I guess you could say I have had a fun week. Aleythia got on Dash a few days ago. She moved around a lot more than Frosty did and when Aleythia was laying on her back I think she stayed on a little longer than Dash was ready for so she bucked. It didn't do any harm because all the buck does is push you upright and you land on your feet. We bought a headstall, so the next thing we need to do is measure for a couple of snaffle bits. I took the rope and desensitized Coffie and Toffy to pressure where the sinch would go. We will do the Jeffrey's method with Coffie and Toffy pretty soon here and then we will put saddles on them! Wohoo!
Then a couple days ago I went to the horses and was petting Ana and she just put her head down and I rubbed her with both my hands on either side of her neck, with her nose down by my knee. Then yesterday I went over there and Ana pinned her ears at me when I followed her because she walked away from me when I went to say hello. So I got after her for pinning her ears at me. This resulted in her kicking at me, and me being the kind of person I am-likely to get myself killed-was not in the safest position and her hoof got me right beneath my collar bone... Now before you freak out, I didn't even get a bruise. She was running away from me and I had enough time to notice she was going to kick to slow down a little bit, so I got very little of the force behind the kick... Lucky me... After that Aleythia offered to go get the whip, but it was all the way up in the barn, and I needed something now! There was this handy dandy stick just laying there in the alfalfa field so, I used it. She didn't kick after that. But that got Santana and Misstack running too. What can I say, they got in the way. Ana and Santana had their tails flagged and they were really running. Eventually they figured out that they could run into the paddock and when they were all in, I locked the gate and commenced my work in there. The end result-Ana was facing me and I went to say good job to Santana and Misstack and she rotated her back end away from me when I moved past her head, so that she was always facing me. So cool. Santana eventually learned to face me when he stopped and so did Misstack. I also taught all of them to move their hindquarters over when I approached. It's a work in progress, but they do understand a little bit. I'll just have to make it a priority.
Later Aleythia said that the reason Ana might respect me more than she respects Aleythia is because "your not afraid to get kicked." When Aleythia tried to chase Ana around she just trotted and didn't take her seriously. Ana was constantly looking away. Not with me. She cantered and she didn't look away. I wasn't even using the stick and I got that response out of her. Now don't be stupid like me and put yourself into a position to get kicked. It is a very bad idea. And I am pretty sure you will not like the results of that action. If it's avoidable, avoid it.
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