A little whicker

I got to spend unlimited time with BG this morning which is lovely, and the best advantage of using up holiday from work. She was waiting by the shelter for her breakfast and, having eaten, nodded peacefully over the shelter door whilst I gave her a thorough groom. She had a couple of times recently when she has retreated to the back of her stall to avoid having the lunge rein clipped on, but she has been better about this the last few weeks; I am insisting she has it on to be led out into the field whether she is being worked or not, just so she learns it doesn't always mean work.

Today I did lunge her though, well, in a sense. She is back to only lunging on the one rein, so I have set up some tyres and poles in a diamond shape in the hope that I can encourage her to lunge on her 'bad' rein again. The idea is I stand within the diamond and she learns to walk outside the obstacles. I then retreat to the centre of the diamond so she becomes independent and learns to lunge again. She got more independent, walking a couple of metres away from me a couple of times, but it is still a work in progress. On the other rein she was as good as gold.

The strangest thing was, when I went to take off her head collar afterwards, she gave a little whicker with her nostrils flaring slightly. She is not a very vocal horse. Occasionally in winter she will call out when we go up to feed her; she has a very deep voice. I have never known her whicker to us at any other time though. She stood for a while once I let her off too, letting me rub her all up around her ears, it was lovely.

On another note last night I stayed out of the way and sent my husband to put down her tea and put her headcollar on. He has done it a few times but always with me stood there too. I must admit, I felt very left out not being with her to see how she responded. Apparently she pulled back the first time he put it on her nose, but he did get it on her, which is great as neither is 100% confident about it.