So now that I've appeased you with pictures of the oh so beautious Rose, I once again apologize for being such a slacker blogger. Things are going well with the very large mare and her filly.

Lexie, the cutie pie formerly known as Sweetpea, is doing great. She's super friendly and leading and grooming like a champ. I can't wait for her to have pasture again though. I hate that she's so cooped up in her stall. She gets turned out every day but it's just not enough.

Rose is a rock star. As you can hopefully see she's getting groomed every day and is making great progress in the round pen. I got her tail banged and brushed out and it looks fabulous. I softened up those troublesome ergots with some petroleum jelly and used kitchen shears to trim them up. They aren't perfect yet, boy are they tough! She is picking up all four feet for me now. I can hold her fronts but just keep a hand on the hinds at this point. She doesn't yet relax them so I can stretch them back. Oh and I think she's actually a roan. Now that she's so much cleaner, I can see that there is white sprinkled in through all of her hair. It's pretty even all over. Maybe some color expert can tell me exactly how too tell? She did have one funny reaction when I was at her hind end. I think it must be related to her PMU days. She's fine as long as I'm facing back towards her tail end , but when I turned and faced her head while I was at her hip, she seemed to get scared. It was quite odd. I went back to the scratching and grooming that she has learned to relish and she seemed to work through it, but its a reminder that she's a bit different than any other horse I've worked with.

I've started introducing the equipment to her. First by just having the pad and surcingle hanging on the fence by her head while I groom her, then having them slung over my shoulder, and finally having them sitting on her back un fastened. She never batted an eye. Thursday I slowly tightened the girth on the surcingle one hole at a time while I was grooming and then Friday I did this again and longed her in it. She took it all in stride. It slipped back a bit and while I was readjusting it she cow kicked a bit once, but that was it. I'm very carefull with her and had clipped the lead back on to readjust it so was able to disciplinin g her for it. Not that she was aiming at all. She reacts strongly to discipline. It takes very little. I think I've had to smack her twice now and so far she hasn't repeated either behavior. I've been fiddling with her face and mouth to get prepped for introducing the bit. (I bought a 6 inch french snaffle but have yet to find something big enough to hang it from) She's a bit iffy about me sticking my fingers in her mouth so we are working on that. A few more lessons with the surcingle and I hope to start bitting her in a stall. First with her halter and then moving to the bit once she is carrying it. All and all progress is good.

So if anyone out there knows somebody who may want to adopt this mare, now is the time to get a hold of me. I really think she's going to be great fun for someone!