Friday 18th January

The past couple of weeks I haven't really done very much with Blossom as the weather hasn't been great and I didn't want to risk injuring her out playing in a wet, muddy field in the dark. So instead I have been playing with her in the stable, she does have alot of issues in the stable. Im still not sure if this is a domminance or trust issue. She tends to be very grumpy and comes with her ears flat back and bites when I am grooming her and changing her rugs..

So I have been working on getting her to greet me when I enter the stable with a happy face!! It really seems to be working.. What I have been doing is going in the stable then going out until I get her curious about what it is I am doing, but if she isn't interested I then put some pressure behind zone 5 until she looks at me and repeat this until she comes to me or she gives me permission to come to her.

I have then been playing friendly games with her rug to try and stop her biting when I do up the front straps. I have been using lots of body blocks to try and prevent her from biting, but if she does try and bite I have been using the yo yo and driving game to move her away from me to teach her she isn't allowed to bite. It really seems to be working as she now seems to be more relaxed with me in the stable and enjoys me being there.

If we have a good session in the stable I have been working on asking her to lower her head and keep it there for a few seconds. She is getting better at this and now only needs phase 1 or 2 until she lowers her head but doesn't keep in down for very long.