Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Baby Bronc Busting

Something Mom said the other day... along the lines of "Ace is getting to be a real armfull when we take him out"... made me think "Gee, I ought to spend some time working with this little guy! Before he isn't a little guy anymore." With a busy schedule and an already full barn routine, it's easy to limit my baby time to picture taking and "aww isn't he cute" activities. So, today I spent some dedicated handling time with him in the stall. We catch him and make him settle often enough, but I decided it was time to pick up feet and fiddle with ears. I got both front feet done and the ears before Mom noticed I was in the barn. With her help we got the hind feet done too, and even cleaned them a bit with a pick. Of course, he got them dirty immediately.
He's very good. He isn't shy or over sensitive, and he likes people so we just have your typical baby attitude to work with. He can still launch himself straight up off all four like a rocket. Luckily, I can still hold on. I did get my feet stepped on a few times, and I stepped on him at least once. But we managed to stay untangled enough to keep our feet. When Mom was picking up the hind feet, he was busy reaching around trying to pinch her butt.
The only thing he really didn't like was having his tummy rubbed. I always make it a point when I'm holding him to reach over and stroke behind his elbow because he is ticklish there. Rubbing the tummy got a really bad pucker face. But I did it anyway, because I'm the boss.

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