Maybe it's true... maybe his mother really did eat locoweed while she was in foal with him.

I have been busy working with Echo, my special ed student. He's going to get trained but I just have to educate him in his own special and very slow way. It seems like whenever I start to feel he's hopeless the next day he makes a fool of me by being a good little horse.

Over the weekend, with the help of the product cowboy magic, I untangled his lovely mane with my fingers. It turns out he is very scared of the mane brush touching his mane. I brushed my own hair with it, let him sniff it and touched his nose with it. I did manage to gently brush his chest with it as I held on to his nose band telling him "no" when he tried to bolt. We have had two days of 'mane brush training' and have not made progress. He's still scared to death of it.

A few days ago I flipped the lead rope towards him and when it tapped his chest he leaped and grunted like he had be given an electric shock. I had already been touching him with rope and thought we'd progressed far enough that swinging the rope towards him would be OK.

I decided not to introduce scary thing's like ropes and brushes to his body till he was a bit more at ease with me touching him all over. He's fine when ropes and brushes touch his face. He's learned to hold me off with his nose. When I went around his head to his side I held his nose still to stop him from turning away...so being a bright little spark, he did the same thing to me. When I go to his side he hooks my nose in his nose hole to hold me still and away from his side. So we have a 'nose off'. It's a jolly affair though and it's hard to become mad at him. He's telling me he'd rather just kiss and eat treats. I've held on to his nose band and made him stand still while I put both my hands on him at the same time. One on his withers and one on his chest. I haven't managed to get further back yet because when I move a bit he bolts.

Last night I had to resort to singing him songs again. He really relaxes when I sing to him, so I make up little ditties about a magnificent mustang called Echo. Funny thing, Wildairo loves baby talk and really responds.

Speaking of Wildairo; he's so happy that the grass started to grow after the rains. It's the first time he has grazed on fresh green grass for years and he doesn't want to come in very often. I noticed he's not even cleaning all his hay up although he does manage to eat his oats.

It's good to see a horse out in the pasture again.


He doesn't get too far from the corrals. I watch him with the binoculars and I see his head shoot up after every few bites to have a quick look round for the BLM or farriers.

We are getting things ready for Echo in the little horse barn and corrals. We'll have to haul him over there because the idea of leading him over there is a ways off. It's a nice little wooden building. Brad thinks it was built in the 1930's or 40's. He thinks it's very inconvenient and would prefer a modern metal one. I think the wood makes it very cozy and homey. We have to re-roof it and paint it one day soon. I really hope Echo will go inside it.