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Okay, so let's rewind a few days...

It has been cold here, and by 'cold' I mean really windy with lows in the 40s.  Now, for all of you folks up north, I know what you've been going through but I am not used to weather like this - so I won't knock you for complaining when your summertime hits 85-90 degrees with 50-60% humidity.  Okay?  Okay.

I happened to be working with Abby when the started the day before yesterday.  She was already being a little jumpier than normal and we were just ready to ride when the wind kicked up and I decided that I valued my life more than making more progress.  It's not that she was bad, she was just getting wound up higher and higher instead of focusing and coming down to earth.  We ended on a good note and called it a day.

It was even colder yesterday...and I was feeling like a crazy (and possibly hormonal) female so I decided it just wasn't going to be a good day.  Might as well not even go there and turn Abby out, right?  Until we got to the arena and I could tell that she was going to snatch away as soon as the halter was halfway off.  I do not appreciate horsey rudeness, so I nip it in the bud as soon as it rears its ugly head.  I started working with her on it when she reared up at me, then bolted....oh honey, did you ever mess up.  See, that's fine because now you're free-lunging around the ENTIRE arena through ALL of the new puddles at whatever speed and direction I tell you to go.  For the next 20 minutes.  I'm not going to lie and say that I stood in the middle without doing any work - in fact, I had to get quite aggressive a few times to make my point, but I did make it. By 2-3 minutes in, Abby had figured out that her freedom wasn't all it was cracked up to be and started asking to stop - too late for that.  When I did let her stop, she stood quietly while I approached, then we practiced leading quietly and accepting and removing the halter politely.

So it was with some trepidation that I met with a potential adopter this morning.  For the last two days, Abby's been a bit full of herself.  I'm not sure if it's the weather, if she's in heat, if she's feeling better due to the MSM and B-L, or if she's just seeing what she can get away with.  All I could hope was that this morning, a normal, slightly-shy Abby would greet me when I opened her stall.

And she did.  She wasn't perfect but she was trying again and made a great impression on the girl who came to see her.  Abby's adopter is not worried about the fact that she may not be totally sound, as her plans are for Abby to participate in an informal mustang education program.  V (Abby's adopter) has adopted another mustang to be her future riding horse.  This other mustang is currently at Jennie's being gentled and learning the in's and out's of working with people.  When he is ready to go home to Georgia, Abby will go with him.  In the meantime, the plan is to have Abby stay with me until the first, at which time she'll go back to Jennie's so that when her adopter visits, she isn't having to drive between two barns.