A very interesting morning; so Lucie welcomed me at the field and came towards me, that's quite something for her! Very promising so far. She stands while I open the fence, then I return to her side and lead her out. Once out of the gate however, she starts to get ahead of me, already thinking of eating grass. So I lead her on, throwing in some stops and back steps, until she's listening and respecting. We go towards the area I've fenced off at the top of the field. There are some log piles up there and today these were scary places. I led her quietly through them but she needed to get out of there, so much so that she rushed, threw in a few bucks and body shakes; but she didn't try to pull away. I let her have some room so as not to make her panic but stopped her with some energy in the rope so she turned to me. I remained calm and got her walking through the log piles, then took her for a walk so she could move her feet and de-stress. Halfway along the field another explosion; good to see she can be so athletic with a bad leg, but this is new behaviour and I'm not quite sure where it's come from. I didn't feel it was directed against me though. Somehow I quite like this in the sense that the more extreme her behavior the more calm I feel; this is something I am confident to deal with; where I have trouble is when she looks sweet and then bumps into me, where she is being too subtle for me.
So now I can see the build up to these tantrums and not let her go there; intervene calmly before the explosion. Act like a leader! The behaviour disappeared as we continued our walk. Once I felt her energy come down I made some turns to give her something to think about and got her to touch a few objects on the way and we came back quietly enough, with her by now nicely relaxed and in tune with me and responding to body signals.
We also spent some time in the fenced off area where she was so extreme last week. This time although calmer there was still some tension about certain areas up there. After walking round once, I sat down on a tyre and showed her she could graze. I wanted her to be comfortable in here and around the obstacles, because I seem to have created a resistance to doing things with obstacles, quite the opposite of what I intended. I think I have been too quick with my asking phases, not giving her enough time before insisting, making rather than allowing. I thought it would be fun to do some agility with obstacles, but I haven't been approaching it right for her. Been too direct line. Now I have to backtread and make these obstacles a comfort area before I can expect her to want to play with them. Make it her idea. Remove the pressure she feels and wait until the curiousity reurns. Lack of patience and not reading the horse. So I moved from object to object, not asking for anything except that she maintain a circle at the end of the rope, and not pull on it. I only moved if this happened and was very careful to bring my energy up gradually, so she could stop me by softening herself. Working very well. She appears not to be watching but she responds (subtly!) to the smallest ask, provided I bring my energy up gradually and don't "shout" at her.
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