One down...

Today we collected Asha and her foal (we're weaning the foal and halter training him for the owner as we were worried he may hurt himself in the paddock they were in if we just removed the mare) and things went exceptionally well.

We had a bit of song and dance from the foal to begin with, he pulled and pulled, and tried to get away and when that didn't work he lay down on the ground and looked at us as if to say "NOW what are you going to do?" But once he realised laying down wasn't going to make us go away he became quite ameniable. Funny little fellow, he's full of spunk but he's smart enough and learns fast.

He had a brief halter lesson on the way down to the float and followed his mother quite well. When it came to putting them onto the float we removed the partition so they'd have plenty of room and asked the foal to come up first. With the aid of a bum rope and lots of praise when he tried for us, he came on very quickly. Then we asked his mother to come on and she wasn't so sure, poor girl was nervous. But we gave her some time to think about it, kept her calm and then after 5 minutes with a light tap on the bottom she walked right in and stayed in! Such a good girl.

Both travelled like a dream and unloaded calmly at the other end. I was so pleased as we were expecting a right rodeo but both horses were very sensible about the whole thing.

We swung by the Vets and got Donna from Serpentine Vet Hospital to have a very good look at her shoulder and it was deemed that she is not in pain from it, and is using it quite well. Overall Donna was fairly happy about her general health and says with hoof, teeth care and good feeding she'll come along well.

She lifted her hooves up for a good look and had a look in her mouth and although unsure, Asha behaved very well and was much more relaxed about us handling her than she was at our initial attempt to make her comfy on Saturday.

Then we reloaded Asha (who went on even quicker this time) and made the haul to the foster home.

Asha is as I speak tucking heartily into a hay roll and has not lifted her head from it since she arrived!

Now we just have to collect Harmony, get her preg tested and on to her foster home tomorrow. I do hope she is as cooperative as the sweet Asha!