Well, Lucy decided that she didn't like domestication, so she ran around for forty minutes without so much as glancing at me. I went out to work with her and her sister, and she was first in the round pen. The moment I set foot in the pen, she took off in mindless circles. She wouldn't stop. For anything. She ran so hard I thought she was going to hurt herself. I finally had to just open the door and let her out.
I don't know what I did wrong or where I messed up, but tomorrow I'm going to start her over. Go out there like she's never been touched before and work that way. Last night, we ended on what I thought was a good note. Obviously something I did incorrectly stuck with her and carried over to today. So my plan for her tomorrow morning is to do the same thing I did with Aztec yesterday: advance and retreat. We are going to add some baby steps in there to see if that is the issue.
I thought she could handle the work I've done with her. Obviously I was incorrect in this assumption. I guess she needed a few more steps in there to get her confidence up a bit more. But I'm not worried. She is (or seems) very intelligent, so she should be easy to figure out. I needed to take my own advice: don't worry about other people's progress. I kind of got worked up that other youth trainers are already so far ahead of us, that I forgot to stop and listen to what my horses are telling me. I wish I videoed my sessions with Lucy, because I'd be willing to bet myself that somewhere in there, ever so subtle, she was telling me she wasn't ready to move on. But I pushed her because I wasn't listening to her...
I just hope she forgiving. I'm still learning as well, so hopefully my girl won't hold that against me too much.
xx Shell
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