Fancy had a group lesson yesterday in the low 80 degree heat. She had to rest and run for an hour. To get her to the group lesson, we have to travel about 40 minutes, including a dusty gravel road. After the lesson was over, we had a short argument about her loading in the trailer. One always wonders if they want to stay at the site or just what is going on in the horse brain.
So today, why did my left brain extrovert run away from the barn when she heard me opening and closing the trailer door? She ran into the far off part of the pasture. She left her herd. Does she not want to spend another hour of running and rest group lesson with me? Did she think she was going to get into the trailer and go for another group lesson.
The answer is I’ve lost the bond, temporarily. I have a plan for this evening. I will trick her with food to catch her. Then we will play online and at liberty in the round pen where she will be thanked and loved each time she does something I ask. My thanks and release will be real. My body will send nonverbal waves of love. I’ll put the saddle on her and probably won’t ride. I predict she will love me greatly by the time the sun goes down. Stay tuned!
Late afternoon. I tricked her and got her halter on and we went into the round pen.
Oh my! We had quite a liberty session. Ms. World Domination and me had quite a time. I did a lot of loving, sitting, letting her stand still and get her breath. We did a figure 8 online and then at liberty with her taking off at a canter during our attempts. In the beginning, she stuck out her tail which meant she was upset. She galloped around the round pen quite a while with a direction changes at my body language command. She galloped about a mile!
Everyone now and then I got her to come into me and stop. We rested. It was so exciting I didn’t even notice her flying lead changes when she changed directions.
I need to do this much more often. Why she was so upset, I don’t know. I’ll observe my body language next time instead of being in awe of how gorgeous she is at a full bore gallop and how to get the best change of direction. She had a workout in the round pen.
I did fool her and had put on her saddle. I needed her to wear my phone to track her distance for the Tevis Cup Virtual Ride.
The Parelli Level 4 Liberty audition contains a mandatory load into the trailer at liberty. I have long berated myself at not spending the time with her to find the trailer as a sweet spot instead of shutting her in with feed before she would unload herself. The unthinkable happened. As we were playing at liberty, her herd mates left the barn and went to the other side of the pasture. Perhaps this might have been why she was so upset during our liberty galloping. And now I expected her to load into a trailer and stay inside while her herd mates were in the other side of the pasture. This is unthinkable.
I sat in my chair and proceeded to send her into the trailer. She proceeded to immediately unload herself. She got the rope around her leg and I let go of the rope. I thought she might gallop out of the property trying to find her herd. I managed to prevent that horrid happening and instead, she went into the barn where I was able to reattach myself to her rope. Back to trailer loading. Then she got her foot wrapped again. I didn’t let go. She put so much pressure on the rope that I was unable to get out of my chair. At that time she was directly behind me, which kept me in the chair. I managed to get out of that situation and returned to trailer loading and unloading. I thought I had won and she found her sweet spot when she stayed still in the trailer for nearly a thirty seconds. Upon glancing into the trailer, I discovered a pile of manure. Whoops! This was not a sweet spot, but another kind of “unloading”.
With about 25 more trailer unloadings, she never stayed facing the front where I had her feed. But she turned around and did not unload herself. I managed to get out of the chair and lead her out of the trailer. I decided this was a good ending for the Queen of Drama. I let her get inside the pasture with her staying a distance behind me and not eating grass, which takes a goodly amount of natural horsemanship knowledge. It’s a good thing that I’m taking the time it takes and think we had an even draw maybe with me being on the 56% leader most of the time.
Good Lordy. I’m thankful to be trying to perform the Level 4 Liberty tasks! It’s forcing me to develop this wondrous mare into the best possible partner!
PS: I no longer thing Fancy ran away from me. She ran away from the herd leader, Delta.
