I made this on Photobucket earlier, and I thought I would share.Well, I will start with a couple of days ago. I went out with my book, got a chair, and started to read and see what would happen. I ended up spending half an hour sitting there reading and neither horse approached me... how interesting.
I went out yesterday evening with Mom and my intention was to brush him so I wouldn't have to wake up earlier on Saturday to brush him for Terrie's visit (and pray he wouldn't roll). I went out, and they were standing near the top gate. Mom decided to enter through the top gate, and I headed for the bottom gate. Both horses followed her all the way to the barn, until Charlotte turned and headed for the bottom gate. I was outside the gate, waiting for a horse to greet me before I came in. Charlotte, after about 10 minutes, came cantering down, and I gave her carrot and came in. She then walked up the hill to the barn and I stayed down near the gate and the waterer. I sat down, and my goal was to wait until Woody came to see me, then I'd give him his carrot and assess after that. However, he appeared to be intentionally "more than" ignoring me, but I found it quite humorous. I sat down there, and eventually I stood up and jumped around, making a bunch of commotion until Woody at the top of the hill, who was trying with all his power to ignore me, looked at me. I would stop, and then start again when he looked away. That tactic at that particular moment didn't seem to work too well, so I just sat. Mom decided to go back inside and the horses followed her down the hill. Finally, after 30 or 40 minutes of waiting, he came up to me with this intrigued look on his face. And, to make him even more interested, when he approached, I walked away. He followed me, and then I turned and gave him his carrot, I rubbed on him a bit, but I abandoned my grooming idea and threw hay.
This morning I learned Terrie woke up sick this morning, so instead of having a lesson, I went out and rubbed on him and sat in my chair again with a book. He was over on the other side of the pasture, so I went over with the halter and began walking around him again, and inadvertently heading toward his hindquarters, He would face up and then stop following me, so I went to his butt again until he was following me to the log. I sat down and we sat there for about 10 minutes just being with each other. He blew through his nose into mine for a long while, and then stood right there next to me. I then got up and haltered him and he willingly helped me put it on. I then took him back to my chair and I kept reading and he just hung out with me, ocassionally getting a white conversation heart (which he likes a lot now). He would keep coming into me and wanting to nibble on me, so I got to practice my Yo-yo Game which is getting better.
I recently read Mariah Helm's blog post about Fran, so I went to her page and read to original post. It was really amazing (way to go Fran!). It really was kind of a "kick in the stomach" moment because I realized that I have become SO focused on officially passingmy levels 1 and 2, and I think that is why Woody has been "dificult" lately. I became so task oriented and he sensed that. I need to remember "It's not about the _____, its about the RELATIONSHIP. I encourage all others who read this blog to go to
http://savvyup.blogspot.com/
and watch the video and read to post about putting the relationship first.
~Eden
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