Immunization Day

Not tons of Parelli exercises of late, but I can already tell that even while I'm not actually focussing on Parelli games with my horses, my "Parelli savvy" is starting to become second nature. I know I'm just starting with all of this, but am really starting to get hooked on learning it all and being a better human for my horses. They are truly amazingly responsive when you're "speaking their language" and amazingly forgiving when you're not! Makes me want to try harder.

Today was immunization day. All 6 horses (my 4 plus the two boarders) got their west nile and Eastern/Western tetanus shots. Gypsy also got her Flu/Rhino shot as she will be off the property at least once this year (hopefully more). Gypsy and Jake are "old hands" at this, but Gypsy has always had issues with the needles (below). She doesn't take off or anything, but she does tense up and start tossing her head. Today I started tapping her neck (to her this means "here it comes!") and she tensed her neck and raised her head. I kept it up for as long as her head was up. She tossed her head up and then down and I stopped tapping her neck as soon as her head was lowered, then rubbed. We repeated this over and over until she stopped tensing and then a few more times for good measure. She did great - for the first time ever.

Jake (below) stood like a rock and didn't even flinch.

Indy flinched, but took it like a star, happily took her treat, then kept pestering me for more.

Yarrow was really curious - as usual - about what the heck was going on, so he finally found out. He stood as well as he does (standing is not one of his strong suits).

Rein barely blinked.

And then it was Skittles' turn (left). She didn't get immunized last year because she was still untouchable. So as her first exposure to the vaccines, she gets today's shot and another booster in 3 weeks. I was a bit nervous... I still have that residual "what's she gonna do" feeling whenever I try something new with her. I hope it goes away eventually, because she continues to impress me. She snorted a bit at the plastic bag holding all the needles, then stepped up to sniff at it. So confident. She barely noticed the needle when I poked her. Such as star. Hugs and smooches for my Skittles!

Later in the day, the mosquitos just got insane. The horses were covered, so there was no more putting it off: I got out the fly spray and started first by spraying it in the air away from the horses (they were all crowded by me at the gate... probably thinking I would let them out). They all jumped and took off. What is it about spray bottles that are so scary?? I started with Jake (he jumped the shortest distance). He was still pretty uncertain, so all I did was wipe the mosquitos off with my hand, and got him relaxed by scratching some itchy spots too, then started spraying my hand and rubbing him with my hand, getting the spray closer to him as I sprayed my hand. Eventually I got the spray directly on him and he stood there very calmly. I think he started to realize the mosquitos were bugging him less and less the more I sprayed him.

I repeated the process for all the rest of the horses and it worked beautifully! Even Gypsy. And none of them were haltered. They chose to stay. They all seemed to almost sigh a great big "SIGH" when I was done. A break from the mosquitos.