Jumping Beans!

Nothing much to report on the Faith front really. We are just following the same routine of grooming and picking up feet on the yard every evening.

Although Faith is definitely more relaxed, and less reactive than she was, one thing still bothers me. She will occasionally have the odd ‘startle’ which will be more or less dramatic depending on her mood. Most of the time I can’t tell what is causing it, although often it’s things like Tommy sneezing all over her (fair enough), or the cat doing something bizarre. I have no problem with this, as it is a natural part of being a flight animal, and I am not looking for some automaton that doesn’t react to it’s surroundings.

My problem is that when she jumps, I jump too! Now I am aware of the importance of being a ‘sea of calm’ around the horse, and I think in general, I manage this most of the time. But sometimes when Faith has a particularly dramatic startle, I end up having one too, and my heart nearly stops. Quite often I see the funny side of this and almost a split second later we are back to what we were doing. But I can’t help feeling that this is a bit crap on my part, and in some way I should train my reactions to be slightly duller. How exactly I would go about this, I have no idea, but all suggestions are most welcome!