Slow.....Down.....

My sessions with the girls have been really good...they both connect to me and learn very, very quickly. Because they are both so introverted, I really have to slow things down and not overwhelm them with too much...the last thing I want is for either one of them to shut down, which is very possible with their horsenality type.

I got Sierra's front feet trimmed. She was okay with her right one, but her left one she would rip out of my hand. So, I worked on that by putting the rope around her leg and releasing when she holds it nicely. That seemed to work, because the next day I went out and got that foot trimmed like it was nothing. She is definitely RBI, once she knows that you have the patience for her and slow things down and you know what you're doing, she is all good.

Spirit is doing well also. Being untrained she has a lot of curiosity and forgives quickly. I have to keep my sessions short with her sometimes, when she is licking her lips a lot and having a lot of 'breakthroughs'. I really don't want her shutting down.

I will probably need to do a few sessions with them while they are together, in their pen. They have been running from me when I go to catch one of them, which I figured would work itself out since our sessions have been going so well. But then I realized I need to work with them together because they feed off of each other's energy, and they're so used to hiding behind one another or just running away from things together (being in a herd/no human leadership for so long); I need them to both look to me for leadership, not just in our herd of two, but the three of us.

So, I caught each one individually and gently pushed the other away so that they would look to me and feed off my energy. It definitely took a LOT of patience and lowering my energy; I had to remember not to get frustrated with them, they are just doing what they know! Their psychology is the complete opposite of humans and we have to remember that in order to be effective with them.

That worked well. Spirit calmed down after I led her around a bit and then did lots of friendly with the rope. Although I'm not close to riding her yet, I have to remember that all this work on the front end is going to help me have much better riding sessions with her. I can't be looking at the calendar, I need to take the time it takes. And slow down some more, even when it seems I'm going too slow :)

I worked with Spirit's front feet, again using the rope and just asking her to lift her leg and then releasing when she calmly did that. She scoots backwards when I ask for her foot, so we will be working on that. We ended on a good note, working with both feet. She had her head down, eyes slowly blinking, licking lips...that's when I ended.

Sierra I walked around and did friendly with until she started to calm down and not worry so much about Spirit. It will take some time, but I know we'll get there.