she loves me?

Shyloh's beginning with me was told at She Moved To Texas' Transformation Tuesday. Shy has overcome many fears that she came to me with, but we still have quite a ways to go. I am happy to say that we have not had a meltdown since that time driving over the summer. Just a couple minor bumps. . .like the soybean incident. 

She is kinda cute. . .

The bumps on our journey are more like Shy trying to get out of something, but she comes right back, no big deal. The meltdowns are something you can feel coming (I now know that) and after, Shy has a hard time coming down and relaxing. I hope those are behind us, but it would not surprise me to see a few crop up now and again.

But in the mean time, Shy is being super lovable and I am soaking it up! I have always been in awe of the people who could whistle and their horses would come galloping to them from the back of some pasture, nickering the whole way. Yeah. . .that was never Shy. It got to the point where she wouldn't run from me anymore, but I would have to walk every step right up to her. I am not holding my breath for a nicker, though. 

This was especially frustrating when Shy lived on 15 acres and she liked to hide in the woods. There were parts to that pasture I never even knew about! I would walk out like, where are all the horses? Then a near invisible path between two trees would open up into a whole new area of pasture. Horsey hide and seek. A couple other people had horses where they would call and the horses would run to the front of the pasture for them. Lucky.

Anyway, lately, Shy has taken a new interest in me. She has been looking up from whatever she is doing in the pasture to acknowledge my car arriving. If I take too long, she wanders to the fence line to see what is going on. Today, I pulled into the barn and Shy quickly walked up to the fence for me! I went out and loved on her a bit before I went into the house. Shy actually stood in the corner (one she never stands in!), staring at the house until I came out. Then she walked the fence to the gate. That really made my heart smile!

Taken from the house, Shy is waiting for me to come back out!

Other things she has been doing is looking up or walking to me when I call her name. She just down right ignored me until recently. I have not been doing anything different that I can think of. . .I think maybe, just maybe, that after two and a half years, Shy is finally coming around to me. I have heard that Haflingers, especially mares, can be hard to crack, but once you do, they are yours for life. Have we finally reached this point? This also brings up another new thing. . . minion chucking, but that's another story.