Zoe mets...the ball

I bought a large beach ball for an upcoming event.  The horses might have to push a large ball around.  When I first looked at the ball on line it advertised it as 6 1/2 feet tall.  Awesome.  I bought it.  Blown up it's only a little over 4 feet tall.  I went back on line and looked.  Yes the large print advertising the ball said 6 1/2 feet and the small print at the bottom said blown up it was just over 4 feet tall.  Why would anyone want to know how tall it was not blown up?  Oh well.  It's big enough for the horses to push it around.

Today Zoe met the ball.  I used my portable compressor to finish blowing it up at the barn.  While I waited for the trail rides to leave I put the blown up ball in what we call the "fat pen" because it was slightly windy and I didn't want to scare any horses out in the yard with a "loose" ball.  Cheyenne, the horse next to the "fat pen" thought I put a monster in there.  She snorted and ran for the other end of her paddock.  Skippy and Zoe are across the isle from the "fat pen".  They just looked at the ball, walked towards it, hung their heads out of their fence, eyes questioning-"what's that".  Good first step.  When the trail riders left we hung out in the arena with the ball.  Zoe didn't mind it at all, put her nose on it, nuzzled it, looked like she might like to take a bite but instead licked it.  We made a chute out of some ground poles and practiced pushing it.  Sometimes she would push it with her nose and sometimes she would kick it.  She definitely wasn't afraid of it.  I think tomorrow morning I will try it while riding her.