Preparing to Catch Astar
Yesterday at the clinic, before we left, Brent was gracious enough to show us some things to help us PREPARE to catch our horse in his stall. He explained that it’s not about catching him at all – it’s about preparing to catch him.
So this morning I started using his advice. As I approached the gate, I started talking to Astar, telling him how handsome he is and asked if I could come in and pet him. His eyes were on me and as I moved foward to the gate, he was with me! So I just reached in and petted his neck – even touched his face… then I walked away for about 5 minutes. Then I came back and went into the stall with him and he was very responsive… his eyes were on me. I actually talked to his head instead of his butt this morning!
(I must explain that the last few days, we’ve gone in and only seen his rear end b/c he wanted little to nothing to do with us) — so seeing his bright eyes looking at me was huge progress.
So while I was in the stall, I practiced what Brent showed me – I moved into Astar’s space, petted him and backed off – moved in, petted him and backed off. Each time I did that, he followed me with not only his eyes – his whole body….He was locked on me! And then I left the stall before he left me. That’s, after all, the whole idea.
And about 10 minutes later I came back and petted his neck and then backed off. This time I left the house completely since I had to leave for work.
This is progress! And I’m excited now that I now what I should be doing and have a visual for that as well. I’m going to keep working at getting Astar prepared to be caught and then one day – soon – I bet he’ll let me catch him!