Back to basics for Stella

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Thimble got a day off today after her superstar performance yesterday, she will be going out for another walk tomorrow and the aim is to just gradually bring her back into work. I don't want her to overdo it as she is one that is prone to tweaking herself due to getting a little over excitable.So whilst little one chilled out in the paddock with the sheep for an hour or so I decided that I was going to do a little back to basics with Stella. 
Currently she is incredibly strong to lead, is only comfortable when she is up infront and pulling.
If there is a space to fit through that is smaller than she would like she leaps through it and her reaction to anything scary is just to run, with you in tow.
I found today that she also likes the typical pony trick of dragging you to grass. Yet she still loves cuddles. To me this suggests a lack of security and confidence. 
Also a lack of manners and boundaries. Its like no one has every showed her how to behave and even less so how to behave when she is worried about something. the other thing that spending some more time with her has allowed me to do is get a good look at her. Resulting in finding a large scar that runs all along the bottom of her right cheekbone. 
Clearly my poor girly had something happen somewhere. 
So to start off I sat down and worked out a shaping plan, the first step of which we started out with today. 
Her first step to overcome is to learn to lead properly and not to rush. We are doing this by including lots of short groundwork sessions where the boundaries are always the same. She gets rewarded for a slack rope currently. 
This will progress to having a slack rope and being in the correct position to be lead. 
We also stopped to watch my sister on one of the other horses in the school.
Stella tends to get tense in the school and is very erratic in her movement in there. Hence why I thought that watching one of the others might help.
She certainly seemed interested.
She is now out with thimble overnight whilst it is a little cooler. 
Hopefully we will get another few sessions in tomorrow.


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