On the Fence..

When I fed the horses this morning, I sat on the fence next to Brego. This was huge for him to let me do because he didn't trust people to do this before. He used to swing around and face them without thinking. I sat there for about 10 minutes just stroking and massaging his back. He moved a little away after the 10 minutes but he was still broadside.

How often do you just sit with your horse? Do you know what a powerful affect it can have on your relationship and how he thinks of you?

As People, we tend to get very direct lined in our thinking about our goals. We want to "get there and do it". Horses don't feel that way. They want their safety, comfort, food and play. Notice in that list it doesn't really have any of our goals. How can we make the Horse-Human relationship work, not only work, but the dream come true? We have to meet them where they are. We have to use their priorities to motivate and encourage them to become our partners. We want them to be Horseman, just like we want to. Not prisoners or prey animals.

Today I was able to use his motivations to my goals. My end goal for what I did was to be able to mount from the fence, I can mount from the fence on Cricket but with him I need it more. I sat on the fence, in his comfort and safety zone, in his turnout, and accomplished something that had used to make him frightened.

Win-win! Another way that Parelli has made my dreams with horses come true.

Priscilla