The Pleasure is Mine!

Well it would seem that the Velcro monster has finally been vanquished!

I had intended this evening’s session to take place out on the yard, and take advantage of some wonderful advice I had been given regarding the incremental desensitisation of Faith’s belly area for the belly straps on her rug. However, my hubby who is currently suffering from Manflu has decided that laundry is in fact a form of therapy. He had strung up two lines of washing across the yard, which is unfortunately the only appropriate space we have available for washing lines. Also the load consisted mainly of my rather voluminous maternity pants, which appear to take up the vast majority of the airspace above the yard, therefore we were confined to the stable.

So I decided to carry on where I left off with last night’s training session, and keep going with the Velcro. Well joy of joys, within a few minutes I could rip the whole strip with it laid across her chest, from both sides, while she nonchalantly rested a hind leg. Fabulous!

Once again, I came away walking on air. There is nothing like the feeling that you and the horse are working together on something, both listening to each other, and responding to each other with equal consideration. I cannot describe the joy and excitement that this training is giving to me. If I can get this excited over desensitising to Velcro, then frankly the future looks wonderful. Faith is undergoing the most incredible change, from a highly reactive horse, to a horse with an ‘all is well’ sense of calmness. I just can’t get over how the simple, mundane, everyday stuff that we are doing is just revealing and yielding so much, and the sense of real communication is just wonderful. I just love, love, love everything that we are doing, no frustration, no arguments, no fear, just communication, and the knowledge that your horse is working with you because they choose to, not because they have to. It is liberating and exhilarating.