Why would you only wear one scarf when you could wear two? With an animal that is as tactile defensive as Henrietta the scarf is a really useful ally since it does half my job for me, touching her and desensitising her as she moves. Of course I had to make sure that she was more than ready to wear one (them) otherwise I could have given her a terrible fright. As it is I think she enjoys the sensations that they create.
Every time I have been to work with Sarah and Firdy is has been raining and windy and certainly not the sort of weather to work with the brolly unless you were especially keen to have a Mary Poppins moment. He has become so brave since we started that it was a bit of a non-event in any case.
Accordingly we started on ridden work where the lack of someone ahead of him brought his confidence down a little notch. Rather than push him to go over, round and through things, we worked on leaving him alone, with legs draped calmly around him, as soon as he showed any sign of engaging with the obstacle. Push him on as he teeters on the brink of the right decision and he starts to move backwards instead of forwards. He needs to be given a second or two (at least) to make up his own mind and build up the courage to go.
Changing the shape of the poles encouraged him to work out where he needed to place his feet.
"Thank you for today , will certainly practice, and keep repeating, and stop chatting to Fir!! Learnt a lot and really enjoy the sessions." SS
