Day Four: First Ride // First Touch

Day Four: 

Session Six: 

Started with Mocha and had her haltered in five minutes. Moved right into friendly game—rubbing and itching, quickly feelih down her legs and tail, repeat. Untangled her mane with a metal comb, she stood perfectly still for about twenty minutes and got antsy. Moved, moved, moved until she settled down and I brushed her. 

Worked on going in, doubling the rope over and tossing it over her back, and marching in place. Worked on both sides until I could hop three times and quit. Her right side is getting better each session; she always tries to block me when I go to it. 

I introduced her to the milk crate, which after a few moments she was biting it and trying to pick it up. When it flipped over, she put her nose in it and pawed at it. Extreme LBE! More curiousity than fear. I worked with her to get the milk crate by her side and have her stand still while I stood on it. 

After a few times of hard disengagement, she stood still and I leaped halfway on her back onto my stomach. I rubbed, rubbed, and slipped off before she could move. I retreated to having my back to her while standing in front of her. She licked after a few minutes and I repeated it. 

Advancing to laying on her back, I rubbed rubbed rubbed, and took the 'green light' to swing my other leg down. I inched up her back and rubbed both of my legs on her sides. Sliding off, I  retreated in front of her and waited for her to lick. 

I got on and off half a dozen times. On the second to last, she walked off and I hd her walking a circle until she decided to stop, which was a very good fifteen minutes. No panic, no fear, just walking in a circle content as could be. After she stopped and planted her feet, I rubbed and got off. I got on again to reinforce that me getting on doesn't mean go go go, and that she needs to stand still. 

After I got off, I walked off and she promptly followed. She's such a fast learner. 

We worked next on squeeze game and disengagement through the round pen's gate, trying to break the problem of her running back to Caramel and her stall. After three or four times, she disengaged with respect and didn't tear the lead out of my hand. 

Using "Leading with Confidence", after fifteen minutes I had her back in her stall. We (she mainly) walked in circles around until she could walk, and each time we'd progress. But when she would trot and not drop down a gait, we'd stay in the same spot. 

Once in her stall, she pranced around until she stood still to be unhaltered.  I rubbed her one more time and left. 

Session 1 with Caramel: 

Moved Caramel into the round pen for her first session. Let her have time to wind down, which she did extremely fast. I then went in and got her focus on me, working on disengaging her hindquarters. I got closer and closer with my arch, and began advancing into her personal bubble, and then retreated. 

No luck there. 

She sniffed the ground quite a bit and LAYED DOWN. I went to my knees and didn't focus on her. She rolled around and stood back up. She walked partially up to me, retreated back to the panels, walked to the rope, pretending to be  interested and came a step closer to me before retreating. 

I kept kneeling, not focusing on her and let her approach and retreat. At one point (this was a 20 minute thing) she can up behind me and almost nudged me. She walked back to the other side of the pen and rolled AGAIN, which was a shocker. She walked around, repeating the rope sniffing, taking a step towards me, and went back to the opposite corner.

She proceeded to LAY DOWN a third time and stay down. What a shocker for my first session with her. This leads to her being a LBI(Left Brain Introvert). A RBI would never do that, and she's shy and timid, leaving her to be introverted. 

After ten minutes, I stood and retreated to the rail opposite of her. She stayed down, eyeing me. After some approach and retreat, she rolled around and stood.

With my trainer's help(he got the telescoping carrot stick and used that), we got the first touch (reg/telescope carrot stick only) and quit on that note. With the hopes that she likes getting scratched, she'll allow us to go further tomorrow.

What a day!

Ride on,

Mb