The Princess Diaries (Pony-Style)

PonyGirlAsh

Buongiorno, Principessa!
Nov 17, 2004
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California, USA
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Well, after seeing Daffy Dilly's thread, I thought might start my own little one of my own as I've recently started leasing a new horse - Princess :p

Princess is aptly named...from a distance and when you have any sort of food, she is a sweet little thing. But the minute that food disappears, she gets....well, pushy.

I think she is testing me to see what she can get away as I am still very new to her. She like to barge at me when I approach her in her stall without food or even just if I look at her the wrong way. I am starting to feel like I might lose my confidence if I don't step it up a little soon, as I used to lease an extremely moody mare who, if I am truthful with myself, was fairly dangerous and caused me enough grief that I eventually had to find another horse.

Anyway, I went to see the madam herself after work tonight as she majorly needed some turnout (the weather has been awful here lately and the arenas soaked until today). When I got her in the arena, I could not get that halter off fast enough! I just slipped it off when she tore around the arena (thank goodness I did get it off in time!! :eek:), snorting, bucking, the works! She got her energy out eventually so I let her just do her thing for a little while and quietly observed her. It started getting dark, so I went to bring her in...ohhhhhhh NO! SHe had none of it. Anytime I would get near her, she would refuse to be caught :rolleyes: She almost made a game of it, and I could see her smirking!

I tried a few different things - getting her to be interested in me, working her when she ran away from me (make her think it was MY idea she was running, ha!), etc etc etc. Eventually I had to resort to bribing, as the sun was pretty much gone :mad: Couple sugar cubes, and she was my best friend :rolleyes:.

Now, I was very mad about this, as I have been reading Clinton Anderson (love him) and he says that we should not be bribing our horses. Well, I didn't really have much choice at that point and I have not been able to start any groundwork training with her yet (waiting for equipment to arrive from eBay!). Sigh, would you have done anything differently?

Long thread (sorry!), and not really too much going on at this point, other than I would like to keep track of how her "respect" training goes and get any advice along the way as I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff. I'm used to fairly well behaved horses and I've never had the opportunity or necessity to do this kind of thing.

I've just got to keep telling myself - she is Princess, but I am QUEEEN!! :D
 
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