Hello
There's a new mare at the shelter.
She was not abused, she's in fairly ok'ish condition.
She belonged to an old man who could not longer take good care of her and her mother and kept them both in a very small stable. He kept (over)feeding both but not much else really. He refused to sell them fearing they will end up beaten and abused by the iron thieves (will explain later on what those are) and gladly surrendered them to the shelter as soon as he found out about it.
I have a secret crush on her She's a chunky, rude, spoiled animal. She threatens everyone to bite & kick although it's only warnings, a lot of angry faces and a lot of hind turning. However, warning or no warning, everyone is fairly cautious around her, including me.
So far all I've done was giving her treats and petting her now and then from across the fence. Luckily she's quite a glutton and cannot resist carrots
But I fear I might create a worse habit actually. She comes, takes the treat and then makes the ugly "ok you may gtfo now" face. Maybe I should first pat her and THEN give then treat, after?
I'd really like to get closer to her. As in, I'd like to groom her or lead her around or give her a good scratch.
But I am not sure what the best first steps would be?
Weirdly enough apparently she goes well under saddle and is docile. Unlike her awful ground manners.
She's not vicious, really. She had her feet done recently, was saddled, groomed. But she makes a lot of faces and warnings and generally would rather you just drop the darn carrot and leave her alone. And there's something about her "whozzat? whazzat? whaddayawant? got treats? no? f** off then" attitude that I actually like hahah
I noticed that unless they endanger the safety of animals or of themselves, volunteers are pretty much given free hand in doing whatever they find appropriate and helpful. I just don't dare pestering the "staff" too much with such questions. It's just 2 guys taking care of 30 horses, grooming, training, feeding, mucking out etc all day long
There's the rude girl. Please note her feet had been done since the picture.
I don't know why nobody else seems to like her
There's a new mare at the shelter.
She was not abused, she's in fairly ok'ish condition.
She belonged to an old man who could not longer take good care of her and her mother and kept them both in a very small stable. He kept (over)feeding both but not much else really. He refused to sell them fearing they will end up beaten and abused by the iron thieves (will explain later on what those are) and gladly surrendered them to the shelter as soon as he found out about it.
I have a secret crush on her She's a chunky, rude, spoiled animal. She threatens everyone to bite & kick although it's only warnings, a lot of angry faces and a lot of hind turning. However, warning or no warning, everyone is fairly cautious around her, including me.
So far all I've done was giving her treats and petting her now and then from across the fence. Luckily she's quite a glutton and cannot resist carrots
But I fear I might create a worse habit actually. She comes, takes the treat and then makes the ugly "ok you may gtfo now" face. Maybe I should first pat her and THEN give then treat, after?
I'd really like to get closer to her. As in, I'd like to groom her or lead her around or give her a good scratch.
But I am not sure what the best first steps would be?
Weirdly enough apparently she goes well under saddle and is docile. Unlike her awful ground manners.
She's not vicious, really. She had her feet done recently, was saddled, groomed. But she makes a lot of faces and warnings and generally would rather you just drop the darn carrot and leave her alone. And there's something about her "whozzat? whazzat? whaddayawant? got treats? no? f** off then" attitude that I actually like hahah
I noticed that unless they endanger the safety of animals or of themselves, volunteers are pretty much given free hand in doing whatever they find appropriate and helpful. I just don't dare pestering the "staff" too much with such questions. It's just 2 guys taking care of 30 horses, grooming, training, feeding, mucking out etc all day long
There's the rude girl. Please note her feet had been done since the picture.
I don't know why nobody else seems to like her