Tanya

Now that I have her in the round pen I can get her tired enough so she will start to change her way of thinking. She is not afraid of me she just doesn't understand why I'm chasing her. People up to this point in her life only come with food. She will let you pet her but it's on her term. Grain only works so far and I don't use it at all in my training for I feel it make a horse constantly push the boundaries of my space. Horse are all about space, it is how they speak to each other in their world of dominate or not. If a horse moves into your space and you move away the horse is dominate in it mind. I wont stand there and let a horse step on me but if it makes me move I will move that horse farther away than it made me move. It is important to stand your ground with a horse. With Tanya here she is not use to a person acting this way and it freaks her out. I have found this one simple thing is at the rout of most of people and horses communication problems. People are unaware they are letting there horse think it's dominate in it world of space. I enter the round pen and Tanya stand looking at me, I can walk up to her but she doesn't want me to touch her face. I can pet her neck but I need to be able to touch her face if I am going to get a halter on her. I spend the time here for she will need to learn this one thing before I move on. I let her leave if she wants and push her around the pen. She is used to this game and take off at a trot. She trot around the pen looking for a way out, I keep her moving and push her to the lope only letting her stand when I am in her space where she has to decide to stay or go. She is head strong and it take about thirty minutes before she will stand and let me pet her face. She still didn't want the halter on and would become wild eyed and bolt when I tried so I throw the rope at her letting it reach out and touch her while she ran and even while she faced up. I do this until she is not trying to bolt and will stand and let me throw this soft rope at her. She is funny, once she decided to let me pet her between the eyes she was over it. She is really one eye dominate and doesn't like me face on in her blind spot, always moving to her strong eye. I work both eyes until I can approach from both side and pet her face.
I need to get her out of my round pen and into a stall today. I put the halter on and ask her to step to one side and she did, then the other side and she did that too but I still can't get her to step forward. She stand her ground with her feet stretched out. she really doesn't like this pressure on her head and opens her mouth and stuck her tongue out, I try to get her feet to move by clucking and whacking her with the rope, she understands me pushing her but she is mad now. I wait a bit and she starts to think and plink again. Now when I ask her to move she leaves in a hurry and instead of me letting her go I pull back instead. I don't know what I was afraid of, she was in a round pen and couldn't go far and I was the one hitting her but I didn't think of that at the time and pull back harder. Well Tanya has had enough and takes off pulling me, the one thing I didn't want with this horse, was a tug a war and now I'm being pulled around the pen like a skier.
When a horse is in its fear mode they don't learn as well as in there more lay ed back mode but this filly is in fear mode. With horses you have to get to the heart of the matter she needs to learn this in fear mode and brought back to chill with me. I feel this is important in setting dominates, the reason for pushing her in the first place. Oh ya back to me being a dumb ass, there is no real hurry here, she can only go around in a circle so no need to get rope burned. I let her go out to the end of the line and let the panel hold her and let her run for a bit. when I see her starting to think about slowing I add pressure and pull her to me. With a few more drags across the pen and I have her stoping and facing me when I pull. I get up to her and pat her between the eyes she startles and leaves in a hurry but doesn't go far and turn and faces me. I walk up to her and pat her between the eyes again she plinks but stays with me. I wait until she relaxes but I still have to teach this mare to walk forward with a pull of the line to get her to the barn. I send her away then ask her to turn into me. If she gets nervous and leave I pull her around and make her go in the other direction. My focus here is to teach her about the pull and what I want from her so I will pull hard and make her go in the other direction. I want her to fight if shes going to so I can work her through it before tieing her for the first time. I lunge her until she will except me pushing her and leave at a walk, face up when I ask and let me pet her between the eyes. push up to the fear mode and back down to chill
Out of the round pen and into the barn. Well we got half way in and the shadow got her thinking that was as far as she was going today. I wait a bit but she was just fine where she was and wouldn't step forward, we still had side to side and back but no forward. I tied her to the stall door and go around back to help and yes she pull back. Now she is mad again and won't do anything but lean. I whack her a few times but it wasn't working. I walked away and got another horse out of it's stall to show her, horse do live in this black hole. When I got back she still look like she was leaning but there was slack in the rope now. When I asked her to step forward she did and went into the stall, I took off her halter and pet her between the eyes.