Today I took Voelie for a walk along the road and through the park alone, without her Shetland friend! I was feeling very positive and thought I would give it a try to take her out alone. Eventually she will have to learn this and it was nice weather so I decided to try this today. The first part of the road she walked very slowly, she was a bit insecure but she walked nicely. When we came to the park and the field next to it with other horses she got really bratty and started rearing up and I dont know how to call it but she tried to hit forwards with her front legs which was at one point quite dangerous. I vocally corrected her and tugged her halter to make her stop. She tried this a couple of times and I am not sure what she wanted to accomplish by doing this but I decided to stick to my plan and make her follow my plan and continue our walk. The last part was really positive. On the way back towards the field she wanted to go faster so we did lots of stops and everytime she went into trot I stopped her and had her back up a few steps. This worked very well and she was more relaxed when we came to the diveway. Here I let her graze a bit as reward and then she got her bowl of feed back in the field. It was a good experience for the first time. We were also lucky not to encounter any traffic so the circumstances were really good for a first trip outside alone!
Good news also on the 'new Curly horse' front. She has been vet checked and everything is ok so now we are looking at tranport so she can come to the Netherlands. I will post as soon as I have more details when she is coming.
Sounds like good practice for her to be away from other horses and trusting you. I like to make them work a little at the barn when I get back so they don't do that rushing home thing. They learn quick that rushing home is just going to mean more hard work so the take thier time. Kudos to you for getting her out!
ReplyDeleteGood for you and Voelie, but I can imagine it was a bit scary when she reared up, good you ended it an a positive way.
ReplyDeleteWauw how exciting about a new curly, spit it out :-) we want to know.....
Thanks for the tip: today I did make Voelie work more once we came back to the yard.
ReplyDeleteThe rearing up is indeed scary, she did it again today. I try to correct her but she has not stopped yet. See how she does tomorrow.
I will soon tell more about the new horse as soonb as I know when she is coming!