not so scary. . .

Yesterday was a fantastic day at the barn! 

• I worked with Shyloh on introducing her to new things
• I became a klutz around Shy
• Robin rode Ryleigh for a long time!

I set up a mini obstacle course for Shyloh. We walked over poles. We walked through poles. (Through the poles was very scary at first!)

We walked around cones. I put cones on Shy. I dropped cones.

I showed her the big blue ball. I bounced the big blue ball. I touched Shy with the big blue ball. Shy was amazing! 

At first she was a little afraid, but I kept at it until she did not care. I hope that I am teaching her to trust me and she is learning that everything is not so scary!

I did some reading on desensitizing. Some things said a spooky horse is an unsafe horse and to get another horse. Some stuff said just keep trying new things all the time. Some said that a horse can never be desensitized to everything it would meet on a trail. So. . .I didn't know where to start or what to think! I did read one piece of advise that said if the owner was klutzy around the horse (dropping stuff, falling over, tripping, etc. . .) then the horse will think that the owner is always causing the spooky things and it is okay. This translates to the saddle, so when the horse encounters something spooky on the trail, they will think the owner did it and be okay. I started dropping grooming brushes while I was grooming Shy. At first, she jumped a little, but then it did not bother her at all! She even let me hold on to her ears after I worked with her a bit!

I really wanted to go back to the barn today to work on some more stuff, since we had so much success yesterday. But I am beginning to realize that there is simply not enough time in the day to do all the things I want/need to do. I have been sacrificing a lot of things to be with Mia, then Shyloh. And while I do not want to take time away from Shy, I think I have to get back to some other things that I have been neglecting in my life.