Time Out

First: I got my Carrot Stick and Savvy String today! Yay!! The blue is sooo pretty, I love it! I can't wait to put it into practice.

And speaking of...

I went straight to the barn after changing/grabbing my stick/string. No one else was around, it was great! The horses were still eating lunch, tho, and I didn't want to pull Gwen away from her meal (especially since the other horses would eat it all while she was gone). Instead, I did a couple barn chores as I waited for her to finish. When I got bored with that, I decided to just go hang out in the turn out with Gwen as she ate lunch. Naturally, this meant hanging out with Cool and Star as well. I've decided I don't like Cool, but that's another post.

Turns out they were finished eating, at least for the moment, but I just hung out and rubbed all over Gwen. Rubbed her shoulder, neck, belly, rump, rubbed down her legs to brush off the flies, etc. When I was standing by her belly/shoulder, sometimes she would swing her head around and check out what I was doing, so I'd rub on her forehead a little. I didn't put my arms around her, cause I didn't want her to feel trapped, and I didn't stop her from moving away. But actually, the only time she'd move away is when Cool would butt his big head in between, or shove her. Otherwise, she seemed pretty happy to stand there and let me scratch on her.

Since she wasn't eating, I figured I might as well catch and play with her for a bit. But, I hadn't brought the halter with me. Gwen actually followed me to the gate when I went to leave! It's the first time she's done that without a play session first. I felt so bad leaving her at the gate to go get my halter :(

When I came back, the trio had moved on to the water buckets, and I joined them there. Like before, I just walked over and started rubbing on her, letting her move if she wanted to. I could tell she wasn't digging the halter on my shoulder, and rather than just grab her and head out, I wanted to rub on her and wait, until she was ready to go. She relaxed after a little, but she was never really into the whole thing. I stood with her for a good five minutes or so before Cool and Star wandered back to the hay. Gwen went with them, and rather than catch her, I decided to just turn this into a "look, I don't always come out here to kidnap you," experience. I didn't follow them, but I did lean up against the fence post where I had been standing, and hung out for a bit to see if she'd come back to me. She was kinda keeping an eye on me, but I could tell she didn't have any intention of coming back. I walked over and said good-bye after a few more minutes, and left her with Cool and Star.

But I feel pretty good about it. I really don't want her to dread seeing me and the halter, and I think this was a really good experience to show her that I DO care about how she's feeling. Today, she didn't want to play. There might be times in the future when I'll have to ignore her desire to stay with the group, and catch her anyways, but today wasn't one of those days.

I hope she appreciates the time I spent with her, just giving her attention and affection without asking for anything in return. I've got plenty of time to teach her games. I could definitely afford to let her  decide how we spent this afternoon :)

J