First Trim

Aspire has been doing really well the past few days minus a lot of herd bound behavior she's exhibiting anytime we rotate horses in the pen/pasture around her.

She quickly came around to the idea of letting me jump up and down next to her as if I'm going to mount and let me do jumping jacks next to her. She's starting to identify more clearly my neutral body language, my obnoxious but still means nothing body language (i.e., jumping jacks), and my 'attention please, we're doing something now' body language.

I trimmed her front feet by myself today. I've never done that before and I can see how it could build some pretty impressive hand muscles. Spy isn't quite good enough for me to trust putting her hoof between my knees (I don't like the idea of her rearranging my lady parts if she panicked) so I had to hold her hoof in one hand and operate the nippers in the other hand. Not the easiest thing, but doable. I decided to make this experience a big Friendly Game. I took her out to a nice grassy area and rubbed her all over, rubbed her legs, and then began by picking up her foot, holding it for a minute, putting it down. Then picking out her hoof and putting it down. Finally I prepared to take my first nip - which was admittedly more challenging than I anticipated. It took me about an hour, partially because I was still developing my one-handed nipping skills, and partially because I wanted her to not get worried and did a lot of rubbing her legs and letting her graze in between. I could tell when I got too focused on her foot that she could feel the pressure from me and began trying to wander away from me toward the other horses. It turned out to actually be really relaxing for both of us I think. She even did well with all the dogs and the goat running around her like crazy. She's really coming around nicely.

I'm trying to find a junk-y saddle to use to toss on her and let fall of, let her paw it, etc. I think she's pretty close to being ready to get all tacked up, she's even taking a rope in her mouth for my bridling simulations. I would like to put up the round pen before attempting to saddle her, that way in case something goes wrong she can't get away in a big arena with a saddle on if she freaks out and I can be there to be a leader for her and help bring her back and connect. I'd like to get someone to video or photograph for this day so look for pictures!

Also, our circles are going great - she's consistently able to maintain a walk on a circle unless she's already upset about something. A round pen again will really help with this so she doesn't try and pull out on the circle if she gets going fast and we can work on speed/emotional control and not yielding to the halter (and not dirt skiing) at the same time.