>>>> Is that why she was a rescue? Because she's wary of people?
Angie wasn't what I'd call a "rescue" since she'd always had good basic care - she had her shots, her feet had been trimmed, she was well-fed, etc. She'd been used as a brood mare, the mother of several foals. She was described to me as "very nervous", a horse who'd probably never be rideable, but I don't see her that way. To me, a horse who's "very nervous" would be nervous in many ways. That's what made me start thinking about all the variations of confidence - "stuff"-confidence, herd-confidence, human-confidence, and maybe other ways that I haven't thought of yet. Of those three kinds of confidence, Angie is quite confident in the first two, and the latter is coming. I took her in as a "project" horse - but I honestly don't see her as much of a project. She is doing well already, and if we don't rush her, I think a lot of the remaining trust issues will simply come with time. I think she mostly needs someone to believe in her, and I certainly do. Her prior owner was told that she was from a nervous, hard-to-train line, and she believed it. Probably, Angie wasn't the friendliest young horse, so somehow the owner got into the habit of "chasing her into a stall" when she needed to have her feet done, or for the vet, etc. Thus, the cycle - the only time the mare had human contact was to be chased. The main "project" I see is breaking that cycle, and I think we're on our way. I still haven't seen a reason to chase her - she will follow me into the barn without a lead if I'm reasonably quiet in my requests. BTW, Runa is the one horse here that has stood out as having the least "herd confidence." It's getting better as she matures (hey, the geldings love her) and she's strong in the other kinds of confidence. Interestingly, Runa was NOT handled as a baby, but was one of the "left in the herd" types I bought from a bankruptcy sale. I got her when she was about 2.5 years old, and she wasn't terribly used to a halter, and really wasn't trained to lead at all. I really struggle to see ANY advantage to not handling the young ones, and I just can't find one. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1210 - Release Date: 1/5/2008 11:46 AM
