Day 2: Touching, Brushing, and Haltering

Lucy pleasantly surprised me today.  She was much calmer, as I expected she would be.  Yesterday was just her first day home, so the new sights, sounds, and smells freaked her out, and with her sister running around like a nut, she was a little frazzled.  But today she was very mellow and gentle.  She easily let me push her into a small work area (the middle of the closed off barn).  She seemed to enjoy being away from Aztec.  Poor girl.  Her sister is constantly pushing up beside her, trying to be as close as she can.  Lucy is definitely the more mature one. 

So after I got her in the work area, I began using my lunge stick to touch her back.  The pen is just big enough that Lucy can walk all the way around it with me still being able to keep the end of the stick touching her back.  That way she can't run completely away from the touch, but decide that if she stands still, the pressure goes away.  Which is exactly what happened.  I would place the stick on her back almost to her withers, and when Lucy stopped walking around, I removed the stick and I turned my back to her.  ((turning my back is like my turning my "flank" to her.  It lets the horse know that I am not pressuring her to stay away, but that she is free to move about or even come in to me.  It would be like a mare that has been keeping an unruly colt away from the herd in "time out".  The mare would keep her shoulders square on him and her eye on his, telling him that he is not allowed back in the group until he pays for his troubles.  Then, when the colt asks for permission to join back in, the mare would either pressure him again, or turn her flank to him, telling him that he can come back.))

After a few times of this, Lucy came up to my shoulder and nipped at my t-shirt.  Then I turned back around a rubbed her again with the stick, but this time I worked my hand up beside the stick.  That way she had what she had become comfortable with -- the touch of the stick-- and something new and potentially scary --the feel of my hand rubbing her.  Using the stick was comforting to her while I touched her with my hand, so I did that for a short bit, then I slowly took the stick away.  Lucy was very receptive to this. 

I did halter her after about twenty or so minutes of me walking circles around her rubbing.  I didn't ask anything of her, just that she let me touch the halter to her face a few times then actually put it on completely.  She took to that very well, so I left that alone.  And I brushed her.  Let me just tell you, the key to Lucy's heart is a brush.  For the first time to be brushed in her life, she seemed to love it!  She almost fell asleep letting me curry off the dried mud that was on her from pickup.  (:

Overall, I am very pleased with Lucy.  I'm looking forward to seeing what all she will give me when I ask her to start working. 

Here are a few pics from yesterday after pickup:

First touch <3

Playing with my friend's umbrella.