Loading practice with Milly this morning. She's got a bit sticky about it again lately so I needed to go and see what was (and wasn't) happening. The lead rein is attached to the headcollar for loading so the bridle in itself wasn't a problem. However, A was either facing the front or sideways and perhaps not allowing Milly enough room to come forwards.
Last time Milly didn't respond at all to a Dually so I wasn't hopeful that it would change anything but fortunately it did. You'll note that I am facing her - looking at her feet not her face - and am giving her somewhere to go. It seems that these three things made the difference this time and very quickly she was loading consistently again.
12th July, 2015: "Milly loaded up ok today to go to riding club , only took 3 or 4 minutes , hopefully be ok next week when we go to a show ."AP
Time to start a bit of training with Henrietta who was keen to follow Jack and Nettles up the field.
She was also willing to touch the feather duster but not allow it to touch her. Just like yesterday, the photographer missed all the fireworks, and I now truly believe in the phrase kicks like a mule. I was very glad of my fully extendable feather duster as it meant I could keep out of the way of her feet. Xanthe, who keeps mules in Mallorca, says that when a mule intends to kick you it will never miss, so it was fortunate that she only beheaded the feather duster which is now in the garage for repair.
Now you'll understand why I am on maximum lean in this photo!
So, what do we know so far? Yes, she has the face and voice of an angel if your idea of the voice of an angel is like crashing a gear. And she kicks, a lot. Not really a surprise at all. (You can just see how long her back feet are in this photo.)
Jack watches closely. When he arrived he came out of the stock trailer like a bull and, having never met him before, I remember thinking oh no, what have I gone and done now? Deja vu?
