Bella finally got some attention today. I went out, chased her a bit, rubbed her with the rope, eventually haltered her. She seems to be under the impression that she's supposed to run away before she lets me halter her. So I'm going to have to start doing it a couple times a day again. We did a little lateral flexion, which took her a few minutes to figure out, she just wanted to walk circles. Once she stopped and gave her head and I released, then she did it consistently, having figured out what I wanted.
I rubbed all over her head and made her keep me in both eyes while I massaged her jaw and lips and the inside of her mouth. I finally remembered to get a look at her teeth again, and they're totally perfect! No sign of the mangled mouth she had before. So it turns out she was just losing baby teeth.
We went inside, where I noticed her hooves were starting to flare and peel again, so I touched them up with the rasp. She really has soft hoof wall.
After I took the halter off I stood around and rubbed her head and jaw some more, in a relaxed way. Then I just stood nearby but outside her "bubble" and watched the dogs play and howl. I'd like her to realize she doesn't have to be tense whenever I'm near.
I left her alone for 3 hours then I caught her again, flexed her neck on both sides, let her go and left.
Sounds like she's coming along nicely, Andrea. Even Jet was evading the halter a couple weeks ago. I'd gotten into the habit of just opening up the gates so she and Sunny could run out on their own, and when I went to halter her she said, "No way!"
ReplyDeleteSounds like you guys are making some great progress! Hopefully she'll give in easily and understand that you're not there to hurt her or just 'WORK' her.. you're there to love her too.
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