A bad day

Today was interesting, and the first time for a while that anything negative happened. Lucie was happy to come out but immediately showed me she was anxious, she needed to move her feet; so I abandoned the ideas of some videoing & we went out into the lane, her idea; but this had suddenly today become a scary place. The wind was from the south unusually, bringing strange noises from the valley, so maybe this was the problem. I tried to be calm & confident & reassuring; matching her energy & sympathising with her mood while watching for signs she was coming off the adrenalin; not trying to hold her or stop her. We had to go up & down a few times where she got particularly anxious. But with reassurance, and asking for her to follow me & tune into my body language (calm, confident leader) her head came down, she blew, relaxed her jaw & all looked well again. So I thought I’d just turn on the video. Maybe because my attention wandered, or she just saw grass & made a dive for it, but suddenly all the good manners were forgotten & I was just in her way. Hmmm… I backed her up a couple of steps & walked around, but the respect was gone. So we did some more turns & walking until I felt I had her back. I didn’t lose my cool but once or twice I had to defend my space, or counter her barging me by turning across her; she didn’t like it much but I made sure we ended well by doing a couple of things I know she is confident with, and we made our way back to the field. What happened next was interesting: I removed the halter and she stayed with me, usually she walks away. I sat down & she grazed around me. Then she came over & nuzzled me. Wow. So she accepted that I had corrected her in those dominance issues, and it had improved her attitude & our relationship rather than the opposite.