Hello Friends-
If you follow this blog, you are probably wondering how Karla and Mushka are getting along.
We had the normal issues horses have with deciding dominance. It should not be understood the same way as humans working out a relationship. Horses have their own way. It involves a pecking order that must be established.
Once this is decided (Karla is one up in the order) they then have to decide if they like each other. Karla and Mushka are getting along great.
I let this play out before I even tried hitching them up. Many a "Cowboy" or Amish person would have hitched them the first day. I'm not that brave.
My personal strategy is to do like the horses and work out my place as a kind leader. If you work with horses they should see you as someone they can trust and turn to for leadership.
After we established Tom as a friend and leader, we moved to getting harnessed up and finally hitched.
Mushka pushed her head through the collar when I held it in front of her, revealing she was not afraid of it and in fact, extremely comfortable with a collar.
We had a few snags along the way. The first struggle is that I know nothing about Mushka and her past experience. She seems kind and calm. I found out she hates to have fly spray near her head. Unfortunately, I got brave because she didn't seem to mind being spayed until I got near her head and she went ballistic. She hauled back and tried to break free of her tie rope. This is not a good sign! This caused me to lose confidence in her. What if she tries to haul back while in the harness with Karla?
In the end, everything has gone smoothly. Mushka does seem a little prone to haul back on her halter. This is an extremely bad habit for a horse and can be quite dangerous. When we were finally hitched to my flat sled, everything seemed calm. I will say, Mushka acted a little confused. My guess is that her experience is as a single horse pulling a cart. She did not panic or resist being hitched at all, but she did not seem comfortable with a wagon tongue. She did not show fear, just a little confused by it.
All in all, I'm satisfied. It's not the same without Karma, but we will have a lot of fun with Mushka.
