We took Sunday off and did not do any horse training or ground work, it was a nice lazy day we do not get to experience enough. Today is Monday and I was able to get an hour and a half in working with Megan this morning and I think I may now know why she acts up when we were working with her feet.
Megan is starting to come around and just started figuring out that she does not need to run when we go to the pasture to catch her. Last week we had to make both horses run the length of the pasture 4 or 5 times until Megan was willing to stand so we could catch her or Fiona. Today, I went to the pasture and was able to walk right up to her after only one pass in the pasture, then was able to put a halter on her.
I worked with Megan through our everyday standard exercises of lead-rope and whip desensitizing, yielding the hindquarters, and forequarters, lateral flexing, lifting and cleaning all four hooves then continued with sending and side pass-circle lunge exercises. It was a pretty full morning just doing that amount of work with her.
We were all done with the exercises and Megan came to the barn where I put fly spray and her fly mask on her, all this without incident. That is where I found where another big issue lies. She was tied but could pull away pretty easily without force. I walked to her side and approached her hind quarters, like I was going to pick up her hind feet and Megan freaked out pivoting away while snorting and pulling her head into the air. I took her away and into the corral where she could settle down but she was pulling/rearing and very reactive to the situation. I was able to calm her pretty fast once we were able to get away from the barn/stall area where I worked with her a little more, reinforcing good behavior not reactive flight response. We went back to the tack area where I did another little experiment with her tied up very lightly and did the same approach to her hind end. It was not as bad but still very reactive to my presence to her side while she was tied off.
With my experience of animals and humans, my best guess to what provoked her response is, when she was young Megan was either hard tied or cross tied in a stall or working are where she was approached by the farrier where she was possibly put into a situation where all she knew was to react violently. I do not know if anyone got hurt but I do know she is able to rear all the way up on her hind legs and strike, she will also totally sacrifice everything and rearing up to the point of flipping completely over onto her back to get away if in a situation persists. I truly think that is why she is reactive to confined spaces and pressure, like stalls or trailers and pressure on her lead rope.
Tomorrow we will continue to work with Megan where we hope to get through some of her flight barriers and get complete control of her feet where we can then obtain her total trust and respect on the ground. Once that happens, we will be ready to "Ride Sally Ride" Enjoy!
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