Thursday, February 26, 2015

Great Strides





Great strides in more ways than one!  Yes, River is still LOVING her time out in the arena in the mornings, (as you can see from the next few images), but more than that, she is making great - no, make that HUGE strides in opening up, and trusting, and being a "normal" horse!  First, enjoy River's joy............


 




She sure has the moves!  Anyway, River is exceeding our expectations with how well she is progressing day by day.  She has only been here for 4 days now, and look what she can do..... she can pick up all of her feet - hinds, too!  Jessi's dad, Steve Morrill, came out to see her, and, being a shoer himself, tried his hand at seeing how she would do.  As you can see - River was fabulous!








She was a little nervous, but didn't set a foot wrong (pun intended).  I really  thought it was going to be much longer before we could do this with her, but she is becoming so relaxed and at ease here at the ranch, I'm starting to think that what seemed like a really  long road ahead of us won't actually be that long!  We are going to try to trim her feet this coming Sunday - it will be so nice for her to be able to walk and run on normal sized feet, and not on those big platters!

It doesn't hurt that Steve is a confirmed lover of horses - and River knew that!





Another thing that is happening is that River now comes when called - yes - she wants to be caught now!  Here's a little video from this morning's arena session.............





No more turning the other way when she thinks she's going to get caught - she's actually getting a little pushy, so it's time to teach her that I have a bubble around me that she can respect and ask to come within.

After her run, I took her out back to meet the critters - Asston Martin the mini donkey, Rose Royce the mini horse, and all the goats.  I thought she might be alarmed, but, No!  She thought they were great.  They kinda liked her, as well!











And, to top it all off, she even let Dory do her favorite thing to do here on the ranch - help me lead the horses!  Dory was so happy, and River is learning to handle all sorts of new situations, and doing such a great job of it.



I am so proud of her, and, again, I am so thankful to all the people who made it possible for her to be here.  I am slowly starting to piece together the parts of the puzzle that were the beginnings of her rescue from sure death, and will be sharing those pieces soon.  So, the story continues!  











4 comments:

  1. Beautiful!! Thank you for giving her a new life! She glows...she knows she's home.

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  2. very pretty horse... nice look on her face

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  3. Loving this story, and can't wait for the progress reports. It's so rewarding to rescue these wonderful animals and watch who they become.

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  4. I knew she was ready to blossom!!!! Did you get my email??
    Bonnie :)

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