Tuesday, March 17, 2009

So Bad

So tonight was Day 3! And Acacia is doing amazing! Tonight we worked more in the round pen, getting her to trust me and come to me... It's very easy and tempting to just grab her halter and force myself on her. Force her to stand while I touch her and she freaks out, but that accomplishes nothing. All she learns is that I am a dominant person that she doesn't want to be around.


So I wait and I round pen and I watch her body language as she watches mine. She stops and turns into me and I hold out my hand and she gives little horse sniffles on it, slowly making her way up my arm and finally to face. She is checking me out. She knows I'm OK. Now she stands and I can walk up to her head and hold out my hand and she knows she can stand and feel good. And she does, back leg cocked looking at me the whole, while I'm only a mere 4 inches away from her. I can touch her face all over and her halter and she's OK. And that is what I'm looking for.


You know when you train any horse you may take 5 steps forward and by the next day you may loose a step and be at 4. And that's not a problem, horses can only retain so much we try to cram at them...


Acacia is 80% there. 80% gentle enough for me to walk up to her without her moving, I can feel it. She can be touched all over her body with my "extendo arm" and she could care less... Every horse moves at their own pace however and Acacia is in a groove. She wants to know me and like me, but she battles with instinct. And that's OK too. Again, as much as I could easily lock her up in a stall or tie her and force her to take my presence, that is NOT a partnership and in the long will turn her sour towards me. Slow and steady wins the race...

5 comments:

  1. Hey, how did I miss this?

    Great job, TrainerX!!

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  2. I am really enjoying following your progress like this! Thanks for taking the time =)

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  3. Great progress, so nice to hear a slow and steady approach. Thanks for the log it's great! Another thankyou for taking the time out to give us this story. :)

    Slave to the Horse

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  4. I love mustangs! So there! The wild ones are sometimes a lot easier than the inbred screwed up show mutants trainers get stuck trying to fix. In the wild the dumb ones don't survive, and even though their conformation may be different than a specific breed standard it is almost always sound. Or they wouldn't survive. Great feet, too. They are used to proper leadership so adapt well to training, and seem to be less neurotic.

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