Our Parelli Natural Horsemanship journey

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Getting the 'back'

Satin is still lame. The vet is scheduled to come out tomorrow afternoon. Even if she has a simple abscess in the front, I hope we'll find out what's going on in her back legs.

Needless to say, we took it easy again. No trotting. Just yielding to pressure for the porcupine game and learning to back up. Satin has a very lazy personality, but I know she can have energy when she wants to. Today she was made of molasses and her hooves were filled with lead. Her responses are sooo slow. I can't decide if I should be asking for quicker responses or if I should wait until she starts to get the basics. I'm conflicted because I want to be angry with her that she's so bored with me and responds with such laziness, but I catch myself and ask, "Why be angry? What will that accomplish?" So I take a deep breath and keep on going, one step at a time.

Maybe to help with my impatience I should set some short term goals, but without having expectations. Something like this:
Goal:
After 5 play sessions, hope that she's responding at phase 1 at least 50% of the time.

I may be expecting too much from Satin. Maybe I go out there hoping she'll do back flips just to make me happy. I'm trying to be satisfied just with the fact that we're spending quality time together whether or not we are accomplishing anything. But I so badly want to excel! I want her to get into shape and move off my pressure and be a happy horse! Hah! I guess I need to manage my eagerness.

My new motto should be "We'll get somewhere, at some point." And just enjoy the ride!

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