Today was not a very good day for Aztec, I'm very sorry to report. When I got down to work her, she decided that she didn't want to play today and continously ran away. Which was fine, at first, so I worked Lucy to start. But then when it came time for her to work, she avoided me like the plague. And she wasn't afraid. She was more diffiant. She knew (as well as she could) what I wanted: her to stand still and quiet like yesterday. She had other plans. When I moved her to the pen, she paced and pawed and called out to her friends and knocked over the salt tray and paced and pawed some more. I went to touch her with my lunge stick, trying to go back to something I thought she had mastered the day before, and she went back to pacing around. She never seemed afraid, but more like she just wasn't having me today.
I finally gave up on touching her this evening, figuring that it will eventually come with time and trust. So I moved her to the round pen that's connected to their living pen. And she went nuts. She ran around and pawed the panels and neighed to my other Mustang filly (Cheyenne 2011). Aztec is so much more herd oriented than Lucy is. So I tried to lunge her around and get her feet moving, thinking that she would come around like the other horses I've trained. The past three horses I've started from scratch, I've been able to move them out in a circle, then they ask to come in to me (which is them turning an ear to me, licking, then lowering their head almost to the ground). Yesterday, she was almost doing this. But not today. Oh no. She just ran. And ran. And ran. She would lower her head, as if asking to be released, but she never chewed or licked and never gave me an ear. I tried taking the pressure off her a few times with just her lowering her head, but she pawed at the gate, never even looking my way, like I wasn't there. And no amount of moving her out got her attention.
Finally my father came out, and we put her in a chute so I could at least halter her and have her managable (she's VERY pushy if you step in her way). It took me a few minutes to halter her even in the chute, but once I had it on, I let her walk out and she ran immediately over to Lucy as if she were telling on me. I'm hoping tomorrow will be easier. I plan on taking things back to the start, with trying to pet her and all that jazz before I try to work with leading. I'm really trying to find patience with her, remembering this is only the third day, that she will come around.
Much love! xx Shell
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