more spooks

Today was a spooky sort of day! I'm not entirely sure why, but Shyloh was very spooky and a little bit cranky. It could be that she is in heat (I don't know if she is or not, though), or it could be that she appears to have some sort of bug bite on the side of her lip. If the bug bite was the case, it explains why she was reluctant to take the bit and why she was cranky while we were trying to work. 

Can't really see it, bit it's the pink spot on her lip. I swear it was puffy! 

After I lunged for a bit, I decided to try lunging Shy over the pole, which we have done before. I got the pole out and walked her over it a few time. No problem. As I was lunging her, she came around the circle, saw the pole, and spooked at it! Ugh, what the hell? We have been walking and trotting over poles, around poles, through poles, and lunging with them for a week. That was when I took the bridle off and noticed the puffy pink lip. I put the halter on, and tried to walk her over the pole again. No go. I was thinking Seriously, Shy. This is not new stuff here. It took a while, but I had her walking over poles and through poles again.

As I continued to walk her around the arena, Robin got a carrot stick and attached a plastic bag to it. Plastic bags are THE most terrifying thing to a horse. I am not sure why. They hate it when they crinkle... but when a peppermint, butterscotch, or Jolly Rancher wrapper crinkles, they come running! Anyway, at the first crinkle of the plastic bag, Shy picked up pace real quick to get out of it's evil reach. On the second loop around, we stopped to investigate the horrendous villain. As Shy was checking it out, she blew out her nose, which made the bag make a noise. Oh my God, pure terror terror!  But we kept at it and eventually, I was able to touch Shy with the bag and move it near her feet on the ground. 

Next, I took Shy out to graze. I went out the back and decided to walk her the back way to her paddock, so she could graze along the way. At one point, she must have decided that the grass was so good and forgot about where she was and what was going on, because when I gave the lead rope a tug and said walk on, she jumped about a mile into the air! Oops. . . The good thing about Shy is that she recovers quickly from her spooks and doesn't deter her from doing something again. 

Mouth full of grass! yum!

Her last spook happened when we were leaving. I think Chick was spooked first at the car, which then spooked Shy, but they both took off in the paddock! Poor Shyloh! Do they make anti-anxiety medication for horses?

Eating left over hay with her BFF, Chick :)

Being spooky makes for a thirsty pony!

Shy doing something funky. . .