>>> This is the lesson I have struggled with the most. To this day I get in >>> the "today we >>> will work on ..." mode. I think I may finally have matured enough to scrap >>> the plan >>> when it's obvious that actually it is not "the day".
I think it's a good idea to have a plan - but we have to remember that no plan can be rigid. I had to learn that with the first "problem horses" I had. Sometimes there were days when I was totally at a loss - I didn't know what to do. The irony was that doing nothing sometimes turned out to be the right thing. Sometimes, if you don't know what to do, if you'll just spend the time observing, watching, the horse will give you some signs, and they will lead you if you pay attention. On the opposite end, I was told that Vinnie wasn't really halter-broken and not reliably leadable. I think that was probably correct, but the little guy is just "ripe" so he was ready to move on and learn. Before the delivery trailer was all the way down my driveway, I'd taken his old halter off and put his new one on. Then I led him around outside for a few minutes. Today, we played with stuff in his paddock. We did friendly game, and started porcupine and driving - every horse needs to have a "move away" command for safety's sake before you can do anything else. He "got it" already, so I moved onto playing friendly game with a saddle pad, putting it all over his back. Then I put a kid's beach ball in his paddock and watched him play soccer with it. I didn't have any particular plans for him, and we did way more than I would have ever planned to do. The cool part is that Bart and Vinnie seem to be bonding - they didn't know each other before they got on the trailer to come here. (They were at the same farm, but not too close together.) Bart watched every move (from his adjoining paddock) that Vinnie and I did, and seemed to be quite interested. If I'd made a plan and stuck to it, I probably would have tried more with Bart - and likely have screwed up in the process - but I doubt I would have planned so much with Vinnie. By working with Vinnie where Bart could watch and maybe want to get in on the fun, I suspect I helped Bart along today too - indirectly though, not directly. There's an old Parellism that I can't quite remember, but it's something like, Everyone says 'Don't just stand there, do something', when more often, especially in the beginning, it should be 'Don't just do something, stand there.' I like that one a lot - there's a lot of truth to it. Bart's turn-out time was our 'Don't do something, sit there' time, and I think it was well-spent. We can't make rigid plans for Bart before we get to know him. Karen Thomas, NC
