25/01/2023
🔹Session 1🔹
Last spring I started to work with an Irish, sensitive and high in energy mare and her nice and gentle owner. They had come a long way in their relationship but they still had some issues to work with. The horse is a clever girl but spooky and unfocused sometimes and demands 100% perfection in body language, to dare to trust fully and relax. She's a great teacher in that way. Also she didn't like to be alone, without her herd and showed anxiety when leaving her friends. Therefore it's important for her that her human is calm but also confident and present.
The mare had most probably never been loaded in a horse trailer before, only in a horse truck, which made her ask questions when trying to load in a much smaller space, as she liked to be in control of everything around her. If she got in by force, after hours of trying, she blasted out again.
So we started from the basics, no force, stress or violence. First session we did a Join-up and schooling in the dually halter and some leading exercises, walk, stop, back up and turn, to help her get synchronized with the handler.
That was enough for the first day. It's important to look at the horse and make sure we finish on a positive note before the horse is tired, mentally or physically.
To be continued...