I've been carrying around a tarp in my car for some time now. I think I got the tarp before I got Skeeter, but I don't remember why. It's not a big tarp, but it's big enough to do some desensitization training.
I don't have a ton of time right now to work with her, so I'm trying to think of things to keep her brain engaged, hence the pool noodles. During an exceptionally frustrating moment with work yesterday, I said, "screw it, I'm going to go see my horse." I shut down my computer, and decided we could work on the tarp.
I wasn't sure how she was going to handle it, so I shook it out and made lots of noise with it while I was outside the fence. When she stopped reacting (took a minute, at most), I went to the fence and started shoving it through. I wanted to be outside the panels in case she took exception to the tarp and kicked out at it.
She did great as I was feeding it through the fence. Being the mouthy child she is, she tasted as much as she could. I flopped part of the tarp over the fence near her head and she bolted, but didn't kick out. When she settled down, I pushed the whole thing through the fence to see what she'd do.
I thought I video taped the whole first introduction part, but someone doesn't know how to work her phone, apparently. I finally realized I'd screwed up and was able to get some video. I'll apologize in advance, there is one section that kind of drags on, but she was doing the advance/retreat thing on her own and I found it interesting to watch her process what was going on.
5 comments:
If you are having problems working your phone, I am beginning to suspect you could give it to Skeeter and she will figure it out in no time.
Bill
Awww, fun to watch her figure it out and accept it :)
I'm pretty certain she's too smart for her own good. I can't just loop the chain in the gate, I have to actually use a thumb lock to link the chains together. She has watched me work the gate too closely and I just know that if I ever get lazy and don't "lock" it, she'll just undo the chain.
I like her- she's smart!
Awwww!!!!! I love her curiosity! She was cracking me up at first when she was spooking herself hehe. Isn't it great how they desensitize themselves? Chrome did that too. She's so smart. I love how she was eating underneath the tarp blowing in the wind at the end. :)
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