Monday, February 1, 2010

Monday Goals

Last week:
1) lost 2 more pounds. Nope! Not even close. We all have these weeks :)
2) start How to Get Along with Difficult People. I am a people pleaser and I am trying to be more assertive. I find it hard to stand up for my rights and not let others control me. So hopefully I will get some tips. Great book, but more on that later.
3) ground drive Ike 4 times this week. It is cold out there darn it, but I am trying. Three times! It got cold a few days and I got lazy a few other days.
4) come up with some ideas to help poor Kinsey. She is a tormented soul. Kinsey and I actually had a good week. I got to see her three times and we had some good play! She actually targeted a plastic bag, one of her fearful objects. I am finding that any new object scare Kinsey. Today it was a purple box. Okay a very large purple box that was in front of her stall and had not been in front of her stall before.

This week:
1) Get back on track with Weight Watchers.
2) This month I am ready to read: For the Good of the Horse by Mary Wanless. So for this week my goal is to read 1/4 of it.
3) Have driving lesson and drive Ike 4 times.
4) Get Kinsey to target reliably. She has few other things I am working on also.

Today:
I went out to see Kinsey. She was very happy to get out, except for seeing the aforementioned big purple tack box. Brave girl eventually targeted it, along with a plastic bag on it. That was much later.

First we did a little grooming and then headed to the indoor. Unfortunately that was occupied. Someone was getting a lesson and they were doing some small jumps, really didn't want to lunge in the middle of that. It was a nice day so we went for a walk around the hay field.

Kinsey is very well behaved on the lead, obviously taught to stay out of the human's space. I worry about how she was taught that though. She is very nervous if you are at her side or anywhere except for in front of her. I find these horses that must face you no matter what really annoying. I should be able to stand at my horse's side without her fearing that I am going to hit her in the butt with a rope ya know?

Anyway, we walked and talked. Had a good conversation too. Down along the road Kinsey startled. Ears pricked, didn't pull on me though, I will give her that. I think if I was on top we would have been half way across the field in the blink of an eye though. I looked across the road and saw nothing. We walked on. Kinsey was very good about walking on. As she kept her eyes across the road, I kept my eyes on, her waiting for her to relax. She did and as I was telling her how silly she was, I saw what she had seen. Two coyotes running through the field. On long legs, galloping silently over the snow and into the woods beyond.

It was a beautiful sight.

1 comment:

  1. Very cool story about the coyotes. If you pay attention horses can show you some pretty awesome things like when Chrome showed me a six point buck walking across my neighbor's yard that I would have otherwise missed.

    I was thinking about the facing you thing that Kinsey does. You could try clicker training to help resolve that. Just touch her face, click treat, touch her neck, click treat, touch her shoulder, click treat, just slowly work your way back and eventually around her. Then you can do it in different places and maybe even walking. Let us know how it does if you decide to try it.

    Good job on your goals. I think you did great!

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