Sunny update!

Some of you may know, my hubby found me the perfect Christmas last year, an adorable Quarter Horse filly named IC Highshelf Whiskey. We call her Sunny. I posted about it HERE if you want to see some cute cute weanling photos of her.  :)

Anyways, just wanted to update you guys on how she was doing and coming along! I love her and she is simply to cute and much too sweet to not be shared.

Short background, my husband and I bought Sunny at 6 months old; she was not broke to do anything. She is a very quiet filly so she tolerated the halter well. However, quiet does not mean learned in my book so I have taught her everything she knows so far and I am pretty happy with how she is coming along.

She can pick up her feet by applying slight pressure to her chestnuts. She was a bit green for her first farrier appointment (she didn't do anything bad, she was still learning at the time). I have done more handling of her feet with more time so I think she will do most excellent for her next trim later this month.  :)    She leads like a champ, also. She is a lazy girl so trying to motivate her to keep pace with me took some patience but now, she follows along with me, keeping up the pace, no matter how fast or slow I go. (I push my daughter in her stroller in the mornings, while pulling a hay cart and leading 3 horses, all at once, so having a baby horse that leads well is a must for me.)

I have been really focusing on building a relationship with this filly as a basis to all my work with her and I think that may be part of why things seem so easy with her, but she is also the quietest baby I have ever met, so that helps, too.   :) I have done flag and rope work with her, desensitizing, and introduced her to a bag. The first time I introduced her to a bag was without a halter. By the end of the session, I had her standing on the bag. Such a brave girl!

Sunny has started to learn trailer loading and about being tied up. She is a quick learner! First few times she was tied, she pulled out the naughty horse manual and tried some things.  hehe   Pawing and even kicking some, but she was settled within an hour. No pulling back. (I made sure that she understood about yielding to pressure before really tying her up and I am always present when she is tied.) The last time I tied her, she pawed for maybe a minute or 2, then gave it up and started thinking about other things, and cocked a foot. I really want her to be relaxed so it impresses me to see her get to that point so quickly.

I am also doing, I guess you could call it "liberty" work with Sunny, too. But I think of it as just doing the same ground work I do with a halter just without, relationship building. Sunny does what I ask because she and I have a good relationship. I can move her around the round pen with body position and hand gestures. I can lead her around without a halter and have her stay with me. It is exciting to watch her improve and a challenge for me to try to be better at communicating with her. What I want is a happy, relaxed, aware horse and that seems to be the path we are on.  :)

    

Will add some more pictures soon. Apparently these are the only new ones I have uploaded at the moment.

Thoughts? Questions? Baby stories? Share below!  :)

Very cute! I am glad she is coming along so well and you are developing such a great bond with her. What kind of things do you do with her feet to get her used to having them handled and to behave while doing so? My one mare is a mess for the farrier and it takes so long because she constantly tries pulling her feet back. So interested in seeing what others do to really desensitize them to this. 

Loved the update and hoping for more photos ! Thanks for sharing ! What a cutie !!!!

Hi,

She is so cute and I’m glad she is coming along great. Thanks for the update!

@Lenka and Cherry, thanks for the responses, ladies!  ♥

@Olympea, I started with teaching Sunny with a rope. I used a soft nylon rope that went around a foot (I started with the front feet) and basically taught her to lead by a foot and to be relaxed when I picked her foot up with the rope. I then started teaching her to pick up her feet when I apply a little pressure to her chestnuts. When I had that going for me, I actually would start grabbing hold of the foot she picked up. I would hold it until she was relaxed, then gently put down. I think dropping a horse's foot can be jarring for them so I *strongly* believe in setting the foot down rather than dropping it when I am done with it. Dropping a foot, I think, can also encourage a horse to pull their foot away as they know they will have to "catch" themself.

Anywhos, once I was holding her feet and she was ok with it, I started doing things like tapping it with a hoof pick or the flat of my hand, hooking her foot on my leg and pulling her leg out to simulate putting it on a stand for filing.

 Working on teaching Sunny to lead by a hind foot in this pic.

It was fairly easy to teach Sunny how to have her feet handled as she didn't have any bad habits and she has the start of a good foundation. Re-teaching a horse how to be good with its feet can be time consuming but it certainly is possible.    :)   I did it with my dad's horse years ago. He was awful to do his feet. When I worked with him, I didn't start with his feet though. I took him back to basics, building up a better foundation and by doing so, he improved with his feet handling. The problem wasn't his feet, in this horse's case, it was the holes in his foundation. To clarify, not saying that that is your mare's problem, just sharing some experience.  :)   One of my favorite trainers, Warwick Schiller, has a couple videos on feet handling that may be of interest to you.  boop & boop

(Disclaimer: Olympea is not asking for advice. I am not offering advice, just sharing experience and information.)

Thanks, I will check out the videos. She is rather well behaved other than for the farrier. When I had vet out for vaccines the first time they were very impressed with how well she behaved she was because she is fully blind but she isn't very skittish at all. As long as you talk to her while approaching she won't spook and is fine with being handled. She is fine when I pick up her feet to pick them out but yea, farrier is a whole nother story. 

Thank you for the update and pictures! Looking forward to many more! She is adorable. You have done such an amazing amount of work with Sunny...there's no doubt she will continue to be a fabulous girl. I laughed when you said she was a lazy girl that is funny. Do you have competition plans for her future? You may have said before but I don't remember lol. It's fun to watch her grow...I don't have horses so have to live vicariously!

@Olympea, maybe she doesn't like your farrier? One of the farriers I tried when I first moved to VA really didn't mesh with my horses, which is strange cause my horses are easy to work on but for some reason he seemed... I don't know if irritated is the word, but he certainly didn't seem to like them. Hope things improve with you mare's feet handling!  :)

@Paint, thanks for the response! As of right now, I don't plan to compete with Sunny but who's to say what the future holds. If the opportunity came up to do some kind of competition with her, I certainly would. My plan for Sunny is to make her a working ranch horse. My hubby and I are hopefully going to be getting into the ranching business with my folks and one can never have too many cow horses!  :)

Sunny has a really level mind and could probably go in any direction. She might make a good husband or kid's horse, too, but we shall see. After all, she isn't even a year old yet.  lol

We have recently had to switch hay because apparently where I live, hay can be a tough thing to find. So poor Sunny needed to be cleaned up so she got her first partial bath yesterday. She was VERY good. Has never been sprayed with a hose but I was able to rinse her, soap her up and wash her off without any help. She stood quietly like the good little girl she is. So proud of her!

   

She looks so calm and patient indeed! She's so darned cute. Getting into the ranching business sounds amazing...lots of hard work but seems like quite an opportunity to build a family legacy. There's no doubt Sunny will prove to be a valuable girl she's such a gem! When will she turn a year old?

@Paint,

Thanks so much for responding! Yup, ranching is a lot of work but it is something I really want to do. I grew up on a small ranch so I am not afraid of hard work. Really look forward to working cows off horseback (obviously a lot more goes on on a working ranch but I love working cows). My gelding is cutting bred but I haven't been able to put him on any cows yet. Would like to see if he has any natural cowiness.   :)

Sunny is such a quick learner and has some good lines, also. Her reigstered name is IC Highshelf Whiskey, her lines are here if you want to see. Sunny will turn a year on May 30th.

Paint, do you have a favorite breed of horse?

Very interesting to see the chart of her lines...dang I wish they had pictures too lol. Some great names in her line...hers also. I think she's going to earn that Highshelf reputation!
Is your gelding a Quarter?
So Sunny is a little Gemini horse...no wonder I like her my birthday comes a week later! That means she must have an impish side somewhere haha.
I think I was born ready to ride lol...for someone who used to eat sleep and breathe a love for horses, I never got to realize my dream of owning them. Sometimes life directs you elsewhere. It is truly a regret I have. However, growing up we always seem to live by people who had ranches or farms and so I got to ride a ton. Ponies in parades, learned to barrel race in my teens as well as jump...mostly freestyle jumping not in comps. I even mucked stalls at my favorite stable to earn riding time. My fondest memory is of a tall and graceful TB named Pat...over twenty and very accomplished and agreeable always. I so wanted to buy her!! Also got to ride a couple of Quarters who were boarded and were movie horses...very fun to watch them trained to fall down. Benefits of growing up in CA I guess!
As for a favorite breed...a long list of breeds tied for first place. I have always wanted to see a Friesian in person and never have, as well as ride one. Bucket list. Love Dressage. Oops, carried way but thanks for asking!

@Paint,

There are some photos! They are old but neat.  :)     Clicky clicky

With Sunny's breeding, I am really interested in the Hancock, WYO, Blue Valentine that she has. I actually *REALLY* want a blue roan with Hancock breeding that is foundation bred but I haven't found one I can afford yet. I am in love with Joe Hancock QH's and really would love to get one with heavy Hancock lines. Maybe someday.   :)    WYO horses are bred in Wyoming on a big ranch that produces some fantastic all-around QH's. Blue Valentine is a Joe Hancock grandson.  ♥

My gelding is a QH also, yes. These are his lines. Ronan is cutting bred. My other mare is double registered, AQHA and Foundation QH. Nice little horsies.

That is great you were able to ride other people's horses. I grew up in CA, too!  :)

Friesians are beautiful!

Sunny update, so she had her latest farrier appointment today and was PERFECT! She wasn't worried at all, picked up all her feet easily, no pulling contests. So, so good for the farrier. I am so happy with how well she is coming along!!

I also laid her down for the first time today. And you know what she did? She took a nap! I had to wake her up when the farrier got here. What a great baby; glad she feels so comfortable and secure with me!

Also, started having her wear a fly mask. My poor black mare is already being eaten alive by bugs and it is only March. The baby fly mask I had was too small.



So I made a hand-me-down big horse fly mask do. She is too cute!

Looking through the pictures was indeed fun! I saw some horses that made me catch my breath they looked so beautiful. I love the old photos...they take you way back and certainly show how much horses were revered for their strength and beauty...as they are today.
I can see why you want a blue roan...I have always loved them too. Don't you love the name Blue Valentine???? I enjoyed seeing the thoroughbred lines as well, some magnificent horses there.

Sunny looks so cute lol...and as everything else she seems to accept it well. It's more than awesome that the farrier appointment went so perfectly...you really just can't ask for anything more. I think we're all going to have fun watching her grow up!

Omg, XD I love the fly mask, I had the same problem with my cousin's horse, Lucky. He is super skinny so it was hard to find a blanket for him, but she is so cute!! I love her!!! ♥

@Paint and Crescent,

Thank you ladies for the responses! I appreciate it and am glad people can share in her cuteness. She is such a sweetie!