True to Satin's nature, she still wants to play! She's pathetically lame even on 2 grams of daily bute. I feel terrible for her and wish we had a deep pond or stream to swim in to give her some relief. She loves water and being able to just float would probably feel great to her right now. Her hocks are sticking and popping, her muscles are sore. Augh, I wish there was more I could do for her!
But she is still in excellent spirits! Yesterday I went to visit her in the pasture with intentions of giving her a bath. But I didn't have expectations - if she didn't want to come with me, I wasn't going to force her. Keeping that mindset before I even ventured to her pasture was KEY to staying positive. No expectations.
I approached her at the round bale. Satin is a food hog and nothing moves her away from her food, hence the numerous bite and kick marks across her body. She lifted her head when I approached, ears forward, but then dropped back down to continue eating. I stood in zone 2/3 and tapped her lightly in zone 4 with the end of the 12' line. Absolutely NO response. So I did it again... and again... and - she looked at me! So I turned away and hummed to myself.
She started eating again. So I tapped her once, then again... This time she moved her hind end away from me and faced me, asking "Yes????" I approached and rubbed her all over, letting her eat more hay. As I rubbed up towards her shoulder she turned and gave me her head. I haltered her (my new horse-size halter is very snug on her huge head) and asked her to come with me. She immediately left her hay and followed!
Yay! I was thrilled! Satin likes me more than hay (I hope)!
We walked slowly (she's very lame) up to the barn where I had all the bathing supplies ready. I hosed her down with warm water (it was a gorgeous 70 degrees outside!) and started suds-ing her up. She was not tied and kept walking in circles (out of boredom, not anxiety like Dancer does). I was getting annoyed (my usual first response to her "misbehaving"). I jerked her halter to get her to stand still - I felt frustrated that I "had" to resort to that, and then kept getting more frustrated. But then I stepped back and thought the situation through:
There is never a reason to get frustrated. Using PNH helps to avoid these moments. I am still learning. Satin is not the problem here, the "problem" is that I don't know how to respond to her behavior to get what I want while keeping us both happy. I realized that it's not Satin's fault that she's getting a bath - I'm the one who wanted to do this. She was bored and had energy to burn. So I dropped the hose and asked her to follow me down the driveway to some jumps. She was covered in suds, but that wasn't important!
We worked on the porcupine game and I was impressed at how responsive she was. Then we worked on Yo-Yo, and wouldn't you know, after 3 times she was backing at phase 1! That's my girl! We ran around (her limping) and she tossed her head playfully, stopping when I stopped, moving away from my energy. It was really a lot of fun and I realized she needed that.
When were done playing I finished her bath and she stood like a champ. Aw. See, she is a good girl and I should never have a reason to get frustrated with her!
She had manure crusted to her forhead and forlock and ear and the side of her face (obviously she must've used a pile of poo as a pillow), so we worked on approach & retreat to get her face scrubbed. One thing I love about Satin is she is not afraid of anything. She's not afraid of getting sprayed in the face, she just doesn't like it in her eyes. Working with her is more challenging because she already has the confidence and is trying to 'win' the game and get her way. But she was good and in the end allowed me to scrub and rinse her nasty head.
She cleans up well! She hasn't had a bath in, oh, 6 months at least. I don't like to strip the oils from their coats, but she was pig pen and needed her bi-yearly bath!
She's still getting picked on in the pasture, so I kept her out today. It's raining now so I may go play with her in the barn. Last time we backed in and out of the stalls and she really got into it.
Keep focused, don't get frustrated, remember 'how interesting' any behavior can be!
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