bad, as you can see in the picture. 

I don't have any recent good pictures and I probably won't until spring.  Pictures taken inside just never turn out nicely and it's too cold to take pictures outside.  I just want to get them in as quickly as I can. 

And just for fun, here's a video from the day she was born.  She couldn't quite figure out those legs yet.