July 8, 2008

Today is one of those days I'm wondering if we are taking steps backward. I'm still working to get Billie used to the beach towel hanging on the pen. I had it in a heap on the ground, but put it back on the panel today. She still gives it the hairy eyeball.

When I got home from my ride on Decker, I took his sweaty baby pad out to Billie, thinking maybe this would be easier to tolerate since it smelled like a horse. She was wary at first, but seemed to work her way to accepting it pretty fast. I left it in her pen on the ground, and it was fun to watch her approach, sniff, pick it up, startle when it moved (because she picked it up), and her re-approach.

I also wanted to practice leading today, so I put her halter on mid-day, too. That was no biggie, she didn't mind her halter or the lead rope. That is, until I got the lead rope on her off side, thinking to cause her to spin to the outside as I think Lucy was showing me. Just about the time she felt that rope on her off side, the utility company tree workers starting moving the tree branches they had cut down in the morning around. Billie gave a huge startle, and was trying to get AWAY. So I do not know if it was the rope or the brush. I got her "settled", which means not running around, and when she looked like she was going to stay in place, I took the halter and lead off. She was still at attention. I hate stopping when she's like that, but I'm beyond my comfort zone at those times. So I stepped out of the pen and worked to get her interested in the scary baby pad and beach towel.