This morning I took Stella into the round pen and we worked on leading. I'm working on getting her to give me a bit of distance and lead off to my side rather than behind me. She will lead fairly well with me in front of her a ways, but I don't much like that style of leading. I want to have my horse beside me, not behind me. She does tend to stop if she thinks I'm too far ahead. Then I go back to her and pet a little then cluck her up and off we go again.
I didn't do much more than lead with her in the morning, trying to get her to lead more reliably and not stop so often. When we headed back to the paddock she sent just fine with only a little hesitation at the gate. Once back in her paddock I spent a good amount of time petting and loving on her. I am hopeful that if her experience when she comes back in the paddock are positive and she doesn't feel like I'm just leading her back in and abandoning her.
Stella is fairly food motivated. That has become apparent over the past few days. She also loves to be pet and have physical contact. From what I have read online this is not normal behavior for a mustang, but she is happiest when she is munching on her hay and I am petting her or laying over her back.
This evening I decided that I would give her a new challenge. She doesn't really like the round pen. Stella doesn't understand why I want her to go around in circles inside there. Mom suggested that maybe she would do better if she was going in a straight line. So I decided to try leading her in the outdoor arena. It is just past the round pen, but farther than she has ever been before.
Stella was alert, and I gave her time to take in the new view as we headed to the arena. Mom had the ate open for us, and Stella had no trouble at all going in. Fortunately I'd had Raven give me my gloves before I took Stella in the arena, anticipating that the added space would make her a bit frisky.
At first Stella was content to lead right at my shoulder, looking around at this new space. We walked slowly and stopped whenever she wanted to investigate something. We were almost 3/4 of the way around the arena when Stella decided to see if maybe she could get away from me. She bounced around and tried darting from one end of her lead rope to the other. She tried circling wide around me, then coming in close past me (although not too close, actually. She was at a fairly respectful distance considering that her goal seemed to be to get me to drop the lead rope). I didn't try to hold her still, but just to keep ahold of the lead rope. We went across the width of the arena with her bouncing about. Only once did she get bad enough to have me really scold her and yell at her for being naughty.
Soon after that scolding she settled down and wanted pet and reassured that I wasn't mad at her. I wasn't. After all, she is a mustang who is used to having space to run, and she has been in either her paddock or the round pen for the past several days. Plus she is on good hay now, so she is feeling good. Once I am sure she will come to me in the arena I will turn her out in there to bounce around and roll in the dirt. I'm sure she's jealous of the other horses who get to turn out in there and play around already.
Not that I think it will take too long for her to get there. She already comes up to me when I come into her paddock and stands stock still so I can put her halter on. She also has "Ho!" down and responded well to it today on a repeated basis, which is the command I use on her to say "stop" or "halt."
After we made several more circuits of the arena, going from corner to corner, or wandering around the middle, I decided to see just how far I could lead Stella. We headed out of the arena and I found a patch of dry grass for her to munch, since she seems to appreciate a food reward. Then I took her on a circuit around the barn and paddocks. There is a loop that goes around the property, so we didn't have to double back at all. She called once to the new horses in this section of the stable, and even got one to call back to her. This pleased her, since Stella has been trying to talk to her nearest neighbors since she arrived, but she only had one of them respond to her, and then only once.
She was perfectly behaved the whole walk, staying at a respectful distance at my should the whole way. She only startled a bit once when we came to the other side of the barn and the horses ran up to their fences to see her. By startle, I mean she took a few nervous steps. Stella really isn't the spooky sort. I thought she might try to pull and go say hi to the new horses, but she showed no interest in them after that first called greeting, staying right by my side and not even hesitating as we walked past the other horses. The fact she is so well behaved after 4 days of human contact and interaction is astounding.
I decided that was quite enough excitement for Stella for one day, so I found another patch of grass she could munch as a reward for being good, then I took her into the round pen for a little off-lead time before I took her back to her paddock. She was only interested in finding more things to eat, so Mom went and got Stella some hay and we headed into the paddock. Stella once again balked at the gate to the paddock, but once Mom showed Stella that there was hay in her feed tub, Stella came right in.
One of the barn cats has befriended Stella, coming down to hang out in or near her paddock. Stella follows the cat around when she is in the paddock. The cat seems to enjoy hanging out with my filly.
I rubbed Stella down with a knobby groomer, then brushed her, then Mom held her head and I picked up all four feet, picking out both front feet. Interestingly both front feet have always been packed with dirt and rocks, but both back feet were clean and didn't need picked. Finally I combed out her mane and tail. Once her tail was completely combed it looked much fuller and more like an adult tail than a baby's brush. It looks like her grown-up tail hair is going to be wavy.
All in all she had an awesome day and was exceptionally well behaved. She is making progress at a far faster rate than seems normal for a regular yearling, let alone a Mustang, from what I have been able to find reading about handling a mustang yearling online. She is going to be - already is - a stellar mare.
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