Diesel is Doing G-R-E-A-T!

Remember the Tony the Tiger ad....G-R-E-A-T!  Well, that pretty much sums up Diesel's last couple of days.

He is completely recovered from his low-grade laminitis attack and ready to get back to being a spunky mini hinny.
On the down side (from Diesel's perspective), he has to be off the grass until further notice!  Luckily we have a nice sized dry lot and we are taking him for lots of walks.  He gets a 2-lap walk around our track in the morning and "5 minutes" of free grazing time.  Talk about soaking up every moment of that!
Then in the afternoon we take him into the outdoor arena and have him trot around, work on his draw, and try to keep him moving in between little snitches of grazing (the arena has some very short grass).  After the 20 minute play time, he goes for another 2-lap walk around the track, and we finish up with another 5-minute grazing time. 
He seems to be enjoying his new routine, although the early morning turn-out for the other 2 horses is a little hard on him.  He gets sort of upset, but then after rolling a dozen times, will settle in for eating his morning hay.
Yesterday, on Monday, during our afternoon walk, Lea put some driving lines on him.  We know that he was abused by his previous owners when being taught and used to drive a cart, so we have avoided it like the plague!  But, Lea has the magic touch; as she does with every animal on this farm!  She worked with a light laundry line and that was just fine by him.  She did a whole lap around our track with the lines and he didn't mind it one bit!  She ended a on good note with lots of treats and he was a happy camper. 

It is so good to see how much he has come to trust us.  To overcome simple tasks that used to be so traumatic is a real testimony to his willingness to trust humans again.
We will continue to work with him at an even pace so not to overwhelm him. 

Baby steps on the driving lines!

In the meantime, we are working furiously to try to figure out how to drag the track so that we can get it down to just dirt.  That way he and Scout can be turned out for LOTS of exercise and movement.  We will put hay nets out and there will be little "oasis" areas of grass then can nibble down for a treat.

More on that later.  Until then, Diesel is gonna get more exercise than he has in the last two years!  And he doesn't seem to mind it at all. 
Marianne