The Experiment Begins

One Bag to Start

Did a bit of research on the pennies in the waterbags and found mixed opinions.  I also found they needed to be shiny pennies.  Then another website suggested shiny foil instead.

So I prepared one water bag with pieces of tinfoil in it and hang it over Toby's stall door.  The problem is that the bag need to be out of reach of the horses or they will be destroyed.  And, supposedly, they are to catch the natural light.  This poses a bit of a problem because the stall is under the shelter of the run in roof.  But, I could reach a good spot with the little ladder I have in the barn and decided to try that for now. If I hang bags on the run in eaves, or even in the stalls, I will need to haul out the tall ladder, something I was not quite inspired to do today in....THE HEAT. 

Yep. The brief respite is over and we are back in a humid heat wave.  I didn't last too long out there.  Good thing I cleaned the stalls this morning while it was still a bit cloudy and cooler.  I'll clean the west run in shed tomorrow morning or this evening if it cools off. 

And in the meantime I have the bag experiment to keep me amused as I watch to see if the flies stay out of Toby's stall.

Since the sun came out, I decided to put the fly masks back on the Boys.  Chance and Tucker accepted theirs graciously and even seemed to appreciate them but Toby?? How long can a horse back up?  He let me come near, but as soon as I lifted the mask, he spooked, snorted and started running backwards away from it.

He wore the darn thing for three days and now he's afraid of it?? That's Toby.

I resorted to bribery.  I got some horse treats from the feed room and a lead rope and went back out.  Tucker was in my face in an instant, so that piqued Toby's curiosity, and when he saw that Tucker got a treat he edged cautiously over, ever ready to flee the lead rope in case I actually wanted to catch him for a ride or something.  He snatched a treat and moved off.  I guess he liked it well enough because I was able to get my hand on his mane and then the lead rope around his neck while he ate the second morsel.  Suddenly the terrifying fly mask was no big deal at all and I had it fastened on him in a second. I gave him a third treat as a reward and that was that.

It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the mask tomorrow when I try to put it on again.

With Toby, I never quite know. *sigh*