Echo is more than a one trick pony.

Echo has been very nice with me lately. He seems to have accepted me as a friend. How do young mustangs show friendship? Well it’s not by letting their friends put a halter on them or picking up their hooves. No, young mustangs like to play with their friends. He’s made some playful moves towards me. Here’s an example; when I’m walking around his corral looking for his baby teeth, he waits till I’m in the corner where his hay is, then comes over and stands in front of me to stop me from moving forward. He blows his nose air on me, rubs my hair with his nose and gently plays with my jacket. He did this several times. I could see him waiting till I was close to that corner, then he’d make his move to cut me off and to hold me there. He was by no means being aggressive or pushy. I’d foil his ambush plans and stop in another corner and hold my hand high in the air and say, “Echo! Step up”. He briskly walks over and put his nose up on my hand and rubs it firmly up my hand once. If I hold it there and repeat “Step up”, he does it again. All the time I thought I was loosing ground with him this winter and it wasn’t true. Not only does he remember the trick I taught him last fall but he’s doing it with great confidence now.

He lets me rub my forehead on his face and even give him kisses. But he will only let me touch one part of his face with my hand and that’s the part where the carrots go in!
Last fall when I went to touch his cheek, he whirled away from me like I was going to give him an electric shock. I decided because we were all kissy face now, I’d try to touch his cheek again. This time he didn’t whirl away or even step back much. The little stinker nipped my hand in a playful manner. He didn’t use his teeth, just his lips. I know enough not to do that again till I have some control over his head.

William is home for the three day weekend. It’s so lovely to have him here. I thought I wasn’t going to see him till Spring break but he’s come home twice since Christmas. I asked Will and Brad to come over to the corrals so Echo could get used to more people around while we do our routine. Echo was leery of two other people watching and kept looking at them instead of me. We did manage to do our little trick but I don’t think they were all that impressed because Brad shouted out, “when are you going to put a halter on him”? I explained soon as the weather warms up I’ll have the little lad in a halter. I just thought that (almost) anyone can make a horse do stuff when they have him on the end of a rope, but it takes a bit more patience and trust to get a ungentled mustang to do thing’s with a voice command and a hand signal. Anyway, I’m having more fun than I’ve had for years. I’ve had a horrible flare up of my Sarcoidosis and have been feeling much pain and weakness. I've had to really force myself to do anything, yet after a few minutes of being with the mustangs I feel so much better.

I asked Brad to go over give Wildairo his muffin. Safeway was out of the bran muffins, so this week it was a big berry one for him instead. I peeked over there and saw Brad eating most of it. He claimed he only had a little taste. Good job I have more muffins for both of them.

After we spent time with the Mustangs we went for a little drive and I took some photos.

Here’s an old house a few miles to the south of our place. Two big crows were sitting on the roof but they flew off when we stopped.



Here are Foxsun's friends who live on some leased ground south of our place. When Foxsun is up on the bluff he doesn't spent too much time visiting over the fence with these guys because he can't let the cattle out of his sight. It's been a few years since I said hello to these guys. We were on a county road and our place is behind them.



They are very friendly. One of them is a cute little mule.