The work Sharon did Friday definitely showed. Keno led around the mustang pen like a lady. The ground around the stable was again firm so out the pen gate we went and we walked all over the stable, through the barn, visiting horses and other creatures and we even stopped to watch the horseshoer at work. It was all a bit much for her to take in during the first 5 minutes or so, but she led like a champ and quickly relaxed and enjoyed the stimulation.

After lunch we did some more walking and I put her in the round corral for a while. Sharon came out and we thought we'd try to trim up her hinds with Sharon holding the line and giving click reinforcement. Two people around her at one time was wee a bit too much for her to cope with and we also discovered that her hind hooves were grown out at such angles that it was difficult for her to balance on only one rear foot.

Sharon suggested keeping her feet down, placing the nippers close to the ground and coming in from the side taking off only the worst of the flares for starters which I did. We got her evened out a little better, enough to work her in the round corral. She did great! Later we practiced picking up feet without any lead rope and she stood pretty well and I dressed up her fronts a little bit. We obviously need to work her with two or more people nearby so that she is desensitized to the crowd and we still have a lot of work to do on her hinds.

She did get pretty solid with us about approaching and touching her head so we were able to disconnect the drag line and we soon should be able to abandon keeping her in the halter altogether.

Followup work included haltering and more line work. She still needs desensitizing in several body areas. If we touch her daily she will accept contact around her legs, rump and underside. However if we give her a day's rest, she needs to be reintriduced to contact in those areas. This is a focus point for us this coming week. She did stand well for the vet and took her booster shot without any noteable difficulty.

We also are introducing different people to Keno so that she can become more trusting of humans as a species rather than just a couple of individuals. We will also be handling her up close with two or more humans which should help facilitate our using "click-assurance" when we want to handle those back legs.

Easter weekend brought gale force winds. I decided to work Keno in her house as it offered the most protection. She actually did pretty well. We learned about being quiet when tied to a pole on the Leader (bungee-like) tie and then I decided to attack those hind feet which were badly in need of a trim. I had her left hind up and was actually trimming it when I had to abort the project and take care of some things up at the house. Perhaps the wind would die down. It didn't.

About 3:00 I figured I needed to get some things done so I rounded up Patience and Nell for a turnout in the front pasture and went back to finish up with Keno.

Keno was having a bit tougher time with the noisier and gustier wind. Things were rattling and moving all over and a door had torn loose from a neighbor's cookhouse which was less than 100 ft. away and it would swing open and slam shut with a loud bang! I kept working with Keno but I could only get about one nip on her hind foot before she needed to put it down.

There are two parcels to the east of the ranch and the mustang pen is nearly against the east fence so it was quite an experience when the canvas boathouse in my northeasterly neighbor's back field literally took flight and landed on my southeasterly neighbor's barn. It made a helluva noise and Keno startled and started to pull back on her tie, but she didn't panic. Looking back toward our ranch I saw the barn cat's bed fly by and decided that trimming was out of the question so we just practiced picking up feet for a few minutes and I called it quits.

Sunday morning the wind wasn't a whole lot better. I went back and worked with Keno in the comfort of her shelter. She was still having difficulty picking up her hind feet and I thought it might have something to do with balance. (Her hinds are really overgrown, almost totally on the lateral sides so her feet and pasterns have a significant tilt to her center. She almost fell over on top of me a half dozen times when I asked her to pick up.) I worked with her for about 45 minutes and she would pick up on request, but I just wasn't getting any farther because she simply couldn't hold her foot up.

Later in the day the wind died down. Sharon came out and after we (mostly she) cleaned up a couple of our horses, I went back to Keno's pen. After a bit Sharon came over to watch and offered to come in to help. From her vantage point at the head, she was able to square Keno up and then swing her head around to the opposite side from where I was working. Lo and behold, with her head as a counter balance, Keno could raise her foot on command and hold it there!

After a couple of good "holds" I picked up the nippers and went to work. Sharon kept stuffing carrots in the front end so Keno would want to keep her head bent around, because as soon as she would straighten out, she'd need to put that foot back down. Once we figured out the deal, it didn't take too long to trim off what we needed for starters. I only trimmed the lateral walls and to keep her from getting sore tendons, I took perhaps a little more than half of what would eventually need to be removed. At least we know how to set her up to trim her and as her feet level out and her legs adjust to being in straight columns again, we'll probably need to use fewer counter balance tricks.