Cara & Splash of Honey's Journal

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Name:	Splash of Honey (Gem)
Age:	4
Height:	13.3
Sex:	Mare
Breed:	Australian Brumby
Colour:	Chestnut Pangare
Markings	None
Brand:	None

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

First Impressions

It's funny, I have been working around the rescue horses for months now, and even though they each have their own personal quirks, now that I am working with one of them, I have noticed things about her that I obviously never paid attention to before. However when all you are doing is leading horses too and from their yards, there's not a lot of time to look at everything about each of the horses... but I digress.

The first gathering of the students to meet their charges is always interesting, and today was no different than that of the previous class. I stood in the barn while Dr Carr did her normal speech about the do's and don'ts. I got the feed ready for the mare I am working with. If I get the chance to register her it will be under the name Splash of Honey, in the barn though she will be known as Gem.

The horses all have a well planned out feeding schedule, which I carefully follow. Except, with Dr Carr's permission, I have added some herbs to her feed to help her gain condition and help her become less stressed around people... well me.

I took the feed to her, and her reaction was pretty much what I expected; she turned her back on me and the tail swishing told me that she wanted to be left alone and just wanted me to rightly bugger off. I left the tub for her and exited the yard. This was fine by me though, as it gave me a chance to really study her while she was eating. Until now, I have never noticed that she has a dished nose.

To end with a good note, she did look toward me with her ears pricked forward once she had finished her feed, though this was very short lived and she had retreated to the back of the yard before I went in and collected the tub.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Moving on Up

Since I joined the latest rescue class, I have been spending as much time with Gem as possible - and that means more than just leading her too and from the barn. She isn't exactly looking out for me when I arrive, but she has caught on to the fact that I'm not her enemy, and that when she sees me, it means food whether it's her feed morning, lunch and night, or a couple of alfalfa cubes when I pop in to see her in between (basically every time I come to the clinic to visit Fée, I take some time to spend it with the Brumby mare).

As well as seeing me as the bearer or all good things to eat, Gem has begun to trust me enough to allow me to approach her in her yard, even when she knows I'm not going to take her in or giver her food. Because she has placed this new trust in me, I have been able to handle her a little more and she will now allow me to run a brush across her coat. Due to the end of daylight savings, her winter coat has begun to come trough and it it much darker than her summer coat, almost a liver chestnut colour, which it giving her the look of a Haflinger with the flaxen mane and tail... Again, I digress.

Gem's stable colours are royal blue and magenta, so I have purchased her a Bentley Slip Not grooming kit (with bag) in blue and pink, and had a made to measure cover in royal blue with pink trim (of course the buckles and surcingle are black), and I have stitched her name onto her blue halter in the same pink. I'm not a pink person - never have been, never will be - but it looks good on her, even if she is a chestnut and it's not so in your face that it clashes against her coat... Sorry, I'm going off track again.

As long as I don't do anything that might break the fragile trust that Gem has graced me with, I have the feeling that we will bond quickly. With that said though, I need to keep things moving slowly.