Salami!

I swear, I'm going to make salami out of Nell! The damn mare has now learnt that if she canters off while I'm leading her I'll let go of the rope and she can run back to the field. I was so angry with her. The sooner we give Lucy back the better it will be for both me physically, and Nell mentally.

It didn't help Lucy crawled under both electric fences then came galloping towards us. Mum took Lucy and walked her back up to the paddock, fixed the fence, hooked it up to the mains then came to look for me. By the time that was done, Nell had shoved her shoulder into me, pushed me into a field half way down the lane, took off in the canter then buggered off back in the direction of Lucy.

And people think Haflingers are all sunshine and butterflies! Huh! I would like to let anyone considering buying one know that THEY DO NOT POOP RAINBOWS! In other words, they are not all well behaved little ponies who will be perfect show ponies for your little darlings.
In fact some are just hell raisers. I can't fault Nell when I ride, in fact I had a very nice ride that same day, but every horse has their bad side. Nell's happens to be her bad ground manners.

We got from Kestal, round the lakes and back in record time - just over 1 hour. Nell was sweaty and a bit tired but not enough to lead quietly back to the field. The safest option was to lead her through the fields as I knew she would have to get through 3 gates before getting to Lucy wheras it would have been too easy for her to get back to the field if I had led her down the lane.

At the first field we got half way up before she tanked and left me standing alone. She got to the gate and unable to go through, ran around the field screaming. There was nowhere to go - neither towards Lucy or back to the stables - so I walked calmly over to the gate, pretending I was going to open it. Smart as Nell is, she fell for it and I took her rope, led her back down the field towards the barn, then turned and walked her to the next gate.

As soon as we got through the gate she surged forward. The same process as above followed for two or three times before she walked the length of the field.

At the next gate she didn't even wait for me to get through before shoving her shoulder into me and galloping to the next gate. I repeated the process. Catch, take back to previous gate, lead. By the third attempt I was getting tired of being pulled through the gateway so I tied to to it.

As I opened it, she tried again to shove past me but found herself stuck. I gave her a good whack with the end of the lead rope to let her know it was not acceptable behaviour. Eventually after much pulling and sidestepping she stood waiting, so I undid the rope and she walked on to the last gate. I tied her again, opened it up then retrieved her.

We did eventually get back to the field - both in one piece - but it took a whole hour to do it. Yesterday I practiced leading her away from Lucy, which worked fairly well with a bridle on. I have decided to get a pressure halter instead though, as I know leading her in a bit will only make her hard mouthed. The halter I want is quite thin so she should quickly get the idea that trying to pull away = discomfort. I'll be getting it as soon as possible so watch this space to see how that goes!