Moving Forward

It has now been a week and a couple of days since Diesel had his laminitis attack.  All I can say, is that I am so blessed that after all the meds, and hosing down his legs, he still loves us and trusts us. I was pretty worried that he would lump us together with the worthless humans that treated him badly before he came to live with us.

I sort of always put him up on this pedestal because he was abused and abandoned.  Looking back that probably was the wrong direction to take.  I knew it was important to spend undemanding time to build trust with us, but he never had a purpose here but to be loved, to eat, to bug his herdmates, and be the cutest lawn ornament you have ever seen.

I have a deep tendency to put human emotions and thoughts into my animals - all of them all the time.  I am beginning to see that this is not always the right thing to do!

I don't regret how he has lived here the last two years, but now I can see that we have filled a spot in his heart that is safe a secure.  It is okay to move forward with living and trying new things.

Because he is on a dry lot, he has required a lot more attention on my part.  I have to admit that owning him has been easy.  It has taken only time spent and lots of love on my part, but very little horsemanship. Now his routine includes me in his activities.  We take him out for 4-5 laps a day on our track.  Coupled with the walking he gets a snippet of grazing here and there.  On Monday, Lea hooked him up to some very lightweight laundry line and tried ground driving with him.  And guess what, he survived just fine.  I was always afraid it would flood back memories of painful days past.  But nope.  He just moved forward like it was no big deal.  I think he actually liked being in the driver's seat!  Lea only did one lap and ended on a good note and a handful of pellets.  Then we went back to walking with a lead line.

We have also been taking him into our outdoor arena to trot around at liberty.  He seems to really like that and keeps trying to steal a bite of grass here and there.  Lea worked yesterday doing a little point to point and Diesel picked it right up.  His draw is great - especially when you have a pocket full of feed pellets (diet ones of course!).

I am excited about what lies ahead.  We are waiting on our very kind neighbor to come try to rough up the track.  We certainly want Scout and Diesel to be able to use all that space. 

So, here is hoping we can get the track down to a nice soft dirt and to lots of fun new days learning to play with Diesel and giving him a purpose!
Lots of love,
Marianne and Diesel!