The biggest mule on the Forest was really suffering with the flies this morning. In fact we were all inundated all day...
Ivy is becoming bolder every day and seemed to enjoy her session with Nadia, her ninth person. Nadia had to recalibrate her energy levels and intent almost as soon as she started work with Ivy and soon settled into an easy rhythm. Later I moved on to some new work...
leading Ivy outside the pen for the first time. It would be easy to look back to Zoe and Zelda, Bear, and even Victor, to say that she should be out and about by now but Ivy is one of the most instinctive and nervous ponies I have worked with. That doesn't mean that she hasn't made progress every single time that I have worked with her, on top of consolidating what she already knows. It's important to recalibrate your expectations to take into account the needs and nature of every horse (and mule) that you work with.
Henry had another walk out on the Forest today. We had our first encounter with wild ponies and I did wonder if we might lose her forever. Fortunately she chose to stay with Jack and we were able to go into the inclosure. On the way back we met an even bigger group of ponies and resorted to the Emergency Bucket in order to tempt her back into the fields. We had a few more volunteers for domesticated living too!
