Two Weeks

I've had Ginger (still needs a new name) for about two weeks now. I've managed to spend weekends and once or a twice during the week working with her and Ketah. Reading through Mary Twelveponies' book Starting the Colt, and remembering lessons from Sully and Gahli, I always start working on Ketah with Ginger next to her and watching. They live in the same pen now and Ginger has attached herself to Ketah. Of course, Ketah doesn't care but she doesn't bully her either.

Ginger and I have had a couple lessons right away. She doesn't respect my space at all, and she does it with attitude! I admit, I like seeing a bit of that in her but not when she's trying to kick me. For some reason she hates having her hind left foot picked up and she starts stomping and swinging her butt into me. Thankfully she is just a little snotty, not mean, and smaller than Ketah :) It can be difficult to take her tantrums truly seriously when I recall how Ketah was at three years old.

We've been working through the respect issues by doing some Lyons type roundpen work. She has been trained to lunge on a line...but only in one direction! In the other direction she would rather run me over. So we work in a round pen, without the line just asking her to move off away from me and stop when I ask. Again, she's a little snotty about it right at first. Sometimes even kicking at me when I ask her to move the direction she doesn't like. After this weekend though I can ask her to move away from me both directions on the lead line. Not perfectly, but she's not trying to run me down either.

We shall see if she still remembers those lessons tomorrow night...