Hooray!! "Sharon's 'Shadow' "

I decided I DO want to get that lovely Tennessee Walking Horse I checked out this morning with Zoilo.  Her name is "Shadow" because Mike said she looked exactly like her mom so he named her Shadow. 

 

She does have some of the same "issues" that Duke has -- she has to be controlled to keep her from heading back to the barn when she gets near it.  (She moves sideways to get there, just as he does, so that will have to be dealt with.)  But she really does love being bathed and groomed, and she comes over when she sees you without you having to go chase her around.  I figured she would have to learn to run up to the barn for dinner whenever we show up out there, as Arthur did!  (Duke trains them to do that, that's for sure.)  But apparently that won't even be necessary.

Here she is being ridden by Mike, her owner.  He said you need to wear spurs, not because you have to use them, but just to show her that you have them and then she listens well.  She obviously did listen to him better than she did to Zoilo initially.  I'm sure that was the reason.

 

Here's Mike again riding Shadow.  He used to have access to the land next door, but then that house burned down and now the land is owned by someone else who no longer allows him to let his horses graze over there.  So he's selling Shadow since his wife doesn't ride her anymore anyway.  And then the small 3 acres he has will be more appropriate for his own MFT gelding.

When he fastens her to that post she just stands there quietly for as long as he leaves her there. 

She's very patient.

Here's  Zoilo testing out Shadow.

 

Shadow really is MUCH larger than any horse I've had before -- about 16 hands, but I don't care anymore.  I'll be able to mount using my mounting block and I can pretty much just slide down wherever I decide I'm done.  And for starters, I'll be riding her in a round pen so I'll be able to get off onto the fence there as I used to do over at Al's place. 

 

I wanted smaller horses before in case I had to get off for some reason out in the woods so that I would be able to get back on, but I am obviously not going to be out in the woods now anyway, so what the heck . . .  she looks wonderful to me.

 

 

As a comparison, here's Zoilo on Arthur -- sure is a huge size difference, isn't there!!

 

So anyway, I paid Mike half the cost and he agreed to keep her up there until around April 18 or 19 so that Mark will have time to get her paddock fixed up.  In fact, I'm hoping he and Jerry will be able to haul up those big red metal fences and replace the wire divider between her paddock and Arthur's just to be sure no one will go through that thing since it's not going to be electrified.  Anyway, Mike is going to bring her down here for me (and so he can see our place, too, I think).  That's great.  Really looking forward to getting her.  She seems like a real sweetheart.  She was born at his home and has never lived anywhere else, though, so I hope it doesn't take her too long to get used to living here with us instead.  Fingers crossed.

 

And then there's Gigi.  Sigh. 

 

I decided she needed to be able to come inside if necessary if I'm not at home to let her in, but when she would come onto the sleeping porch she would tear up the blankets on the bed and eat the rug so I didn't want her to be able to get in there anymore.  I thought about putting some sort of dog house out in the dog yard for her, but today I tried something else.  I put her smaller crate out there up against the dog door and stuck that heavy iron table behind it to keep it in place so she could only come into the crate and NOT the room.  Well, the first thing she did was climb in and take out the toys and things that I had in there for her.  If she takes out the bedding I guess I'll just bring it inside and she'll be stuck with laying on the hard floor.  But she does seem to love jumping in and out of there at the moment.  We'll see if that continues.

 

Her first check out of the crate on the porch --

No problem getting in there --

The first thing she did was turn around and head right back out -- just to see if she could.  ;-D

Yep . . . she definitely could!

Then she immediately began hauling her chew toys outside.

She REALLY loves those thing!  I thought she would probably carry it around everywhere with her.

But she just dumped it out on the ground and went back after the other chew toys.
Sigh.

Well, we'll see how things go.  If she likes to go in there and sleep while she's outside, I'll leave it there for a while and let the other dogs out through the cat porch.  If she just takes all the stuff out of the crate and goes back outside full time, I guess I'll bring it back in the house and lock the dog door again.  But we'll see what happens over the next week or so.

I did let Joey and Rocky out onto the porch today with Gigi inside that crate.  I hadn't been letting them get together yet.  Probably a good thing.  She wants to bite everyone and everything at the moment and that sure would NOT be a good thing to do with Joe!  And as it turned out, she was quiet about meeting Rocky,

but when she saw Joey she started to throw a fit and try to get out to either get with him -- or go after him.  No idea why . . . he was sitting quietly on the bed right next to me just looking at her with his tail wagging.  But when she started throwing a fit his ears went back and he looked a lot different. 

And within just a minute or two she was throwing herself against the side of the crate and even trying to push out through the top of it! 

I have been putting off letting them get together until she got big enough that they weren't likely to be able to hurt her.  But hey - maybe that was a mistake.  I think she's about big enough already that if they DO get together she might very well hurt THEM!   Wish I knew what to do about her.  

I have to admit that I've been thinking about using a lot of less-than-gentle  procedures . . . like getting her an electrical collar.  Or sending her over to the guard dog guy to work with her.  Or buying a prong collar for her.  Or even getting her a muzzle.  Good grief!  Those things should NOT be a consideration for a 3 1/2 month old puppy!  But I cannot control her!   And it apparently is NOT just her breed.  There is another female Cane Corso at the training classes and she is a wonderful, gentle giant -- NOTHING like Gigi.  Well, maybe I should check with her owner, too, and see if they had problems with her when she was very young.  (She's 6 or 8 months old now, I believe.)

Well, I guess I'll just try and live through the next week and a half until Mark gets home.  Maybe HE can deal with her somehow.   Or maybe I can have a talk privately with the instructor at that class and see if she can give me some advice that might actually work.   SOMETHING needs to get done, that's for sure.