Finally the video uploaded and here it is, this was at the very end of our session so Starbuck keeps looking at me like "I did all this before and was a good girl, why do we have to do it agaaaaaaiiiiinnnnn?". Which is why she's not very cooperative here, next time I'll try to get video at the start of the session.
Yesterday we worked on getting in and out of the shower, it's basically a raised (3 or so inches) concrete platform with a hose suspended above it which has a moveable arm so you can swing it right and left and since there's usually a big muddy moat-like puddle around it Starbuck kind of freaks out and tends to hop on and off the platform. This is, needless to say, not good either for her hooves and legs or for my nerves (YOU try holding a green horse on a 5 foot lead while she jumps over a puddle at you)!
Because of this I decided we needed to work a little on it and yesterday we got on and off the platform about 10 times, slowly and with a lot of patience so she could sniff and paw at the mud all she wanted. At first she was just as freaked as always and jumped both on and off but after a while I think she realized that jumping was a whole lot of work and stepped onto the shower. I let her think about that a while (did you know that when a horse licks his / her lips for what seems like no good reason s / he's thinking about something?) and petted her and told her how marvellous she is and then we went back to the routine. And what do you know?! A few reps later she stepped (very cautiously and with a little hop at the end, but hey, way better than a jump) off the platform too! So once again I let her think about it, petted her, walked her around the area without going into the shower and then did a final rep (with actual shower included, which she likes) before we went back to her paddock.
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