Last Wednesday Melody finally came home. She arrived at around lunchtime and would not stop calling out from the truck. I brang Echo in and right away she jumped off the truck sniffed him and started walking around and sniffing. Echo was hauling on the lead rope to get near her so putting all my trust in him I let him go. He was absolutely beside himself with love in less then 10 seconds. He loves babies and I suppose now he has his wish. Kirby on the other hand isn't so nice and is constantly chasing her. She is very equine educated and seeing her interact with the boys is very interesting. She kept sniffing for another few seconds and then she started eating and that was the big drama of her arrival (NOT!). A few hours later she happily followed Echo into the paddock and that was the end to her big day.
After that I was on holiday for a few days so she was just settling into the paddock. When I got home on Monday I went straight up to the horses and starting pulling some branches off the trees to give to the boys. She thought that this exercise was rather odd and was not really interested at first. I took a small branch off the big one and handed Echo a branch and held out the other one for her. We both stretched as far as we could and she started happily munching on the branch and that was our first contact. That same afternoon we also touched noses for the first time.
Last night was Melody's first BBQ and hoof trimming exposure. As she seems to do with all things in life she took everything in her stride with curiosity and thought. She was very interested in watching the boys get their feet trimmed and took pride in trying to get a close enough to touch noses with the Chihuahua's (her first time around dogs). She barely flinched when the girls went screaming past her out of the shed. She thought it was rather odd when Echo came up to sniff her when he had people on his back. They sniffed and after he walked off she thought about it for a second thinking 'that was odd' and even did a little sideways movement with her head (have it on video) then continued eating.
Last night I worked with her off Echo and we followed each other around grazing here and there and just generally 'hanging out'. She sniffed my hand and I touched her lightly on the nose. Progress is moving very quickly and she is proving to be a very wonderful girl with a big future :)
