Juggling

It's raining here again. I don't like playing with the horses in the rain. I wish I had some cover, but I don't. So everyone is getting a mini vacation.

On Monday I went out and pushed Sunny a bit harder than I have in the past. We're getting to that point, I believe, where she's just got to be made to do things. I spent some time talking with Tom Moore, a BLM volunteer who, along with his wife Vonni Halvorson, has fostered several horses in the adoption program. They had a big gray gelding at the adoption who'd had similar issues to Sunny, he only wanted to be handled from one side and not the other (and like Sunny, he prefered no handling at all.)

I'd been considering pushing Sunny a bit, but then I'd wondered if that was the best thing for her. Tom said that sometimes you get the point where pushing is the only way you're going to move foreward, because it becomes an issue of stubborness instead of fear. And while I do believe there's some reserve left in Sunny, I think we've reached the point together where she just needs to do what I tell her to do.

So...Monday I pushed. I didn't back off from her when we made one small step of progress; instead, I kept moving forward in an effort to get her to a point where I can get that old halter off and a new one on. Eventually we did a mock haltering; she was still wearing the old one, but I pulled the new one over her nose and up behind her ears. She's super protective of that nose of her's, so it was a big accomplishment.

With the rain comes limited time, and limited time means I need to juggle who's being worked with and how often. Quiet Storm will wait; she had a good weekend away with us, hanging out in a new location with a lot more horses than she's seen since last year. All that commotion was good for her. With her personality, she'll wait a while between training sessions. Jet is laid back and at this time, nothing more than a few minutes of scratching her face is needed.

Sunny remains the priority.