summer_jackel

Equinox update. Baby pony remains completely adorable, and as he grows, which he is doing at a truly prodigeous rate, I am starting to get to know who he is. It's especially fascinating to watch him grow, since I also raised both of his parents from foals. I would say that he is somewhat more emotional and skittish at this age than Dancer was, but nowhere near Bey, who didn't like to be touched at all as a foal. X-pony (heh) loves his pettings, but he is still very particular about when and how, and does not so much like me to approach him as the other way around. This is, of course, perfectly natural, and I am doing my best to guide him gently into trust. I think that he will have a fair measure of Bey's Arab fire, but (especially as a mature gelding) will be a bit more level-headed and less opinionated than his dam. We'll see.

It feels like I'm also bonding with him a little more every day. I love this little horse (hard not to!), and as we approach one another as alien beings, predator and prey, I find within myself a shyness almost mirroring his. Bending myself to this monumental, dangerous, careful, intimate task: bringing up a young horse so that he is happy and comfortable in domestication and is relatively less likely to hurt me in our many years of working together, an animal who, if all goes well, will be my riding buddy for the next 30 years or so. Sometimes, each little velvet sniff on my fingers feels monumental.

They see me coming to the gate with the grain and come running, giving me about 7 seconds of perfect photo opps. I try to sneak up on them so that I have more time to shoot at them, but Bey's a pretty observant creature and usually starts for me before I'm close enough.

Had to crop this from a picture that otherwise wasn't any good, but oh, how I love this one. Bey mane floof! I need to make this into an LJ icon.

As of today, he's actually eating mom's grain, rather than just nibbling on it. I will start him on a little calf manna and some foal supplements soon.

Osbick bird, the other skittish critter I am trying to convince that tameness can be fun. He's getting more and more comfortable with being moved around on my forearms and even, briefly, hands.