I changed my horses name from Oreo to Cookie. It seemed to roll off the tongue much better & I've never heard anyone say that's a stupid cookie! lol
I wouldn't realize just how smart this little Cookie would be until I found her in the hay shelter eating to her heart's content. Flustered I busied myself to fixing it as best as I could to prevent her from getting back in there. Mind you she's used to free eating & since she came home early I wasn't quite fully prepared so I bought what hay I could to get through until I could afford more, which would be 1 1/2 weeks. Well that wasn't settling well with her at all. She mowed down the back yard & I began leaving her in the front yard during the day to mow it down & to help with the hay situation.
So I had been battling this issue for 3 days now. I finally decided to put the rest of the hay in a shelter that has a door on it. Which I should have done to begin with! Duh me. Well some folks learn quickly & as you can see it takes me a time or 2 to get it right. That's alright though, for as much as I teach Cookie, she teaches me right back.
I put my make-shift gate back up across where the hay use to be, added a few tall benches in front of it. I'm sure this afternoon I'll find her in there yet again. I had even placed black landscape cloth across the opening & she decided it was no longer scary enough to keep her from getting her hay. lol
When I am able, I'll be putting a corral panel across that opening to thwart future hay stealing. I have to have somewhere dry & clean to store her hay & that's all I have at the moment. The big round bales won't fit through the door of the storage shed so I have to outsmart my smart little Cookie monster. lol I'm going to wrap the round bale with a fairly thick rope netting to slow her eating down some. I know even if I put a panel up across the hay shelter, she'll still find a way to get to it.
She is like me & we're matched pretty well. It takes her a few, sometimes several times to learn something, just like me, & if something just doesn't work, we both find another way of doing it. She's a huge treat hound & knows what rustling plastic means. It means a treat of some kind, be it apple, carrot or whatever. So I've been teaching her to come to me when I call her. It only works if there isn't something available to eat though. I found that out the other day while she was in the front yard. I actually had to walk out & get her.
She is quite the smart Cookie & I'm so glad I changed her name. It really fits her well. She's not only smart, but she can be sweet too.