Feb 08

Quiet night tonight...am too pooped to play! One interesting thing though of note. I take the feed out...mixing up the times so they don't rely on being fed at the same time every day. To start with once upon a time Star would charge me and be aggressive, almost saying "Hand over the food human and you won't get hurt". I started making changes and asking him to wait. This was met with disgust from him. Now I feed with savvy as I have been shown, I use my savvy string and create a "force field" around me and my feed, I use it like a helicopter over my head. This isn't scary for him but more makes him uncomfortable....I then get to mix feeds in the paddock, with him watching some way away. If he moves in for the big lunge like he used to I use the savvy string over my head to drive him away and when I am done I walk away without looking at him. I am told I am recreating the natural pecking order in the herd. I am showing ALPHA behaviour and therefore re-asserting my level in the herd as numero uno. Jazz is quite happy and got the gist of this straight away and waits happily for me to leave before she goes to her bowl. You know what though! I have two happier horses for it! I think I have only progressed like this as I have an insatiable appetite for learning, have immersed myself in this program as I am getting results and am driven by the passion of being the best human for my horses. I like distance learning and seeing the results and I am really looking forward to starting studying Level 2 Ground skills as I know with them will come Level 1 riding at some stage when he is ready. Finally...just remembered this. Played for some time last night, was putting his rug on afterwards, was a bit windy and a freak gust blew up and blew the rug over my head and his...now I didn't react, he just stood there and waited for me to get it off us. Now would a normal TB do this? I was amazed and so proud of him and at that point in time I knew that this is the best thing I could have found.