If you’ve read some of my other posts about our foster mini/pony mares you know progress with them has been very slow. If you haven’t, briefly they are being fostered by us for Spirit Horse Equine Rescue and we have had them here since May. They were part of a neglect case where over 100 animals (llamas, goats, donkeys, horses, minis) were taken away from a gentleman who couldn’t care for them all. They had not been handled by humans.

The girls watch us interacting with our mini donkeys and horses and I keep hoping they can see that they are not afraid of us and it might rub off on them. It has taken a long time to even be able to touch them and they are finally accepting a little bit of brushing, Spice has had a halter on a couple of times and both will take treats from our hands.

The girls have beautiful coats with long gorgeous tails and manes that were long but due to the burdocks in them they have shortened up. I have so wanted to get a comb/brush on them but have had to be patient. Lately they will wander in and out of the barn while I am in there and I can touch them a bit more. They will even walk into a stall on their own which they were doing today when I got the brilliant idea to try squirting some mane/tail detangler on them as they walked back and forth past me. They did accept that so I tried closing a stall door on Spice (the bolder one) to see what she would do. She did not get upset so I decided to put down some hay for her to eat and see if I could touch and brush her a bit more. Much to my surprise when I started gently pulling burrs out of her mane she tolerated it. After about 30 min. I had her mane totally clear of burdocks and started in on her tail. I really didn’t expect her to tolerate such a long grooming session but she did. I even got the burrs out of her feathering on her fetlocks and got to pick up one of her feet.

So I decided to try one more thing. I got out a halter and rubbed it on her face. Then I put it on her and tied it. I let the lead rope drag and thought that would be all I could accomplish for one session. I opened the stall door with me holding the lead rope. She followed me! I got some apples and put down an apple ahead of her. She would walk to it and take a bite, then I would pick up the apple and move it ahead again. This worked great as that way she was following instead of me pulling on the rope to get her to move. After that I got her to follow me all over the barnyard before I took off the halter. This was a big day for little Spice. Now if I can get a comb/brush on Sugar’s mane and tail that would be great.