feet

The grey and the stallion are very different horses...not only in looks but also in temperament.

The bay is dying to please, he reacts to your every request and is constantly seeking to interact. He is very sensitive you barely have to touch the rope or change your body language to get him to do what you want. It doesn't take long at all to teach him any new skills. but he is easily distracted and sometimes lessons have to be repeated

The grey is reserved, she takes a bit longer to come around to new ideas, but once learned she never forgets and you never have to repeat a lesson with her. She is not as sensitive to physical pressure as the bay (i.e responding to pressure from the halter or a tap on the rump with the rope) she has to be trained to be soft and sensitive, where the bay naturally is. while the bay constantly reacts to any request until he comes up with the desired answer, the grey will stand unmoving until she has completely evaluated the situation. Her disposition in much more and steady. with any handling she still is never quiet relaxed all though she accepts everything, and is easy to handle and catch,she makes sure she keeps an eye on you the whole time. For her in the wrong hands she could just completely shut down or become so skittish you would never be allowed near her. As she is the kind of horse that wouldn't react no matter how hard u beat her. although she kind of give off the impression shes doing the bare minimum asked of,this doesn't mean shes dumb or stubborn....she just needs patience when learning something for the first time, give her the time to figure out what you want and that is a safe option and you will never run into problems.

Today she had so many break throughs in her training, slowly she is overcoming her reservations. My friend came over to help with breaking in another pony (the same friend who helped the first day i brought the wild pony home). Thought get gray used to other people handling her, Charlotte is a great horsewoman to, so this would help grey confidence. sure enough it took grey a while to be comfortable with someone else near her, then finally touching her and picking her feet up. so with this little break through, we decided to keep going and trimmed her feet. me holding the foot and Charlotte using the clippers ( as usual my hoof trimmers were so rusty it took both hands to use them so needed to people to achieve this). Greys feet are now slightly better, and shes had her feet handled by a new person so at least when the farriers comes he can tidy them up even more. Even more progress was to follow when later in the afternoon the lesson kids came for their weekly ride. After a quick lesson in body language and how to approach wild horses, both kids went up and patted grey. She handled it. she stood there although watching them allowed herself to be stroked and patted all over by both 10yr olds, she even relaxed a little bit...

So even though she takes a bit longer in the end grey is just as smart and willing as any other horse with patience and the right handling. She made heaps of progress today so pleased with her. i think she will surprise everyone in the end.