Cold Cold Go Away

I hate this time of year. The limbo between fall and winter fully starting. By 5:00pm it's usually mid to high 30's and if it wasn't for moving around and doing chores I'd be frozen. At least when it's snowing it's a little better and doesn't feel as cold. Speaking of snow, it was actually snowing today when I came into work... Only the second snow fall of the season so far which I think is a Michigan record.

After Friday's Echo training antics I've decided it's time to take a step back in her training. I knew the time would come. A horse can only handle a system overload of new training for so long. Great to know she's accepting of some things like saddle, bridle, etc but I still have no intention of trying to ride her until spring so those things can go away for awhile. Plus with her 10 day UTI break from training and 2 weeks off coming up over the holiday's she will have to mentally restart after the first of the year anyway. There's zero need to rush her and I'd rather take my time and get the horse I want under saddle. We've already come this far in 9 weeks and I'm not about to make training a frustrating, evil experience.

So we're going to go back to ground manners. Leading, taking walks around together and a bit of desensitization. She's gotten a lot better about being lead - walk when I walk, stop when I stop - still gets anxious and tries to keep walking but world of difference than she was 9 weeks ago. She doesn't rush in and out of her stall like she did, and she doesn't freak out coming out of the pasture at night. We still need to work on things like standing when we're stopped while leading, being tied to be groomed (and not breaking ropes and halters), more work on picking and holding all 4 hooves up so she's even better the next time the farrier visits. I have a load of things to still introduce to her to try and desensitize so we'll have plenty to do for the coming weeks!