Scary Things and "Snow"

It's been too cold and too wet to do much work with Kachina lately. There's mud everywhere, and puddles, and rain and wind; I haven't had the energy, nor the heart to tear her away from Fancy's warmth and her food.

Tuesday I did work on some desensitizing. I introduced Kachina's Bag O' Scary Things -- a shopping bag full of scary objects to get her used to. This week's bag was full of umbrellas, a lariat and a leather belt to make popping noises!

The umbrellas were, I figured, the scariest item, and the one it'd be most important to get her used to, so we started with that. She didn't care much for me opening and closing it around her, but she got used to it a lot faster than I had expected. Pretty soon I could open it all around and underneath her, rub her down with it (open and closed), hold it over her head and face, shake it around and over her, and let it sit on her back.

It was a very productive day; I learned that she's more comfortable with foreign objects than she is with sound. She did not like the sound of the leather popping, and it took her longer to get comfortable with it, and even then she wasn't completely relaxed. She also didn't mind the lariat, and she was ok with having it tightened behind her front legs like a cinch, but less ok with having it further back, where the back cinch would be. She didn't kick or buck, but she did try to run away from it, which is useful to know before I put a saddle on her.

I went out again yesterday, but it was even wetter and colder than the days before. So cold, in fact, that it had haled and tiny balls of ice did not melt. They clustered together in pockets and, for a second, I thought it had snowed. Since Kachina and Fancy were already snuggled together, eating and keeping warm, P and I spent most of the visit taking pictures:

The creek, which had only been a trickle of water the day before..

...Patches of hale on the side of the driveway...

...More hale (and Odin's tail)...

...Mushrooms popping up through the fallen leaves...

...The redwoods...

...And a handful of "snow."