The name game

1 MONTH 1 DAY

Every time someone comes to the barn their first question is always, "Does she have a name yet?" I've had lots of suggestions but none of them felt like her. I wanted something the showcased her flighty yet curious and willful yet affectionate personality. The other day I found myself thinking about the movie Legend and the fairy from the movie came to mind and, just like that, she had her name: Oona.

Today while I was cleaning the paddock she followed me around and when I wasn't looking, she would sniff around in the wheelbarrow and even tried to check out my pockets. I let her do her thing while I did mine. After I was done I waited until she came up to me before catching her. We're still focusing on positive things following catching and she's so much easier to catch now. We've also been working on her standing still while I pet her neck with a rope and drop it over the other side. I want to desensitize her to things going over her back onto her opposite side. This will help with haltering, blanketing, and eventually saddling.

Oona isn't a wild horse at all. She's very halter broke and I can lead her around without putting any pressure on the lead rope at all. She'll turn both directions as well as stop just by following my lead. This was something I didn't have to teach her. I'm so grateful for that "head start" because it makes it so easy to move forward with other things. We're still working on her feet. She'll let me pick up and clean her front feet and today she let me run my hands down her back leg and even picked her foot up for me. At this point, all I'm asking her to do is to pick up and hold up her leg when I ask for it. When she's more comfortable we'll move onto me holding her leg up. I don't want her to feel trapped. I want her to want to work with me. We're getting there.