No lie in yesterday morning as I went off to work first thing with Malaika her pony, Harry, and her Dad. The aim was to ensure that they are both taking a consistent approach with Harry whose manners have improved immensly with just a couple of sessions. They've now got a great relationship.
E-mail from Mark: "Just a quick note to say thank you for Saturday. I really enjoyed myself and I feel a lot more confident around Harry. Used the the left hand head collar technique on Sunday and it worked a treat! Thanks for your help with Harry and Laika they both seem to be getting more confident and relaxed around each other - which is good for both of them!"
Malaika is Swahili for Angel, so it was poetic that my next stop was to meet up with jo and Tom who are over from Africa. I feel so immediately comfortable with these two that I start to feel homesick for Kenya. Incidentally it has rained there for the first time in three years - can you imagine how welcome it is? Lake Naivasha is filling up and the elephants and hippos have got something to eat. I imagine they are dancing. I picked up another 23 Masaii browbands to add to those that I have for sale.
Next it was off to my Mum's and a visit to my Nan in the nursing home. She's not too good to be honest and slept through most of my visit today. I had a little sleep while I was there too and just held her hand for a bit. While I was at my Mum's I did some work for her good friend Rosemary and her fairly wary foal, Flo. Flo is definitely only happy with people on her right hand side at the moment and very worried about the headcollar. Accordingly I commandeered a scarf from Rosemary's car and showed her how she can be desensitised with that. Rosemary has a small collection of alpacas in my Mum's fields which are always a delight.
