We looked at a 6 month old colt yesterday as a potential companion for Wrigley and a fun project for me. As you know, I don't have enough freakin' going on...
Seriously though, horses are herd animals and it just kills me to see my poor girl out there without another horse to hang out with. 6 more horses should fix that. ;)
I'll pick up the new guy Thursday. It's hard to evaluate a 6 month old. They're just so malleable at that stage. If he had nasty habits I'd be all "oh, we can fix that!" Plus, it's a lot like looking at a puppy. Have you ever looked at a puppy and NOT wanted it? Have you ever seen a fuzzy little kitten or puppy (or foal) and thought, "meh, just not doing it for me." My answer is no.
Okay, so I did do a little bit of an 'evaluation' of him. One, I checked out his lateral flexion. Nothing formal at all, I just pulled his head around to his shoulder. He left it there, didn't fight, didn't pull away. The other thing I did was try to lead him to one side, maintaining a little tension on the lead line until he shifted toward me. Then I rewarded him tons. First, he just shifted a little (reward!), then, he took a step toward me (Reward!), then I put a little more tension on the rope and he disengaged his hindquarters and came up to me (REWARD!). Who knows if that is really a great evaluation of him but I did feel that he had a real willingness to try hard. Apart from that, he hasn't had a lot of haltering experience, but that's fine. I've always loved groundwork.
I'll put up some pictures of him when I get him. But brace yourself, this little guy is C-U-T-E!
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