SIDENOTE -- Never ask a room full of agriculture students where to pick up chicks. They will tell you the local bar. These same students had no problem telling me where to get my piglets, but. . .
When we got our chicks, there were other families getting the dyed chicks and wanted to know what to do with them when they got big. Would the lady buy them back? EAT IT! Or get a pullet and eat the eggs!!! So now we are up to 21 chickens. Mr. BPA read an article that said that the grasshoppers were going to be worse than last year, so now we have 21 hungry predators to devour them. The eggs are good, too.
Today, I decided to throw the harness on Foxy. I checked with her former owner, the one that trained her, to see if she had ever been roped off of. (I did not want her to spin and try to keep the tugs tight when she felt pressure) She was injured before she was roped off of, so we were good. But first, I had to outfit the harness to properly fit Belle, by adding leather to the checkrein, the noseband, and the crupper. We set out to pull a tire around. Unfortunately, Belle was so thrilled to be pulling, she dug in, dropped her butt, and pulled, and pulled, until we broke the tug and the towhooks that were hooked into the tire. Well that sucked. Belle was having so much fun. I need to get her an actual collar harness that is tough.
So then I put the broken harness on Foxy. The tug was the only part that broke, and since I did not have anything that I wanted to hitch her to, I figured that we could at least see how she tolerated the harness. She did not twitch for the crupper, the checkrein, or even the blinders that are plastered to the side of the head. She did object to the 6" liverpool bit.
I switched that out for a solid rubber loose ring snaffle that my sister had on the extra bit hook (with 8 horses and since she used to have a boarding business, she has a lot of extra tack) Foxy was standing there, so mellow, that I took the time to take a picture (I rarely remember. I forgot when I was driving Belle earlier, and I even had Kid #1 ground driving her. I need to send the kids out with the Slave driver. I forgot how to train without throwing them off the carriage.)
I left the halter on as a safety feature since I was adjusting the harness from Belle to Foxy. Pulling off copious amounts of leather. The tugs and break straps are just hanging there and the leadrope is in my hand, since Kid #2 is driving. I had to laugh. He was trying to neckrein her butt. That was one of my huge pet peeves when I trained carriage drivers. Or he would shift his weigh and walk in the direction he wanted her to go. Foxy was an angel under harness. Once I get the tug fixed and a cart rigged up (I have some ideas for a light two wheeled cart, just perfect for Foxy, Belle. . . I need a real harness and a heavier duty cart or wagon)
Lady got a new show halter for Easter. While we were in town selling bunnies, we saw a fun raiser with saddles and had to stop. It is really nice. I spent so much time with the big girls, I did not work with Lady today. With the massive snow storm this week, they were all ready to run, so they all got out to run before we did any work. Even the 28 year old and the gimpy appy were galloping around like they were twitterpated. Lady tried to nurse, but Foxy is finally dry. Lady did not like that and kicked out at Foxy. What a stinker.
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