Brumby Diaries

Actress Diary #13

2008-07-14T17:23:00.001+10:00

Monday July 14th 2008

Well, starting tomorrow school holidays are officially over! That means early mornings and rushed showers for Melissa! I’m starting to get a bit concerned about getting a job, and having to start in the early afternoon, therefore meaning that I won’t be able to feed Actress or do an evening session with her – so that’s kinda annoying, but on one of my online applications I added “I would preferably like to start my shifts around 4:30-5:00 as I have duties at home” or something along those lines. I doubt any one will employ someone as fussy as me!

Anyway, I’ll update you on the last two days because they’ve been somewhat productive. Firstly, yesterday morning Actress neighed to me! She’s never neighed at me before and I took it as a big step forward in our relationship. It sounded like “Oh there you are! How are you? It’s good to see you again” So I felt very special and made lots of baby noises towards her (you know like “owwh yooh such a goowd wittle babyeeee, yesh yooh are! Yesh yooh are!” haha)
Then in yesterdays evening session I bought out two white poles and stuck them in the ground. Yay obstacles! Well, Actress firstly was not leading fluently so that meant trying to achieve a large, figure eight wasn’t exactly going to work. She had a sniff at the poles and reluctantly walked in between them when I waved the feed bucket around trying to coax her through. We managed to go around one of the poles, but I wouldn’t say it was the exercise I was hoping to achieve, but it showed her something new.

This morning I wanted to attempt the poles again, but…she wasn’t as compliant. Really I can’t remember this morning very well, but it was some extra exposure for her. This afternoon I wanted to get her used to me standing beside her, because she’s used to seeing me front on. I started with the usual trying to pet her on the head and if she moved backwards I’d yield her hindquarters. Surprisingly, Actress wasn’t her usual wonderful self, or perhaps I was being more critical and yielding her when one foot moved back, but hey, you need to be! Then when she was quite happy with me standing there patting her, and keeping in mind the think principal the whole time, I tried just moving the angle my body was at when I was patting her so I was standing beside her head. A couple of times she moved back, but in the end she didn’t move so that was wonderful. I gave her plenty of thinking time and not wanting to push it I finished after the second or third time of her being ok as I moved my feet and let her finish her feed.

Really going well. I love her to bits too!

Actress diary #12: A special day.

2008-07-10T17:14:00.002+10:00

Thursday 10th of July 2008

Sorry for the recent lack of updates. My best friend came down to visit me so I was slightly preoccupied. But that didn’t mean Actress stopped learning, she was amazing these last few days, especially when she was quite comfortable having two people around.

But nothing can compare to the amazing session we just had.

I quite possibly have the most amazing horse in the world.

I wandered outside at around 4:30pm, the sun had set behind the trees but the sky was still bright blue, the wind however was icy cold. To begin with Actress was ignoring me, but only for a couple of seconds until she realised I had the yummy chaff and copra. She allowed me to pick up her lead quite soon and didn’t have a problem with me crouching down in front of her. I wanted to work on being able to pat her head without her moving backwards, of course, if she moved backwards she had to yield her hindquarters. I only had to yield her ONCE before she was more than happy to let me stroke her forehead. Do you realise how overjoyed I was? This beautiful little brumby did not care if I pet her. Of course, she is not perfect, and once or twice she moved a foot back, but generally she was perfect! It was so special to be standing there with her. I decided to see if she would lead around. But I was determined not to pull at her lead or anything forceful like that. I wanted Actress to lead around without pressure. And she did! Beautifully in fact! The lead was always kept slack, if I turned away from her completely had my head down, and my palm had to be facing upwards she would gladly step forward towards me and follow around, of course once we were wandering around I was allowed to move my head around and ‘look for danger’ as any good herd leader would do. It felt magical to have Actress following, either behind or next to me, no pressure at all. This truly was a special day and I feel I haven’t been able to capture how special this was to me, but it most certainly was the most amazing thing me and Actress have ever done. This little brumby is really starting to trust me and love me.

I have a theory. Yesterday my blood blister ‘disappeared’. I won’t explain how, but it was removed and I was more than overjoyed to have won that battle with the disgusting little thing. If you didn’t know, that blister arrived when Actress did. And is it not coincidental that the day after the blood blister disappears, me and Actress bond like we never have before? I think that signalled the new beginning, of a fantastic new partnership!

I have now had Actress for about 2 ½ weeks.

Actress in the fog early yesterday morning

Actress diary #11

2008-07-06T18:41:00.001+10:00

Sunday 6th of July 2008

Well the little miss had the lead rope around her neck for a couple of days, so I wasn’t able to do any work with her because she becomes very nervous. Thankfully this morning she managed to fix herself up, but I didn’t do any work (except for approach & follow) because she still seemed a bit nervy. Then this evening I went out again, HOPING I could do some lead work with her, but I was never able to get the lead. It was always underneath her, or at her hindquarters, or if I ever could grab it she would get startled and move off.
Basically, when it goes like this I don’t achieve anything I get a bit depressed. So hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to get the rope and achieve something.
The past couple of days though I’ve been hanging around her paddock a fair bit, and she’s quite content with me being there, but she never gets too close, but closer than before – so it’s nice to see her comfort zone increasing a lot.
Not much to report on, hopefully tomorrow will bring better news.

Just checked, she got her lead rope up around her head on Thursday night, and didn’t fix herself till Sunday morning. Oh dear, I hope she doesn’t revert backwards at all!

Actress diary #10 - wonderful morning

2008-07-03T17:10:00.000+10:00

(diary 10, day 12)

Thursday 3rd of July
Ahhh, so I didn’t write up an entry for yesterday. Doesn’t matter though, nothing too exciting happened. In the morning I believe I worked on some more yielding & head patting – which went well! And in the evening I worked on some leading, but then resulted in her running off….

Anyway! This morning however was WONDERFUL! She’s an amazing little horse this one. This morning, we led! There was no food involved AT ALL! She walked around pleasantly; she did stop a few times but gladly kept moving when I asked.
So of course, that makes me super happy! Still a long way to go yet to perfect patting her without her moving & leading confidently, but she’s doing well.

This afternoon however wasn’t exciting. The little miss rolled sometime during the day, and thus, the lead rope has ended up over her head. I no longer worry when this happens because she’s not a silly horse. But, when it has happened she won’t let me touch it, and therefore we cannot do any learning! Ah…so I just worked on her approaching me, which is still something that is of importance. If she approaches me that means, apparently, she’s accepting me as her herd leader. Well, I say we are nearly at the point where she believes I am her herd leader, still have a few kinks to get out first.

All and all, I’m really hoping I can start her to saddle in September. There’s still two whole months, so maybe towards the end of September. But I’m not putting money on it or anything; there is quite a lot of ground work we need to cover. So rethinking, it may be later. But we’ll work towards that eh?

Actress diary #9 - FANTASTIC DAY

2008-07-01T17:25:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 1st of July 2008

Oops, I didn’t write anything for yesterday! Eep…Ah it wasn’t that exciting anyway, in the morning just worked on her approaching and following me, and then in the evening I did some leading work.

My main dilemma is…
AM I BRIBING HER? WILL SHE EVER RESPOND TO ME WITHOUT THE FOOD?
Ahhh…
I know, I’m being completely irrational. I’ve had the poor horse for little over a week and I’m already expecting her to welcome me with open arms, with no feed.
Beeeep, wrong. This horse only follows if I have feed.
However, if we’re working on yielding the hindquarters/head patting, she does that fine without food.
Which that reminds me, I have to do that…I’ll do it tonight. It’s been a few days since I did it.

Anywho, yesterday I started to use the method of letting the horse THINK. After you complete an activity just let the horse think about it for awhile. I don’t know how well this worked, but it was nice just standing there with her.

This morning I just worked on her approaching me. She was quite flighty, so I didn’t want to push her, it was a wet and windy night.
I’ve decided tonight I will do some hindquarter work.
I’m also going to cut down on the amount of chaff I give her.
She doesn’t eat hay! *sigh*

She’s an interesting girl too…SHE PULLS FACES! How many horses actually smile at you? She does…Actress seems so submissive, like she has no personality. But then you get these times and she’s standing their SMILING! Or pulling funny faces! You probably all think I’m insane but she does! She also licks her bucket clean; gosh…she’s going to be obese by the end of spring!

And this morning, I went out a little later than usual and she was all “ha, nope….you had your chance to feed me at 7:15, not 7:45, I’m just going to stand right here and munch at this grass”

Ahhh, so cheeky!

Later on (5:15pm):

FANTASTIC LESSON! Wonderful! A really good step forward in our relationship and her education! Okay, I’ll go through tonight’s events:
Went out there with her food, only gave her half a scoop of chaff in hope that she’ll eat some of the hay I bought her. Actress at this point is ignoring me, “this lovely green grass tastes so much better than whatever you have in the bucket.” Eventually, Actress remembered how she is supposed to approach me, and did so accordingly. With one thing on my mind, and that was yielding, I wanted to grab the rope quickly into the lesson so she wouldn’t be eating all the food at this moment. Luckily, Actress kindly yielded her hindquarters without me asking, and let me pick up the rope. Yay! I put the bucket down out of her reach and set to work. I began by trying to pat her, of course, no dice, so of we go yielding the hindquarters. I’ve remembered to just walk slowly, and she will go slowly too J Then, tried again with patting her, of course, she steps back and I yield her. Then, when she finally lets me touch her without stepping backwards, I give her time to think. So there’s me trying to do some diaphragmatic breathing while she thinks. She was chewing, which is a sure sign of some relaxed brain activity or something, so I was happy. I patted her again and because she didn’t move back, I kept the patting short, and then let her think about what happened.
Hopefully what was going through her head was “Ohh, so if I move back I have to do circles, but if I stand still then I just get to keep standing, I get it!” Of course, Actress should already know this, but it doesn’t hurt to remind her.
So I was very happy, and Actress was very happy. By now it’s been about 20-30 minutes and the session should be finishing up so I go to grab the bucket, of course…its too far away and Actress just needs to step forward a couple of times for me to reach. So I’m clicking away at her and SHE LEADS! Yay, no food motivation or nothing! I’m always very happy when that happens, so immediately I grabbed the bucket and gave her a REWARD – THERE WAS NO BRIBERY! (there was no bribery this whole lesson!!!) Then, tried to get her to move forward again (without food) she doesn’t really want to, but as soon as she puts two feet forward, there’s the bucket REWARDING, NOT BRIBING! I did this once more and then let her have a good long feed. After she licked the bucket clean I let down the rope and walked off, and hey, there’s Actress following along, but then she realising I’m not holding her anymore, and decides to eat grass, ha, but she slowly follows after me in typical Actress fashion.

:D

2008-06-29T17:42:00.002+10:00

Week one: Overview

Well, what an exciting & eventful week this has been.
Here’s a small list of some things from this week:

-The float ride home, nerve wrecking.
-Facing up to me after she ran off the float, WONDERFUL!
-Confidently approaching me, yay.
-Leading around a bit, FANTASTIC.
-Running away, therefore getting the rope/s caught in all sorts of places, not so good…
-Getting eaten alive by Beau, not too good.
-Just being fantastic? Haha, lots of brownie points.
-PATTING ALL DOWN HER NECK! That felt so wonderful! Never did achieve that again though…
-Just standing there, no feed, just in a complete calm state, patting her head.
-How good it feels when she starts chewing from relaxation.
-And lots of other things!!

Really, it’s been fantastic and the biggest learning curve for me! And she’s getting so used to be already, she’s learning so fast. Imagine what she’ll be like at the end of…week 3? Who knows!

Actress Diary #8

2008-06-29T17:32:00.001+10:00

(It seems abit weird, this being #8 diary when its been 7 days...)

Sunday 29th of June 2008

Well, it’s officially been a week since I bought Actress home, I still can’t believe, I actually own a horse, I own a brumby, and I’m training it! Woaaah!
So I’ll start of with what I just did. So, went out with the evening feed, I’m going to start adding the copra meal to her diet (just for a bit of flavour?) But, now I’m thinking I won’t do that, I’ll add carrot first so when Haylee visits on July 7th Actress will hopefully be eating out of my hand.
Okay so anyway, Actress wanders over to me, as per usual. Which is great, but tonight’s a bit different, my little brother is on his motorbike, so she’s a bit distracted by the scary trail bike, yet, even when she’s run off a little because of it, she ALWAYS came back to me!! Yay!
And since she was a bit distracted and flighty because of the motorbike I decided to only work on achievable things, like approaching & following me. Which Actress is getting quite good at now.
She even follows me at the end of the session, empty bucket (she’s probably licked the bottom clean too) and I’m not too interested in her, I turn around and there she is, following me! Ha, oh well, good thing suppose.
And I managed to take the second lead off for her, she just let me grab it – good girl (: and calmly let me take it off, she didn’t even flinch, just stood their, calm look on her face, ears pricked forward! Not like yesterday, sticking her bum in my face and getting me all worried she’d hoon around all night!

Okay, so earlier on today I went out with the morning meal, my memory is really shocking, but we basically worked on just her approaching & following, nothing challenging, I didn’t try to take the lead off either.
And at around 10:30am she had her mid morning nap with Cheyenne. Basically, I just went out there to say hey, and Cheyenne trotted over too, I just stood their watching them interact with each other. I must say it’s amazing to watch, and so tender! And then Actress felt comfortable enough to go to sleep while I was around! Awwh! Not lying down of course, just standing, but still…that felt nice.

Actress Diary #7

2008-06-28T17:46:00.004+10:00

Saturday 28th of June 2008

Well, I’ve nearly had Actress for a whole week. And I suppose, its been very interesting for me. But I’ll do the weeks overview tomorrow.
Let’s move onto today. Well being a Saturday I had a lot of time on my hands. I went at like usual in the morning, however, I couldn’t grab her lead rope at all, and she was a bit apprehensive as well. So after this morning’s visit I felt like a bit of a failure, not achieving anything. But I know it’s not her fault, I mean, the lead rope was always underneath her so it was just hard. And after a certain amount of time she will just go away to the fence.
Also, she was very interested when I was picking up her manure. She didn’t run away at all, and tried to approach me a few times, although when she saw the big scary blue thing she decided she was better off eating grass.
I’m usually only out there twice a day, so I wanted to just hang around her, get Actress used to me.
And at one point Cheyenne’s “mum” Dana was standing at the fence (unexpectedly) so I chatted to her for awhile, while Actress hung around and did the whole “I’m walking over to you, oh wait you saw me, no I was just eating grass, not approaching you, ha!” routine.
Around this time was a really good learning period for her too, because there was a gay and his son next door lighting their big bon-fire, and then Dana and her two sisters and mother (and dog) where hanging around, as well as general passer-Byers.
In the afternoon I went for a walk, and it was very cute, because when Actress saw me walking up a hill near her paddock she trotted over (naww) and then on my way back she saw me and was all very interested.
So, when I went out to give her, her night time feed, I managed to do some leading – yes she was following the bucket, but that essentially meant she was following me, and then I attached the second lead rope to the other one just for some leverage.
I popped the bucket down, and wanted to work on just touching her head, but, alas Actress got spooked and ran off, I did try really hard to hold onto the rope, but with both of them sliding through my un-gloved hands, I couldn’t hold on. Leaving Actress with the long rope draped over her back and trailing on the ground.
She didn’t settle for awhile, and me being the worry wart I am got all panicky that something was going to go horribly wrong.
So I called Colleen, lovely Colleen (Victorian Brumby Association) and told her what happened. Colleen assured me that she would be fine, and if it snagged on something she would just stop because she is a smart, sensible horse.*
I really need to learn to relax, but I just don’t want anything to happen to Actress. Plus, she’s my first horse as well, so…I guess it comes with the territory.
So after I got off the phone from Colleen, I tried to approach Actress again but she wasn’t having any of it, she was fine though.
And perhaps having the lead on her back will help in the future when we want to start her.

*Note: All Brumbies are smart, sensible horses because they're just so wonderful! :)

And as you can se in the top right, there is a piccy of Actress I took today. She's such a dork sometimes, she's got her tongue out here, as you can see, she does that quite often! Haha. And you can see her 'lipstick' or the pink skin on her lip.

One step forward, one step back: Actress Diary #6

2008-06-27T19:03:00.001+10:00

Friday, 27th of June 2008

Discovery: Actress works better in the mornings.
Why: Probably, because she’s rested, refreshed, and abit lethargic. Obvious reasons really.
What happened: Well, I wasn’t planning on working on anything too serious, just the usual getting her to approach me (Which she is doing FANTASTICLY!) I was basically on the other side of the paddock to her (say, 80 metres away?) and she wandered all the way over. Anywho, so there’s little Actress eating away in her bucket, I’m patting her forhead, and then I’m patting between her ears, and before I know it, I’ve rubbed almost the full length of her neck! This was amazing, truly amazing, too be able to touch her somewhere other than her face, to run my fingers through her thick hair. Oh it was fantastic!

Later on today…

Dilemma: Lead rope is over her neck and hanging on the other side. If she steps on it when she walks her head is jolted in a twisting movement. Distressing for me and her!
What happened: Actress wasn’t too keen on approaching me, seemed very nervous, and Beau and Cheyenne were not helping by messing around and fighting.
How I attempted to fix this: Well, since I managed to pat her down the neck this morning, I’m sure she’ll be fine with my trying to get the rope off. No such luck, while doing the usual patting her on the forehead while she eats, she wasn’t even letting me do that!
Overall: Unsuccessful, I’m hoping she’ll go for a gallop and the lead will fly backwards and end up on the other side, chances of that happening? Not too sure…she does hoon around a fair bit. We will see how she is tomorrow morning.

Also got an email of Colleen today:

Hey there!

The blog looks great!

I have emailed Krystal to ask about the trick training day and will let youknow. I hope you can make it - when you're here, if you like, I can show youhow I normally teach the Brumbies to start with lungeing, which once Actressis feeling more confortable will be her next step.

I'm so glad she is leading for you - that is a big leap in trust. Wildhorses follow their herd leader, so the fact that she will go with you,speaks well for your relationship! It also goes to show how people specificthey are - particularly in the early stages - as she was leading quite wellfor me, she just needed to know that you were her herd leader too!

Talk soon,

Colleen

Actress Diary #5

2008-06-26T17:32:00.001+10:00

26th June 2008 (Thursday)

Well last night was incredibly windy, I feel sorry for little Actress, she doesn’t have much protection, but I’m sure she was fine.
However, I think battling the strong winds and me trying to push her too far yesterday say her not so compliant this morning.
Really, she didn’t do anything wrong, I was just finding it hard to grab the lead so essentially, we didn’t do much this morning except worked on her approaching me, which is always a good thing.
Still lovely however

Later on today…

SUCCESS! WE HAVE SUCCESS!
Lovely little Actress, she’s so fantastic!
So I went out to her paddock this afternoon, armed with a scoop of chaff and an extra lead rope – determined to do something productive.
And well, we did!
The main things we worked on today were leading & head patting.
I have the greatest urge to groom her, but I know I can’t…
Anywho, so with the leading, armed with the chaff, we commenced leading. If she stopped walking, she’d have pressure applied to the lead, and I would do clicking noises and show her the bucket, once she took a step forward, the pressure was released, clicking noises stopped and the bucket hidden.
What’s lovely however, is that when I do lead her around, the lead is so loose I might as well not be holding her.
Wonderful lesson today!
I love my baby.

Actress Diaries #1-4

2008-06-25T18:42:00.002+10:00

These entry features the first 4 diary entries I have written about Actress since the first full day of having her (Sunday the 22nd of June 2008).
Future posts won't contain multiple entries.

22nd June 2008

Well, yesterday we bought little Actress home! A very fluffy little black brumby! She was fine with the float ride home, checked up on her about half an hour into the trip and she was fine, the most tedious part of the ride home would have to be going through traffic lights! Then we got home, after a 3 hour drive, and getting her off the float was very scary for me, and for her…I untied her and fed her some chaff mixed with a bit of copra meal, she started to “spit” chunks of chaff back out, looked at me with the saddest face and made this soft, almost squealing noise that would be the equivalent of a small child, whilst crying going “owwh mummy my tummy really hurts”. This worried me so much! I nearly cried myself; I didn’t know what was wrong with her. Actress then began to jolt around in the float, and one thing I learned is that floats make the noise A LOT louder than the noise actually is. To cut the story short, Actress ran out the back of the float herself, leaving me with a blood blister (ew) but she’s fine. I tried to lead her through the paddock to her water, but alas…leading isn’t her strong point, so I focused on yielding her hindquarters for a couple of turns and then some head patting before just letting her go. Almost immediately her two neighbours Beau and Cheyenne were up at the fence incredibly interested in this little black thing! It was very cute watching them sniff and trot up and down the fence, Beau and Cheyenne were just so into her, they were like “wow, you’re like…new here and wow we just want to look at you”.I left her for the night with some hay and went to sleep.When I woke up this morning she was still at the fence with those two, but I found some evidence she’d been around the whole paddock.For our games this morning I approached her with a feed bucket and did some more head patting and hindquarter yielding, mainly head patting. I tried to lead her but this isn’t a strong point in the little pony (by now I had ditched the feed bucket under a tree) so I want back to some circles. I put her lead rope on the ground and said “now baby I’m just going to get the bucket” I went, picked it up and just stood about 12 feet away from her, and to my surprise she walked up and had a feed, I walked forward again and the same thing happened, I repeated this till I got to about the middle of the paddock, and introduced clicking noises so she kinda associated clicking with her walking towards me. Very happy with her, she’ll be great in a few weeks time. Will go play with her some more at lunchtime (8:42am currently) and some more at dinner, plus she’ll get a lot of visitors today!…later onWell, we had most of the family over today and poor little Actress, well maybe poor little me! I was so stressed out because everyone wanted to go see her and I know how scared she is and rarghh! I think she was tired and just really over people.But what was nice was when I put her hay out for the night and a salt lick and she didn’t run away; she came up to the hay, had a nibble and then licked her salt.I know she’ll improve greatly, and will enjoy me being at school this week (haha)

23rd June 2008 (Monday)

Well, I’m sure Actress will be happy today as I will be at school so she can just chill out and relax, plus I have deb practice which goes till 5:30 :( Which, isn’t that great because it means I don’t get to play with her this afternoon…Well yesterday, Actress went for a fantastic run. She’s so beautiful, and to just see those powerful little legs jet across the paddock, mane flying behind her…awww…She reminds me of a Morgan or a Friesian, the way she moves and looks, but a little one...who knows, maybe there’s some in her background? I doubt it, but it’s a nice thought.This morning it was so dark! I had to wait till 7:15 to go out and see her, when I did, she was lying down next to the fence with her two protectors standing over her, naww she looked so sweet. When I came back with the chaff, she gave Cheyenne a little nose kiss and then headed towards the bucket, we made a couple of frequent stops on our journey to her hay, but at one point (And I’ll remind you, I don’t have the lead when we do this) we walked quite a fair way without stopping, it was fantastic. She is an amazing little horse, she’ll improve quickly I can tell. I just sit and watch her, she’s fantastic. Later on today… (Night time)Well, my stress level is VERY high! I had deb practice this afternoon till 5:30pm, so when I got home it was practically pitch black & couldn’t go out to my baby, but she had plenty of hay, and her paddock has so much grass she’ll be fine! What my worry is, is 3 year old Cheyenne next door, leans on our fence to get to grass (and Actress) I haven’t seen the damage but mum seems pretty certain that the fence can break at anytime! This is horrible, firstly, how do we fix something like this? And secondly, I’ve seen those two in a paddock with a new comer, if they do break the fence, and get in with Actress, they can cause some serious damage to her… Also, Beau has been biting Actress…argh, I wish things could just be ‘perfect’.

Also got an email today of Colleen:
“Hi Melissa,I'm so glad that things are going well. Trust is such a big thing for thebrumbies - I know that Actress will settle in really well with you and startto trust you VERY soon! It sounds like she is already pretty close as you'recatching her etc! Sounds like she coped pretty well with the trip -I'm sorryyou got your blood blister though! Sounds painful!She's great at approaching you, isn't she? She always seems more comfortableif she comes up to me, than if I go up to her and I like to encourage themcoming up too!As you've discovered, food is a wonderful motivator, but don't use it allthe time - you need to know that when the food isn't there, she will stilldo things for you. It is a great tool for helping her to feel comfortableand provided for by you though!The pic is so beautiful - she does have amazing eyes, doesn't she?!Keep me in the loop!Colleen”

24th June 2008 (Tuesday)

Well this morning when I went out with the bucket of chaff, she started to walk towards me before I’d even stopped! That was wonderful, then I made her follow me a fair way before giving her a feed. Did some head patting which is always marvellous, then I tried it without the feed, ehhh…she wasn’t too happy with that, so I worked on yielding her hindquarters, and after a couple of goes she remembered to stand still, yay! Then I tried to work on leading her, I did it with the bucket, but applied pressure on the lead and hopefully that did something.Has to be short cause I’m running late today.Deb alterations at 4, atleast that won’t take too long.Ciao!Later on today (5:30pm)Well, when I got back from deb alterations at 4:40-50 I put some hay in a bucket, and Actress strolled over to me, then decided she didn’t want too, but then decided she did…but then, she decided she didn’t like hay and walked away! Hmph..So, I put two halfish scoops of chaff into her bucket and gathered her up again. I tried to introduce the ‘stick’ today, but alas…it is scary despite Colleen saying she’d already been rubbed down by one, ah well. Did some circles, did lots of head patting, I can now touch her all down the front of the face, but not the side, I tried three times but she didn’t appreciate my efforts. I noticed her attention wandering and decided she’s already had enough, let down the lead, and then decided to see if she would yield without the lead, naww precious girl did! Once, the second try she freaked out abit.Naww, she’s so precious, I think today nothing new was really learnt but I managed a couple of achievements.

25th June 2008 (Wednesday)

Well today…WE LED! Yaaaaay :D The morning started off with me doing the usual, getting the chaff…and little miss Actress wandered over to me, ah I love it when she does that. Then I decided we’d have a leading lesson today, so, with the feed bucket in front of me, and the horse behind we began to wander around the paddock. I never offered her the bucket unless she was refusing to walk, other than that; she generally couldn’t see the bucket. After about 15 minutes I thought that was enough, she’d lead all over the paddock in numerous directions. I popped her feed bucket down, and then had a little thought of, well lets see if you lead without the bucket, and she did! Oh so precious! Not for very long, she was probably sick of it.Later on today (lunchtime)Well, failed. Failed. Failed. But it doesn’t matter, I understand that she is probably restless because its soooo windy! And the sun has finally come out after many days, and of course, Cheyenne and Beau have been messing around and not setting a good example for her.I won’t go into details (its not that exciting anyway) but I’ll say, she only happily approaches you if theres chaff, not hay, and I started doing some yielding and she freaked and ran off, I tried to face her back to me but I just couldn’t, leaving me with a sore hand & ankle.Ahhh, well, two steps forward one step back right? Will just try again tonight to just have a pat, and standing there calmly.
Okay so I went out there, and ah, things didn't go to well...I definatly think the wind hasn't been helping. We'll try again tomorow...maybe I'm pushing her too far?