07/02/2025
It has been really long time since I’ve done a Journey update! She is doing amazing 🤩 I have been working on counter conditioning her trauma responses and have finally gotten to a place where she looks forward to learning! She is now excited to see me and requests games (training time). I am only using science based positive reinforcement to train her so she has full say in how long we play and when she participates, though these days she is always asking for more. I never touch her and only ask for her to touch my hand with certain parts of her face. She has learned touch, target, nose, star, we are working on cheek and leading at liberty. Tonight she introduced pets on her own by making me pet her face! Once we have a good foundation I will move on to asking permission for me to touch her.
One big thing I’ve been worried about is the possibility of her being a one person horse and unable to be handled by anyone else for things like trims and vetting. She put those fears to rest for me a couple weeks ago when she played the touch game with one of my friends!
She is a sweet, silly, smart and sensitive girl. Im so glad I’ve been patient with her while we worked through her trauma and I was able to earn her trust 🥰 I have high hopes now that she is learning so quickly!