Cora's Evaluation

Cora's evaluation has been ongoing, more observation than anything else. The trainer that gave her to me warned that she was buddy bound to Zora, so I've let her just settle into the herd, only handling her when she needs it (worming, hoof trimming, etc...). She seems calmer now than when she first arrived, but is still nervous when taken away from Zora. Her ground manners are pretty good, she leads, stands for the farrier, takes her wormer well, and likes getting fly-sprayed. When she's with the herd she's calm and friendly and stands like a statue when you pet her all over, but take her away from Zora, her head is high and she has a slightly tense look to her.

Today, though, I though I would try something a bit more, so I when out to pasture to get her. Well, the whole herd decided to greet me, swirling around begging for scratching, Alex the baby most of all! I have to say this: I may have one or two fuglies (I didn't breed them, they needed a home) out there, but everyone is fat and shiny! I was almost blinded by all the glossy, almost metallic, coats!

I approached Cora, and she walked off. I persisted, she sort of sighed and then stopped. I haltered her and started back to the barn, Cora in tow and the others wondering what they should do. About halfway to the barn, Zora starts up with her wussy high pitched whinny, and Cora starts dragging her feet and trying to look behind her. Then the herd makes up it's collective mind to follow along too, with Alex walking alongside Cora. He is going to be something to train!

When we got to the barn, Zora stopped to flirt with Bahim again and seemed to put Cora from her mind for a bit. I got Cora into the barn and cross-tied her, which she didn't fight, just tried to turn around a few times and settled with standing a little sideways to look back at the gate to the pasture. She was quiet with very little dancing, but tense.

After grooming (and a treat for being quiet), we went to the round pen to see what she knew. She started off with cantering halfway, then trotting halfway, for a couple of rounds. Then I sent her around the other way, and she did the same. I was okay with all of this as I wanted her to get it out of her system. Then we started getting more serious. I had her trot around, and every time she called out in response to someone in the pasture, I clucked to her and asked her to move out more. After a while, she got the idea. Then she tried to test me by changing direction on her own, but I wasn't having any of that. After a few good rounds in each direction, her head came down a little and she seemed to relax, so I asked her to whoa. She stopped, then walked right past me to look over the fence. So I asked her to move out again, had her circle a round or two, then told her to whoa. When after a few repeats of this I said whoa and she stopped and looked at me, I decided to take it. I took her out for some grass, then brought her back in the barn for a quick brushing and treat, then turned her out. She was calmer, and didn't take off after the herd like I thought she might, just walked over, joined the herd and her buddy, and wandered off for more grazing.

All in all, she's not to bad a mare, she just needs more time and patience. I should probably try and work with her at least 3 times a week. I also think that I won't get on her until she's a bit calmer in the pen, though I probably could have tried her today and she would have been like Zora: wired, tense, worried, but no bucking or bolting. I just didn't feel like risking anything today. I'm just glad I ended up with these two, because while the person who gave them to me said they were broke, a beginner or someone timid could not handle them when they're separate, unless they had a trainer working with them. They need a refresher on what their job is and how to focus on it, and that's going to take time, patience, and work. I'll probably focus more on Cora, as she's younger and has better conformation than Zora. Zora will still be ridden, just not hard.