Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Pissy Pony March to Adulthood

Tiki is, inevitably, growing up. As baby horses grow, they turn into surly teenagers. This USUALLY doesn't happen until around 1 year old, but Tiki's been well ahead of the curve since Day 1. When she was a month old, she was already independently walking around on the lead without mom nearby--something normal for 3-4 month old foals. When she was 6 weeks old she was already standing for the farrier like a champ. When she was 2 1/2 months old, she was being such a pissy playful baby walking in from the field with mom that she started having to be walked in separately--something not really normal for a suckling foal at all, but if you had to do it, would only be once they were just about ready to wean at 4-5 months. This past week, Tiki has become such a pissy handful walking with mom at all that she insisted on being led in AND out independently. Again, this is not normal for a suckling foal at all--to have the confidence to insist on being led BY HERSELF AND IN first from the field. More importantly, her attitude has shifted from cute little baby horsie to surly teenager WELL ahead of time. Fun, eh???? *sigh*

Most foals are shy and stand back from the gates while the adults are led in. Most foals will be kicked back by the adults at feeding time, put in their place and are often forced to come in last or next to last. Not Tiki! Nope, she stands at the gate and completely takes over. She will not be budged by the adult horses and they don't even try. I think they understand it would be futile. She comes out first to be led into the barn. Even before her mother. And, with a true friesian appetite, she runs to mom's feed bucket first and steals bites of food until Mona walks in. Even though we've had nights with high winds or situations where we've needed to bring the entire front field in at once, Tiki is the first horse out and the one to lead the pack as they march into the barn. She doesn't look back for her field mates, she doesn't cry for mom, she just marches with the whole world ahead of her with an occasional primordial yelp on the way in. More expressive than "where is everyone?"

She's been a surly, independent, pissy pony these last few weeks. Much like her sire before her, she's highly dependent on my level of interaction with her to keep her attitude compliant and happy in general. While overall she's a great, well-trained foal--the fact is if I don't have time to groom, talk to, or work with her she gets VERY upset and takes it out on whoever her handler is--in this case, poor Anne-Marie. Thankfully Anne-Marie has a personal connection with her and also handled her sire extensively during his young formative years. While I would run into the barn and train/teach all day, Anne-Marie (and others) recognized when Eddie's tolerance level of my lack of involvement was running thin and would remind me to spend time with him. Even pulling him into the grooming stall and giving him a good grooming gave him his "mom fix" and he would be a delightful boy for a week or so afterwards.

So, Tiki's been checking my nametag and has been acting out (piaffing and levading her way into the barn, having stomping, pouty temper tantrums etc) as she's been getting progressively more independent this last month and a half/two months. She's been marching her way to Weaning Day, stomping and pouting all the while. As it's almost upon us and the holidays are over, I'm entering back into her life to boost her confidence, guide her discipline, and reconnect with her to prepare her for her next big step in life.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Tiki's first snow!

I happened to be home sick for Tiki's first snow! I bundled up, grabbed the camera, and went outside for a few minutes to get a couple pictures of the momentous occasion.

Tiki, Doc and Mona gathered around the round bale watching me approach with interest. They had hay, they were happy. Tiki (of course) whinnied and came running over to greet me. She wears the mantle of Official Greeter for the barn and takes her job very seriously. After saying her hellos, she ran about the pasture, leaping and sliding around like a whirlwind.


After watching Doc lay down and roll, she decided to try it herself. Instead of getting all the way down and rolling though, she got on her knees and shoveled her nose into the snow. She popped up, sporting her new snow nose and ran around the field wildly with her nose straight up in the air. After that, she shifted between looking up at the snow like she was catching snowflakes and shoveling her nostrils into the powder, getting a white mustache perched onto her upper lip, and then careening around the pasture terrorizing Mona and Doc with her new 'doo.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Checking my nametag

So, with life events these past couple months, Tiki has not really seen me. November was taken up by our CISSP boot camp class, Thanksgiving, and then insane nightly studying prepping for our CISSP exam on December 11. I have to say we passed, but we have no idea HOW. The tests we were given were for software developers (which NEITHER of us are) and we truly felt we did not know the test material. Out of all the people at work in our class however, Joe and I were the only ones to pass on the first try. In our field, it's the equivalent of the bar exam for lawyers, and equally as required for our positions. So, this was a big deal to us and took a large chunk of our lives from Nov-Dec. Hopefully now I'll be able to post a little more regularly.