hooves

So Gwene does not like to give her feet so I asked Brother Twitchell for advice. He said to play with her feet, touch them all over including her legs (the friendly game) before asking her to give them. Then as soon as she gives in a little bit release the pressure. Then ask for more, make sure she relaxes before giving her back her foot. She has made such good progress. With her front left foot she gives it just by touching her fetlock. I have got lazy and for a while did not play with her feet. It has made a difference, as she is not as good as she was with her feet. I need to play with feet at least once everytime i work with her.

First Day

She is a dark bay with a white back sock and star. She lifts her head when nervous, then her ears then her eyes.  She likes to be rubbed in the middle of her forehead but nowhere else really. She dances/moves away if I try to come up on her sides. We mostly worked on the friendly game since she seemed so nervous. At first she really didn’t care that I was there, but near the end she realized I was better then no one. She never tried to run away and was usually willing to come into me, just as long as I wasn’t near her sides. She also prefers me to be on her left side. If I tried to be on her right she would move her head so I would be looking into her left eye. She is very aware of pressure on her sides. She is good at turning her hindquarters away and moves away from pressure- but maybe a little too well. I need to work on desensitization with her and gain her trust. She is not mean , but she is right brained. She doesn’t like to pick up her  feet especially the back ones. Once she would lift them she would kick until I had to let go. But I stuck with her until I could hold her foot without her kicking for about 5 to 10 seconds. I didn’t really get to clean them out since I was focusing on her letting me pick them up. She is curious and looks around. Sometimes she was really good and would walk next to me with her head down and seemed fairly relaxed. We did not do and driving game I led her around the arena to let her check things out. It seemed that she had not spent a lot of time in there, but she didn’t spook at all but was very aware of everything. She throws her head a lot when she is uncomfortable and backs away from even the slightest pressure. She does not try to run over me and stops when I stop.