farm life

Farm life is amazing, peaceful, full of clean air and beautiful pastures, animals and your around nature all day, its heaven......or not. on days like today, the city sounds very appealing. Because on days like today farm life goes like this.....

• The sewage stops up, and because your rural you fix it yourself (unless you want to wait days for the plumber)
• while fixing sewage, the dogs seeing you upset try there best cheer up methods of giving big licks to the face...after trying to eat the raw sewage...
• the tire goes flat and you get the farm Ute stuck, and you have to fix it,
• the generator craps out just as you want to go inside and blob on the couch,so you spend an hour in the cold and dark already exhausted, fiddling with it in the hopes it will magically start. The idea of being able to walk inside and flick a switch and a light will automatically go on is very appealing, or not even having to worry that if you turn the TV and oven on at the same time will cause the generator to blow up completely.

These are all the charms of farm life, or at least my farm anyway. Luckily the horses were angels today and made lots of progress to keep the day from being a complete fail.

The not so wild stallion continued to succeed at learning new things. today on the long line, he did some trotting poles, popped over small ditches, and made it across the bridge by himself (not following another horse. No big fuss to do any of these things, his progress made the other disasters of the day slightly more bearable.

Grey let me pick up her feet and try to dig abscesses and seedy toe out. her feet are the absolute worst Ive ever seen,before yesterdays trim, they looked like three clawed bird feet so bad were the cracks and splits in them. now they just look mildly terrible. But at least its progress

thank god for the wild ones at least they made the day bearable.

feet

The grey and the stallion are very different horses...not only in looks but also in temperament.

The bay is dying to please, he reacts to your every request and is constantly seeking to interact. He is very sensitive you barely have to touch the rope or change your body language to get him to do what you want. It doesn't take long at all to teach him any new skills. but he is easily distracted and sometimes lessons have to be repeated

The grey is reserved, she takes a bit longer to come around to new ideas, but once learned she never forgets and you never have to repeat a lesson with her. She is not as sensitive to physical pressure as the bay (i.e responding to pressure from the halter or a tap on the rump with the rope) she has to be trained to be soft and sensitive, where the bay naturally is. while the bay constantly reacts to any request until he comes up with the desired answer, the grey will stand unmoving until she has completely evaluated the situation. Her disposition in much more and steady. with any handling she still is never quiet relaxed all though she accepts everything, and is easy to handle and catch,she makes sure she keeps an eye on you the whole time. For her in the wrong hands she could just completely shut down or become so skittish you would never be allowed near her. As she is the kind of horse that wouldn't react no matter how hard u beat her. although she kind of give off the impression shes doing the bare minimum asked of,this doesn't mean shes dumb or stubborn....she just needs patience when learning something for the first time, give her the time to figure out what you want and that is a safe option and you will never run into problems.

Today she had so many break throughs in her training, slowly she is overcoming her reservations. My friend came over to help with breaking in another pony (the same friend who helped the first day i brought the wild pony home). Thought get gray used to other people handling her, Charlotte is a great horsewoman to, so this would help grey confidence. sure enough it took grey a while to be comfortable with someone else near her, then finally touching her and picking her feet up. so with this little break through, we decided to keep going and trimmed her feet. me holding the foot and Charlotte using the clippers ( as usual my hoof trimmers were so rusty it took both hands to use them so needed to people to achieve this). Greys feet are now slightly better, and shes had her feet handled by a new person so at least when the farriers comes he can tidy them up even more. Even more progress was to follow when later in the afternoon the lesson kids came for their weekly ride. After a quick lesson in body language and how to approach wild horses, both kids went up and patted grey. She handled it. she stood there although watching them allowed herself to be stroked and patted all over by both 10yr olds, she even relaxed a little bit...

So even though she takes a bit longer in the end grey is just as smart and willing as any other horse with patience and the right handling. She made heaps of progress today so pleased with her. i think she will surprise everyone in the end.

Bridge

Thought id take a few snaps of grey waiting to be caught in her paddock..this is the face that greats me every morning as i walk to the barn

A little patience goes a long way especially dealing with horses....although i love them,lets face the are not extremely intelligent when compared to say a dog or an elephant. They need time to figure things out and they are prey animals which naturally makes them cautious. You can never rush them through anything otherwise your bound to pay for it in training somewhere down the track. if you just take time with little things it always seems to help speed things up in the long run.

For the first time today, the grey had to walk across a bridge. Which to us humans seems a pretty easy task. But to horses, it is a frightening new challenge. Especially the bridge at my house. Which consists of planks of wood layed down over a metal frame, with a stream running about 2metres below it, but only about 4 metres long and 2metres wide. No sides except for a handrail and when you walk across it it makes a big thumping hollow echoing sound, the planks also move up slightly when you step on the end.

The days routine is usually catch grey , lead her to open the paddock gate of the domestic horses, so they can trot up to the barn for the day. Today getting to the domestic horse paddock involved crossing the bridge. Grey was good calmly walking behind until she got to the bridge. Where when she took the first step it thudded hollowly. she froze, nostril flaring and eyes wide at this unexpected threat. This is where i love the wild horses. Instead of leaping about and being idiotic like some hot blooded horses would. She stood unmoving and assessed the situation. slowly sniffing and snorting at the edge of the bridge.

i waited, the best thing a horse can do is try to see and identify what it is that they worried about. The worst thing a trainer can do is not give them the time to do this. Rush them and scare them and anything they come across in the future they will react as if it a scary monster. Usually trying to gallop past or refusing to go near whatever they are afraid of.

Grey sniffed, snorted and pawed. Trying to see if this was a safe thing to be walking across, she obviously had her doubts about my judgement. i let her do this. she can investigate to her hearts content, but is never allowed to try evasive behaviour e.g looking away, pulling back or side stepping. As long as she was looking at the bridge or attempting to walk across it i left her alone, to let her know this was good behaviour. It took a few minutes before she took the next step. But she took it calmly. i hate that feeling horses get when you know they're just going to try and bolt past whatever it is that worries them, grey never acted like this. when she got to halfway she stopped again and spent another minute deciding whether she could make it to the other side. this always makes me hold my breath as the bridge is narrow with bad footing, so if a horse wants to spin at this point and go back the way they came its not going to end up well. She decided she could in fact make it, and proceeded step by step, until we were safe and sound on the opposite bank.

Two minutes later we had let the horses out of the paddock and followed them back to the barn, grey just plodded back over the bridge like she'd been doing it her whole life. Although it took a little while to get over the bridge to start with,because she had been allowed time to reassure herself the bridge was safe she didn't have any problems going back across later. This is also how you build trust between horse and rider.Moral of the story, take the time to let them figure things out so nothing becomes a big deal, it will save you time in the long run.

cover

woohoo!!! Grey girl now has nice pink cover on now to keep her dry out in the paddock. In the usal "wild" horse way she was very calm about the whole thing. she just needs someone to trim her feet and she will be just like new.....Shes also started to nay everytime i come to see her in the paddock (although this could be because i alway bring her food) and every day is freindlier and less wary of people...Yah for progress...now if she would just have her foal so i could get on wiht breaking her in.

Elephants

Had to add something more on elephants in Thailand.... i was lucky enough to go to a variety of different elephant establishments...

They absolutely amazed me with the different types of work they could do. Some elephants tight roped, rode bikes ( I'm serious they had an elephant sized tricycle), hula hooped, danced, skipped, shot basketballs, threw darts that could actually hit the target, sit and wave, carry you with their trunks and on there backs,they bowed and could even jump over people lying on the ground, some still worked traditionally on farms etc a living tractors so to speak, even used for pulling rafts up rivers. all this was achieved with out any restraints or whips and the like.

i was impressed with the animals gentle natures and also their willingness it seemed to work. They were obviously incredibly smart.

Since coming home Ive often thought about what i saw there with the elephants. I often wondered if any of the training principles could be crossed over to horses....i was so impressed....i wish horses were half as smart sometimes...

some of what i saw was sad and at one place the elephants were obviously thin, and chained very short so they couldn't escape tourists....the first photos are of theses elephants.....yet even these elephants seemed happy to perform.....although i felt very sorry for them

stallion vs shetland

Wild stallion gets taken down by fat miniature pony.This probably one of the most entertaining things Ive ever seen. But more on this later. iwanted to write about horse behaviour and what is acceptable....

The morals and rules instilled in us as we grow up, are us ally the ones we live by later in life. I'm sure if you raise a kid who's allowed to through tantrums, spit, swear and hit they don't miraculously grow out of it, they carry on with the behaviour they got away with in the past. So to with horses they only repeat behaviour that they have been allowed to exhibit previously. If you let them be aggressive, push, nibble or lay there ears back at you, these behaviours will only continue and usually continue to escalate. Lets face it horses are big animals and can cause serious harm if allowed to. If you watched aherd of horses, aggressive behaviours are only used to show dominance in herd dynamics, around feeding etc. The horses that accept this behaviour from other horses, are the ones at the bottom of the pecking order.If we accept this behaviour from our own horses,we are basically saying we are less dominant and can be pushed around.



So from day one you have to show them that you are in fact herd leader and what you say goes. You are in a sense instilling in them the rules and morals of life with humans. You have to teach them these rules from the beginning just like humans as they wont miraculously learn them at a later date. The bay boy even though wild has always been expected to behave with perfect manners. Stallions especially want to be dominant, they unlike geldings still have all there natural hormones and are driven by them. They will usually try to assert dominance, they are just doing what nature interned and be herd boss. Just like a child they are going to try throwing tantrums etc to see what exactly they can get away with so to speak, and you just have to calmly show them that this is not acceptable.

i know the old ways where the old horseman swore you had to throw a horse on the ground,tie them to a post 4 three days or beat them to show him who boss. But really you don't need to do that. Plus I'm 50kgs and 5.6ft there is a limit to what i could do physically to control a horse. i have to use my understanding, timing and patience to help a horse to understand which behavior is and is not acceptable, when i around.

This is actually easy, as usual with horses it is just correcting all the little things. Especially with stallions you just start by never letting the attention stray from you. if I'm ever working with little bay on the ground, he has to keep focused on me, if ever try' to look or communicate with the other horses, its as simple as making him keep his eyes on you, or do exercises like stepping his hind end away to remind him that he listening to to you, not looking for girls.It is important that they learn to get out of your way not you out of thires. theses are the first lesson any horse learns with me. this too is simple. If you step towards there hindquarters , they must move them, if you ask them to move there shoulder away, move away from pressure on the rope or move in a circle around you they must do this immediately. As soon as they give you the required response you always stop asking as a reward for their behaviour.

This sets the foundation that you are the one in charge. It is important to note to that you always ask them to come to you. Not the horse choosing to come to you. I hate passionately horses that come marching up and walk all over you. i feel like I'm about to be trampled. so whether in the paddock or the end of the rope little bay knows he must wait to be invited to come to me. As when i got back from Thailand i noticed that little bay wanted to turn and face me rather than focus on what i was asking him to do, or he would come marching up almost aggressively in the paddock to be caught. This has now been quickly corrected, fixed by asking him to back up and move away every time he thought about invading my personal space. he got a quick tap from the whip if he didn't respond quickly enough. Same thing applys if any horse ever puts there ears back goes to bite or lifts aleg. you don't have to be mean but you do have to correct the behaviour immediately. then you never have big problems later down the road

most of all the bay is his usual angelic self. With an expression of interested, but pure innocence. My training works to as he never looks away from me when i work him. This theory was put to the test the other day, in the incident with the (completely untrained, disrespectful tantrum throwing exception to my rules loved but spoilt) Shetland that runs at free will all over the farm.

i was working the stallion just doing some lunging work etc. It had poured the night before so we had several knee to waist deep ponds all through the paddock. i was asking bay to walk in and out of these as something a bit more interesting to do. Coco the Shetland pony is the scruffiest black brown (depending on how much dirt hes rolled in) hairiest/half sheep thing you ever seen, and only comes up to about my waste so is tiny but fat and round like a barrel. he loves water and takes any opportunity available to swim and roll in it. Seeing the activity with the boy, the pony came barreling under the fence to investigate. he proceeded straight into the puddle splashing and rolling. The bay and me just kept doing are own thing. When suddenly coco comes galloping out of the puddle and barges straight into bay stallion, crashing into his shoulder. He then rears up and bites him on the neck.and gallops off again.

Theses surprise attacks kept happening for the next 20 minutes. Coco looking absolutely jubilant with himself the whole time. He would rush back and forth between the pond and attacking bay. It was more play than anything,as he never left a mark and i watched laughing. At one stage coco reared up as high as he could and even got his front legs hooked over the bays wither, nipping at bay the whole time. Poor bay stood their like a saint and never even glanced at the pony, but watched me the whole time with an expression that seemed to say 'this is embarrassing, what do u want me to do now'. The more ignored he was, te more extravagantly coco tryed to demand attention until i eventually chased him back to his puddle, not wanting to find out out just how deep little bays saintly behaviour really was. to the end of my days i think the image of a pint sized ,hairy ball of fat fury attacking the wild stallion and getting away with it one of the more amusing things Ive seen.

all the goings on

I have been slack, i haven't written in a couple of days. Yet there has been so much happening with the wild horses I've already forgotten some of it, ive been so busy. Grey and the bay colt have both had some actual lessons rather than just the routine handling each day. Both are quieter, both are fatter and they both definitely have more energy. Big steps have been made.

The Grey comes and gets tied up for the day at the barn. All my broodmares, young horses and my competition horses are either stabled or tied in the barn with hay nets everyday to feed and give them 8 hours a day out of the rain and mud. The grey is brought from her private paddock and is with them all day. She stands there with all of them and has dogs, a cat, people, wheelbarrows and other horses coming and going right past her throughout the day. No bid deal, she just carries on eating her hay. Also from watching all the others horses excitement at being fed she has finally given her horse feed a try, for the last two days has actually eating some of it, as well as sampled her salt block which until now has been left completely untouched.

Horses are only as quiet as you teach them to be. She has been allowed to get used to everything in a non-threatening, relaxed environment. She flicks her ears back and forth aware, yet accepts all the activity completely relaxed. Every morning she stands at the corner of her paddock watching me clean the barn and bring in the other horses, until I'm finally ready to come catch her and bring her in.

The boy also like his stable life. Every evening he to is waiting at the gate with Milo and Coco the shetland pony, to be brought to his stable. He is looking better everyday. he had a lesson in lunging and ground manners yesterday. he has a great little brain on him and is quick to learn. he seems to enjoy interacting with me and learning new things. He now knows all the ground work and basics that i would expect of my domestic horses of the same age. He can back up, turn on the forehand,turn on the haunches, and walk,trot, canter on a circle.

Loving my two little wild horses cant wait to teach them some more tricks...fun stuff only just beginning

monthly update

i said i would do a photo update every month so i have a record of the wild horses change. as they go from wild horses to riding horses. Here is this months photos.

Long day catching up on all farm work today. Too exhausted to write more, although i have lots to say. many developments with the wildhorses, lots for mew to think about. but my brain is to tired to write a good account, or even string two sensible words togetger

back on the farm

i sitting at home again now writing this. Finally home after a very long and jet lagged bus trip this morning. Good news all is well on the farm. Grey is no longer limping, bay boys is fat and happy looking. All the rest of the animals seem to have survived my absence in good health as well.

it was with a fear bit of nerves that i made my way to see the grey girls paddock, Thinking that i was going to find a very sick wild horse hobbling on 3 legs. The last report i had while in Thailand, was that she was limping and that swelling had made its way up her leg until it was past her hock. Relief. It appeared she had only had a minor foot abscess. usually caused by the wet weather causing weak spots in the hoof that then become infected, and are hard to clean and treat. Good news this abscess had burst through the top of the hoof. Draining away all the puss and infection, relieving the pressure causing the limping. not only was the swelling gone, but she wasn't even limping. There was a hole showing where the abscess had burst through. But other than that, she was fit and healthy.

The bay boy, what a difference good nutrition and ample food can make. He has gained so much weight in the ten days Ive been gone. Not only that he is full of energy and his balls have dropped too. For the first time ever i saw some action from the kaimanawas. He was prancing and playing in the paddock as i drove up. Looking so full of himself. This is the first time ive seen him do much more than walk around. When i remember the horse that stepped off the cattle truck, SO fragile in appearance, it almost looked like the wind would blow him over. i cant believe hes the same horse. He is also, i notice, starting to 'mark his territory ' so to speak. which for stallions means creating a massive pile of poo in one spot. interesting developments

both wild horses, were easy to catch again, even with the 10 days of no handling. The boy seemed to be very happy to come to his stable for the night. The grey actually took less time than usual to be caught. For once she seemed to actually be enjoying human interaction, rahther than just tolerating. Lowering her head and relaxing as i gave her a quick brush. Even my mother was allowed to come close and give her a scratch, the first person apart from me to do so. Being in a paddock alone for a while i think she was just enjoying any company offered.

Also According to my mother the wild horse adoption people payed a visit while i was overseas. They do this to make sure the horses never fall into abused or neglected situations.this has been the case with some of the mustered horses in the past. Through either human negligence, cruelty or lack of understanding and not realising the immensity of the task of taking on wild horses. sounds like i passed the test and my horses were OK as they haven't taken them off me, so i must be doing something right.

home

finally back in NZ....not home yet only landing down this afternoon..tomorrow back to the farm. Thailand was absolute bliss..warm sunny and i got to look at exotic animals to my hearts content. No holiday however sweet is completely trouble free. Got message from the farm a couple days ago, saying that greys foot problems had resurfaced and that she had stared limping again.

Ahhh so i was in foreign country, while my wild pony is at home getting sicker by the day. Adding to the problem that no one at home can handle her or even catch her to treat the foot. Because I'm still the only human who can get near her. So this could have been a solved to, by putting some antibiotics in her food. to clear up any infection until i got home to check her out. Except she doesn't eat horse food yet. So while i looked through markets and lay on the beach, i constantly stressed about my poor grey girl in a paddock at home.

It seems though that grey with her wild horse sturdiness is already on the mend. This gives me some peace of mind until i see her tomorrow, and chech her out for myself. Bay stallion has apparently gotten fatter by the day, cant wait to see him too.

home

I think if your used to constantly moving and working all day, there is only so much lying around sunbathing you can do. Im am enjoying my holiday but already my feet are itching to be back home on my horse. My mind is ticking over with lots of new plans for both the wild horses and the domestic ones as soon as i get home..

Cant wait to see my horses again....going slightly stir crazy lying in sun.

elephants

Different animals are trained all over the world using very different methods. Horses alone are trained for a huge variety of uses, using a variety of methods. The saying ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat’ should be more like ‘there’s more than a thousand ways to train a horse’. I love learning new ways, new trick and new techniques of working with and training animals. I love all animals when the opportunity came up to go elephant riding and see elephants trained and ridden up close and personal. You couldn’t have dragged me away.
There are elephants all over Thailand. Some are used for work, pulling and shifting logs, transporting large loads, farming and in the jungle even used in rivers to pull rafts. They are used for performances, in circuses, for tourist shows and demonstrations. They can be trained to do hand stands, stand on just their hind legs, shoot basketballs, bow, paint, dance and they can be ridden. In fact anything you can think of, it seems in Thailand an elephant can be trained to do it. Why this is relevant to wild horses and me?
Horses are for the most part, are controlled and taught through very physical means, mostly kind ways. But still physical none the less. We put metal bits in their mouths to guide and control them. We use kicking and whipping to get them to move forward. We have saddles to stay on them, and halters and ropes to control them when we are not riding them. You can train horse without these things, but it’s a rarity in the horse world. Elephants are massive. You don’t realise how massive until you are right next to one. They are obviously very intelligent. Like horses they are herd animals, they are herbivores and they can be ridden by humans. Unlike horses elephants are not controlled using physical restraints. There s no bridle and therefore no bit in their mouth to control them. You don’t lead an elephant with a halter and lead (what good would a string attached to an elephant held by a human be?) Yet the average elephant can perform a much larger variety of things than the average horse. Why? How are they trained? What methods are used?
So I went to the elephant village, and got to ride a 35yr old female elephant named (I think) Tom Phun. The elephant village is a sanctuary/working farm for retired, rescued and surplice performance elephants. It homes 25 elephants all female, except for two tusked males. I thought it was a shining example of a way to rescue and re-home and also help the public understand theses awesome creatures. It also has helped the local villagers, all living in what we would call poverty (bamboo, corrugated iron, and scavenged plastic huts). Each elephant has its own mahout from the village, and the elephants are also fed from left over waste from the local farms (harvested banana palms, pineapple plants and all sorts of tropical fruits). All the elephants are swam and bathed each day in the river. They although chained, have enough room to move around easily, access to shade and crucially are together in family groups, so they get that crucial interaction with their own species. The conditions these elephants had were not 5 star, but the animals were happy and healthy, Both mentally and physically. Unlike many horses I have seen around the world in some of the most expensive stables.

Unfortunately my mahout for the elephant ride did not speak English, so I couldn’t chew his ear off for the whole two hour ride, with questions about elephant training. This is what I picked up from observing him along the ride.
· These elephants were mostly controlled by voice ‘hup hup’ seemed to indicate forwards. Slow down, stop, turn and all other tricks seemed to have a voice command to but I couldn’t tell what it was...

· The Mahout used some physical aids, seemingly only to reinforce voice aids, or if the elephant was ignoring him. These were either using his feet on his ear, kind of nudging on the hard top part used to flap the ear. Sometimes kicking to encourage the elephant to hurry up.

· Lastly there was what looked like an ice pick/ metal hook attached to a wooden handle about half the length of a broom handle. This was used for all things including hooking banana bunches into the mouth of the elephant as it walked along. But also for directing elephants and control, through hooking the elephant’s ear or delivering a swift tap when the elephant didn’t obey. This actually not as bad as it sounds they were quiet gentle and would be a much milder punishment than a whip on a horse...
Also like horses I’m sure there are good ways and less than good way of riding and training elephants. But overall I was impressed with the gentleness used when handling these beasts. The elephants seemed to enjoy their work, as we rode around the country side the elephants were frequently allowed to stop and graze on trees and grass at their own pace. My mahout also would pick nuts and berries from trees we passed and fed them to the elephant along the way. I noticed each elephant had it own personality. One had to be carrying something the whole trek, either a bunch of grass it seemed to use as a fan, a big palm leaf to use as a fly swat and at one time it carried a bamboo pole swinging it back and forth as it walked. My Tom Phun constantly tried to role in the river, to my mahout’s laughter and encouragement she had to be urged to keep going.
My experience at the elephant park was amazing. I was in total bliss, my own personal heaven getting to be around these wonderful creatures, in the warmth and sun in Thailand. It also has me thinking. Could we train horses differently? Elephants are easily four times as big as my largest horse; I would definitely say they show slightly more intelligence than a horse. Yet are generally it seems, controlled with far less difficulty than the average horse. Why? Are they just so different from horses that the same methods can’t be used? Can the same methods be used but culturally or otherwise never have been? Does the intelligence of the animal play a part?
Whatever the reason it has given me plenty of food for thought as I lay around the pool in Thailand waiting for the sailors to some in for the day.

Trust

So the last few days have been a whirl wind....Im sitting ata yacht club in Thailand typing this, wondering how my wild horses are back home. Im sure they're fine, having somehow managed to survive alone all their lives. I still worry. I dont actually like sailing at all, but the boyfreinds over coaching a sailing team at the asiian championships, so im here on holiday.Cant complain, it sunny warm and all i have to do is relax and enjoy myself. I still mis my horses though.

So for the few days before i got to thailand, it was a mad rush at the farm to get things ready for my abscence. A new paddock was wmade wild horse proof, for Bay and milo for the ten day im away. Troughs,fences and horse covers all double checked to make sure their should be no malfunctions in my abscence. Greys foot luckily seems to be getting better, huge relief.

But one thing that happened in the last few days has got me thinking. My two wild horses, for me are perffect. I can rub them all over, pick up there feet, i can catch them in a paddock. They follow me whereever i ask them to go. To me they are not to differant to a domestic horse, easier in fact because they have never been taught bad habbits. I knew they trusted me, but i didnt really understand how deep that bond was.

A freind who happens to be at uni studying to be a vet, came over to have a look at both of the wild horses. I was hoping she could give me a second opinion on when she thought the grey was due to foal. As grey's belly has dropped and become huge, shes even developed small udders. I am of course panicing that she will foal while im overseas, and i will miss the big event. Also i thougt the freind could help give a better idea of exactly how old they were as well..Now the two wild horses are used to kids, they used to mum driving up and parking her car right next to them. They were not useda new person trying to come near them. The bay every timeshe went near him to look at his teeth, just tryed to come closer to me. Trying to come to something he felt secure with and awat from what he wasnt. The grey wasnt having a bar of her, no stange person was coming near her.

What i cannot decide is, was it a just the fact it was a new person? Was it her new smell? Was it her body language? Did she appear threatening? What was it that made her so scary? The freind, is a good horse person in her own right, she dosnt do things exactly as i do, but she is good in her own way.

The Bay, with me standin next to him, allowed her to eventually look in his mouth, hes is apparntly two years old, just. But he would never accept her near him if i moved away from him he wouldnt let her near him...It is in a way satisfying to find out how much he looks to me.

Anyway i think i will have to finish this story at a later date. because I see the yachts coming in. I think i had better go find out how all the sailors did. But even here in the sun and warmth of tropical thailand, my two vwild ponys are never out of my thoughts...

Ok just a short update. Long day slogging through mud doing genral farm stuff. Boring day basically. Didnt do much with wild ponys. Picked up their feet again. Grey's limp looking better. Bay boy just gets freindlier everyday. He also started eating horse food a couple days ago, and now loves it. I notice to that he getting a slight gloss in his coat and is definately looking healthier. All the time he just looks at you with these big brown innocent eyes and you cant help but love him.

Grey to, looks a lot better, hopefully tommorow will have a chance to doctor her foot.