Positives: She did really well with turning. I'd put the lead rope around her butt and stand on the other side and pull, and she figured out that the easiest response was to go with the lead rope, rather than fight against it and knock herself over. We got to where we were turning full circles in the end.
Negatives: The horse doesn't have a "forward" button. I'd barely pick up on the rope to gently pull on it, and she'd throw everything in reverse. I'd stand slightly to the side to try and throw her weight off, and the same thing would happen. We had many rears, many "I'm throwing myself backwards!", and one rear ended with her in a sitting position. Her solution to any type of forward pull is exactly the opposite of what I want- no give at all. Unfortunately the feed cart started approaching, so I had to settle with the turning to the sides today.
All in all, she handled the attempts at leading better than I thought she would. There were no attempts at running away like with Katnip, no calls to mama. In fact, Gloria ignored her the whole time. I'm just glad that I was able to get her haltered today with no issues and that I was finally able to start working on this with her. We'll see what tomorrow brings!
All of that was well and good, but the highlight of my day was this:
 |
| I'm in your face!! |
Something that I have been surprised to learn from this whole experience is that you can think you're not making any progress, even for weeks, and then suddenly one day, BAM. They do a complete 180.
Kyle has always been so shy and afraid of us. It's a chore getting him even interested in walking up to me, and then I can only pet his nose when he does. If you go to touch anything else on him, he spooks and runs back to Mojo.
So imagine my surprise when he strode up to me this morning like, "Hey. Wanna pet me?" I was like, "Yes." And he let me scratch his head, his throat (a favorite of all foals, it seems), his neck... his back... his hind end... he was a whole new horse! I even held his chin for a moment to look at something on the bottom of it. I EVEN SLIPPED THE HALTER HALFWAY UP HIS NOSE. No spooking, no calling Mojo, nothing. He was fantastic. It was so gratifying to me to see him finally make this step I have been waiting and waiting for.
Not much to report in Glimmer news, except that her mama, who is also pretty stand-offish, has decided she likes me as well and would NOT leave me alone this morning. I had to shoo her off while I was messing with one of the babies. I did try the rope around Glimmer's neck, and she freaked out and got away, but, like I said, baby steps.
Prim is doing very well with her haltering and leading. She's super cute, and super sweet. I picked up all four feet yesterday without too much kicking to get away :)
Katnip comes home with my roommate tomorrow, so that will be fun. I can't wait to see the (suffering) expression on Chica's face when she sees the new baby.
Now, off to go play with these miniature schnauzer puppies someone just brought into my office until lunch!
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