Baths for one.. Not sure Charlie has ever had a bath, but I was determined to get him clean, and cure the hose pipe fear. So as Jo bathed Lulu with the hose, Charlie had a bucket bath.....No problem (even tipping buckets over him). He was still wary of the hose though. Why???? Who knows. He has been seen to drink from a tub while it is being filled up with the hose. So once he had been bathed i took a small piece of cut off hose and ran it all over him. No reaction. Next step, Get a small trickle coming out of main hose and run it over his already wet body. A small reaction, a rear, a double strike out with front legs, then actually finding it nice.
The following day I worked him loose over some small jumps. He loved it. He even went off when I had walked away and popped them again. As it was Scorchio he was very sweaty so I got the hose running again slightly faster this time. And low and behold much snorting, growling, sighing and rearing. Now I have been taking things very slowly with this boy. I understand his fear, the facts he is a long way behind 4 year olds that have been bathed, trimmed, long-reined and shown since they are 5 months old. But he does push his boundaries sometimes. I know him very well and can tell fear from coltish tantrums. I heard the growly grunty sigh and saw the look in his eye. This was just a tantrum. So this time I held the lead rope close and carried on hosing him regardless. For just a second he stood and admitted it was quite nice on a hot day!
As we are off to the Suffolk Show next week with Lulu, we thought she better have a trip out in the Lorry. Jo had to pick up a parcel from Leiston, so we combined the two. No-where to park a lorry in the high street so we parked in the Co-op car park. Jo went off to the Post Office, and as Lu neighed I went and checked....happily eating hay. Windows in truck open, Dogs hanging out of windows, me in passenger seat. And so a lady came along and said, "Are they ok?" "The dogs?" I said, "yes they are fine". "No", said the lady, "The Horses" "Er yes she is fine", I said. "Well its awfully hot" said the lady huffily, and stalked off. It then occurred to me she must have thought we were doing our weekly shop or something!!
After we had put Lu back after her shopping trip, we left the Lorry open. Walking past it with Charlie on my way to the tack room I let him sniff the ramp while I stood on it. Two seconds later he loaded himself, turned his quarters in and started pulling on the Hay net. On the way back out to the field, he again loaded himself, this time in front of me. I slung the lead rope over his next and said, "whoa boy, we're going this way", whereupon he calmly backed down. What a Star. On the way out we had a few selfies.
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