toy shopping

The weather continues to be cold. Frigid even. Yesterday I managed to give Steele a quick groom before my fingers froze. He quite enjoyed it (as always). Irish stayed up at the top of his field and wouldn't come down so he didn't get a groom.

It's probably good that the nearest tack shop is 100km away. However, I was close to it for work so I took a quick jaunt. The nice thing about January is that the tack shop has stuff on sale. I got a great deal on a set of  protective boots for when I start lunging Steele this spring/summer. I also bought some toys.

One was a jolly ball. Here's a video of the horse's reaction:

Note who goes first to check it out.

I also bought a likit. I had a holder from years ago when I bought one for Irish when he was younger. He really didn't like it so I hardly used it. I was sure that I still had the holder but despite a thorough search I couldn't find it anywhere. I looked on line and the cost of the holders was around $25!!! This seems rediculous for a plastic holder that probably costs a few cents to produce. So then I thought that maype I would suspend it on a rope like a (Himalayan salt lick). However, Ed asked me to show him what they looked like and in 10 minutes made this:

likit is on the right. the idea is that it keeps them busy but because it's
on a string it's not that easy to eat.

We brought the ladder into the stall so we could hang it from the rafters. While we're hanging it Steele sticks his head in and looks at us. He watched for a bit and then walked in to see what Ed was doing up the ladder. He seemed to be happy that we were there to provide entertainment. Ed got down off the ladder and without warning closed it up so it made this screeching metal noise. Steele danced in place and looked like he wanted to bolt out the stall doro to the aisle. 'whoaaaa' I breathed. He stopped dead and looked at me. And that was it. :)

I wasn't sure what he thought of it. Last night he seemed to be ignoring it. This morning it looked 'licked' and then today when I came back to let them out I heard this odd sound. I grabbed my ipod and used it to take a video:

The lengths I go to keep him amused. It will so much easier when he can be ridden. At least I hope so......