Tonight, I got the salve out. I feed the three and locked the corral. I have plans for tonight.
I got into the stall with Sue and doctored her tail and some minor rain rot spots on her rear. I don’t know why her tail isn’t itchy. Those spots where the skin came off surely itched at one time…but she still has a thick black tail. Sue appreciated me working with her tail. More big brownie points for me. I asked her if she is enjoying her new home. She answered, “very much!”
I shut the other horses into stalls. I got Sue out of her stall and she sort of ran from me. Just my plan. We played the circle game at liberty. Her responsibility was to keep going the same way at a speed other than a walk until she turned and faced me.
She wasn’t too hysterical. It probably only took 4 turns around the corral until her ear twitched toward me. I bent from the waist and focused on her hind quarters. Her forequarters turned to me and stopped. I held out the yummy peppermint treat and she started walking towards me.
I regard this as monumental.
I rubbed and loved on her quite a bit.
Then we played throw the rope over Sue’s back. No problem until I gave it a bit of body language. eeek! She flinched and moved, but didn’t run away. We eeked and flinched some more. It probably took less than 7 “eeks” for her to stand still with no flinching. Then I went to the other side where she did not flinch or eeek at all….more peppermint and more loving. We played the porcupine with our forequarters and she has improved tremendously.
Instead of a stone building, she has become a sapling tree. She’s still unmoving, but it doesn’t take too much to push her over.
We played the porcupine with the hind quarters and she stepped across much sooner tonight than she did last night.
We ended our games with the circle game going the other way.
Did I mention that all this is at liberty?!
It didn’t take much more than 5 trips around the paddock. She turned towards me when I asked and walked to me and with me to the edge of the circle.
End of quite a successful evening….