Wrangler’s Log, Day 45; March 23, 2024

Today was an ugly day—lots of rain, coupled with a cold wind. I almost never wear a coat, instead electing to double up with a zipper sweatshirt and hoodie. An ugly rain is the only reason I ever use the hood, and today was that day. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to my that seeing me half-swallowed by a hood would freak Floki out, but as soon as we opened the gate at the end of the shed row, he was blowing with alarm. It took me a moment to realize that it was the hood that was scaring him, and I put it down immediately, but it still took quite awhile for him to feel safe again. I think a new loft resident (an obnoxiously noisy pigeon) was also adding to his concern. Pigeons are birds of towns and parks, not of wild places like where Floki grew up, and this was very likely the first he had ever heard.

As most of you who have been following Floki and Lagertha know, Floki has a very low “rabbit threshold” and I fully expected that going in to muck his stall was going to push him over the edge. Fortunately, he really did well with maintaining his composure. There were a couple of sketchy moments when he took a step or two toward me, and had that really stressed look, but I just spoke to him and he managed to hold on to his sanity. I really felt that he wanted to approach me more in a defensive manner than an aggressive one. If you read my previous post where he came to stand beside me when I was shivering like a leaf in the wind, you know he’s trying to make a connection insofar as his fear will let him. I feel like that’s what was going on here. He was going to protect me from whatever had half-swallowed me (the hood on my jacket), because I’ve protected him from things that have scared him in the past. These are the things that a stallion in the wild would do for his herd, and right now, I’m all the herd Floki has.

Brent was going to spend some time with him today, just talking, but we decided that today wasn’t the best day considering that Floki was already on edge. We’ll save it for a day or two down the road when conditions are more favorable.

All in all, I’m very proud of Floki’s progress from blind terror on our first day, to managing to maintain his composure in spite all the things that scared him today.

On another good note, although this may have contributed slightly to his tension, he managed to rub his neck tag loose, so that’s off. Although these neck tags are designed to come off if a horse gets hung up, it can still be a dangerous thing, so I’m happy it’s off.

Because Floki’s danger signals had Lagertha slightly on edge too, we decided to get the mucking done and let the horses have a down day. We don’t need to stack stressors. There’s plenty of time to work with them while they’re relaxed.