Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your belly grow?

I'll tell you how it grows, it grows from stealing the food the other horses drop on the ground, ya little fatty!

As you can see, Mary is not hurting for groceries:



Last week I started locking her in a stall so I could feed Brego and Sparrow without her standing under Brego and eating everything he dropped or getting all witchy to Sparrow and chasing him away from his food so she could eat it. I swear she gained weight from standing in the stall for 15 minutes twice a day LISTENING to them eat. Good golly.


So last week during their lunch I started longeing her. They don't get much for lunch, so it doesn't take long for them to eat it but I decided today to start doing this during every meal. I'm taking it easy on her because she is out of shape and it is hot out there today, but hopefully it will show in her physique before long. I don't mind her being stubby legged and long bodied and fat bellied. In fact I like it. But she is starting to jiggle and dimple again. That is dangerous for her health.

I've been working with Brego again, too. Other than my normal daily cuddling, that is. Not making him work hard but back doing some ground work that I had slacked off on. Now I don't follow any one trainer or style of training but I do have my own methods that aim for having the horse know most of what he needs to know when you ride before you ever get up on his back. We are still a few pounds away from my English saddle fitting him so... I've been doing what I can from the ground. I started with getting him to give me his head. Now I have been working on putting pressure on his side where my leg will go while pulling the rein and having him walk around me. Also doing some slow longeing in small circles to remind him that I can control his head and his feet. If he gets too far out from me he tends to just tuck his head and muscle away from me. hence the reason i want to get my round pen built! He has been doing well, and I have been pretty happy with him. He really does want to please, right up until he gets sick of playing along then he goes dead headed, lol.

It was smart to back off on the ground driving, it is much easier to avoid him hitting that dead head spot when I am right there next to him. I think I am going to have to work backwards with him to what I usually do. He just isn't real confident out ahead of me, but he does so much better if I am close to him. So driving training can wait.

I may hose him off tomorrow. It was hot today and he was a sweaty boy. Of course he rolled in every bit of dust he could find so he looks hideous and filthy. I laugh every time I look out there and see him coated in dirt.

I also worked on the pool some today. It's good to go now, I think. I was in there for about an hour and a half and it was divine. I told Brego it is a shame he couldn;t join me in there, he would have loved it, lol.

Edit to add:

Since i fixed the temp fence again there have been no escapes, yay!!!!