The Journey RE-started

Have you ever heard the saying "There's a light at the end of the tunnel?"

Well, imagine that the tunnel I'm talking about is really long.

[caption id="attachment_278" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ooh, aren't they cute together!!"][/caption]

And I was trying to go through it. Well, my primary source of inspiration was that light at the end (and some friends, of course). That light was my hope. It kept me going: the notion that somewhere, somehow I was going to find "the one".

Well, I'm proud to say that I have now reached that light. And it has a name: Moose. . . . Yes, today is the day! Moose has arrived! And silly Dancer is in heat and won't let anyone near him. Hehe, she's being a cranky little mare. But I know she's happy, it's just that she's too arrogant to admit it.

And on the topic of Dancer, I have more good news!! Thanks to Heidi's advice about being too focused/intense, I have currently been able to catch her!! I tried circling in on her with the intention of brushing her. She let me stand near her in 5-8 minutes!! That's a great time considering that previously it would've taken me about a half hour, and then she would've just walked away right away anyways!! So, hopefully after a long regression, we're finally starting to get things rolling again. And I'm going to pray that I didn't just jinx myself ;). Hehe.

One more thing: I had another session at Exceptional Equestrians yesterday. It went well, and my mom and I both walked about 4 miles. Though, one walker fell down due to untied shoelaces -it was actually quite humorous once we realized what Madasa had done (Madasa untied this lady's shoelaces, and then the lady tripped)- and we had to do an emergency dismount for a child on a horse (no one got hurt)! The child, Henry,  was riding Madasa and she had a little spook. And due to Henry laying down on her, I couldn't get him off of Madasa. But luckily Donna the director plucked Henry from him and needless to say Madasa had a 'time-out' after that.

So, I've had an exciting week so far!! My Parelli journey has 'officially' RE-begun. And tomorrow we have more Horsin' Around to do. Plus on Sunday, we're going to look at a horse for my mom! So, a pretty horsey week!! YAY!!

Horsey Hide n' Seek

Dancer let herself be caught today! YAY!! Score one for Erica! I was in the pasture with Dancer's halter and I decided to go sit on a barrel. I had to think for a minute on how I was going to try to catch her today. And thanks to a sudden burst of intuition, I came up with the idea of playing hide and seek!! So, I got off the barrel and hid behind it. Then, I sprinted around to hide behind another barrel and the silo and a tree and another tree and . . .you get the idea.

So, Dancer picked her head up and looked at me two times total. But I couldn't get her curious enough to actually come see what I was doing. And eventually, I got tired of running and Dancer stopped caring about the wierd person running around the pasture. So, I changed my strategy a little bit. This time, I played a little catching game with her: I walked up to her and drove energy towards her HQ until she looked at me. Once she gave me two eyes I sprinted back to hide behind a barrel. Next time, instead of running back behind the barrel, I turned around and walked back. After that, I gave her a treat and then walked back. Next time, she let me walk all the way up to her to give her the treat. Since she was being really accepting, I tried putting the lead rope around her neck to see if she'd let me. She did, so I walked with her a little ways and then put the halter on!! I was so excited that she actually let me!!

Well, I can't say much else was exciting, because after I got the halter on, I just let her graze for an hour before the farrier showed up. But it was quite an accomplishment to have her want to be with me again!!