Ignorance and Sass

 So Lyric seems to be all settled in. Dan's on stall rest again (luckily only 9 days this time) so they've been taking turns. Lyric stayed in all day with him. Man, she is a piggy pig! At night she and Fleck went out, but this morning, her and Fleck were BOTH in her stall hanging with Dan. She's cleaning up her food and now currently eating what my other guys eat. I think she's put on weight, but we'll see if she can maintain, especially when the grass dies down and she starts working. 

 

This evening I decided it was time to do some work. We went to the roundpen and practiced our pillar work. She's super at it. Although she doesn't require much pressure to relax her brachiocephalic, which makes it hard to really work on her response to pressure. But we are. It's also weird how easily she relaxes her brachiocephalic given how ewe necked she looks in her race photo and how quickly she gets worried and loses her confidence. I took her around the trailer turn about first and she gets so nervous leaving the pasture. She tried to walk into/over me a few times but she backed away with the flying lead rope. I got her to relax and drop her head and even lick and chew a little so I decided baby steps was good and we went to the round pen. Like I said, she was good. She had a nice roll before we really started. Ha ha. She didn't get all the way over to the other side with her roll, so hopefully that will get better. She did give a big shake after. After that she was good doing the pillar work. Even for the off side. She even walked calmly over the pole. I also used the driving whip today and she wasn't a huge fan but also not super scared of it. She jumped once or twice when I flicked a fly off her with it, but wasn't so jumpy that I couldn't use it. I just used it very cautiously and with "hints" of what I wanted. And it worked. We did our pillars and even pillar 3. She's pretty good at those. Backing up is not her forte though! I think her hard part of the pillars is not diving onto the forehand. She holds pillar 1 well, but she doesn't want to rock back, and especially doesn't want to back up. But we got some good steps today. With less pressure than before. We even played a little with walking on a circle doing pillar 3. She would step out when I lightly lofted the whip held upright at her and walked my energy into her.  Good girl! 

    

I decided that it probably wasn't a good plan to put the lunge cavesson on her until I knew if she lunged. And I figured she didn't. So, instead of being smart about it, I just turned her loose. Honestly, not to lunge her.... but I kind of wanted to see her move and get some video. So I did. And she sort of panicked! I mean, not really, but she definitely got nervous and realized she was alone. I even thought she might climb/jump out of the round pen a few times. She started off walking and then when I clucked a few times... she ignored me. And then she bucked and farted and squirted off. Then it was a bunch of spins, leaps, squirt offs, etc. She squeals and farts too when she bucks. Ha ha.. Oh silly girl! I felt a little bad though because she didn't look like she was having fun or showing off. She looked scared and confused. I felt bad. I did manage to get her to calm down and stop and she let me catch her easily. Then we did some pillar 1 and pillar 2 to help settle her back down. She relaxed quickly and so I rewarded her by quitting. 

She stood really well in the wash rack and I picked her feet and oiled them. Then she got a rinse and got her booboos treated. She's much better about her face than my horses are. I put her back in her stall and she hung out a bit while I did some body work on Dan. And then they got dinner. And then Fleck and Funny wandered off while I was finishing stalls so Lyric had to wait til I was done. I called Funny and she came (awwwww) so then I was able to turn Lyric out. Which... she didn't panic and run to Fleck. So it's weird... she sometimes seems very insecure and nervous and scared and other times she seems pretty secure and content and not herd bound. Anyways, I'm sure we'll bond more and I'll be able to build up her confidence! And we'll figure out lunging. ;)