Also, update on his beautifulness when he was feeling his oats the other night. I thought the slow-mo was pretty tight.
Okay! Finished my first week of school and boy it's been a doozy! Posting will probably go down to once a week to once every two weeks, just wanted to let y'all know! In the meantime, Eros just keeps settling in more and more. He's going into and out his stall more confidently, he's nickering at me when I come in the morning and evening. He's really connecting with people and getting lots of attention when we're walking around. It's been such a relief having this huge accomplishment of having him inside, that I've just been coasting with him since school has started. We're not rushing, so it's really nice to have him settling in. Not that we haven't been pushing the boundaries. Last week we got to exploring the arenas for the first time! He was abit hesitant going into the big scary dark alley, but he managed to get his feet moving after a bit and went right in. He walked with my friends horses and even right besides them! That was awesome. He did so exceptionally well with the horses riding around, noises, ect. He only had a butt scoot when we came back outside, but that was because a trailer pulled up and then a truck was coming up at us pulling in on the other side. He handled it great, didn't even pull on the line barely and he came RIGHT BACK to my side. I've also been working on getting him to trot next to me, which he figured out SO fast. He's so freaking smart and I think the reason why he's picking stuff up fast that were hard for him before is he has the space and time to do so. He isn't rushed, everything is calm and he's really starting to realize not everything is super scary, gonna eat me.
My guy has come so far and we have WORKED FOR IT. It's so nice to see him calm and safe but it's not without many days of hard work, tears, laughter and bravery. He's taught me so much, and in the last couple of days he's started to blossom. The videos illustrate him starting to play when I'm lunging. He got super excited and was doing his voluminous trot and canter and it was so fun to watch! ( You can tell but my voice, haha didn't realize how loud I was being, apologies.) He really felt like he was letting loose, in a great way. That was yesterday, and the second video was of us today tying for the first time. I've been practicing with pressure, he'd done such a good job at trying to figure it out and he ended up being stellar with it. I decided to work on going behind him, which has been a struggle for him but as you can see in the video, he's fabulous. Definitely not sure, but instead of reacting he's doing his best to think about stuff. We're doing it y'all, we got a fantastic horse coming along!
I have been so thrilled with our progress! The past two days we've gotten out to the big round pen and Eros has really got to show off his moves! He even played today when he lunged, striking his feet out and doing some cute lil' bucks. It was really nice to see him play today, it's really fun to see his mind in a safe but playful state. We even did an evening sesh with one of our personal horses, I wanted to see if having another horse would give him confidence. Turns out, didn't make that much of a difference. Eros is very confident on his own and doesn't seem to have that much of a draw with other horses. Totally fine. Tonight he even got to get upclose with my friend on her horse and he did such a nice job at facing scary things and overcoming it. He was sticky on our evening session, as he's used to just getting food and that's alright. Super proud of our big man!
Hurray!! Witness our first walk on the property! We went from the back of the barn, to almost the front and he was so calm the whole time. He was taking it all in stride and was checking in with me lots which was so nice. I felt so safe and I think he did too. I am so so so SO proud of this moment. I hope to keep expanding our walking route day by day. Just to get him used to the new surroundings and to understand he's safe wherever he goes. We took that first step today, and I'm just ECSTATIC!!
Alright, first off apologies for the funky angle. HOWEVER, we did it y'all. This is a great representation of how we work, slowly and carefully but still achieving our goals. He did such a good job walking in and out of the pen today I felt confident enough that I could take a video! I then forgot that I was taking a video and decided to take him into the pen right next to his which is a similar but with different things inside. So, secondly apologies for the long break in the middle, but I kept it in just so I could see how long it took us. It took a lot less time then it felt, which was awesome! He was unsure in the new space but looked for me and trusted the process. I'll definitely let the video speak for itself. All of this has been time. Lots of time, effort, problem solving, getting frustrated, gaining baby steps and so on. I'm really proud of how this is turning out and I'm really proud of us!! It's such an honor to show this big boy that he can live without fear. On to more big goals, I can't wait to show y'all when he's finally out and about on the property!
Yesterday was FULL of great moments. We had our break through y'all. We made it through the gate! My mom was watching and we were so surprised it happened we only got the end part in video, but it still has the same impact and shows how calm he was. Before that, I noticed we were kind of stuck and I wanted to try a method to see if I could raise his confidence. I decided to bring in some poles to see what he did. It was hilarious, he had no idea and kept shuffle stepping and kicking the poles forward instead of going over them. Mustangs are wonderful to work with because you have to get so creative! I then sent him out on a lunge circle cause I know he's good at figuring stuff out on his own, and after a few tries he did it! Then we were walking over them beautifully, like he'd done it 100 times over. I started with the gate again and we did our releases, but I used the poles as kind of a touch stone, something that Eros knew he could do and was easy. After that a few times, we were through the gate and turning around. Can't say I was definitely close to tears at the end. I was so thrilled we did it SO calmly, our hard work pays off and I'm so happy I can be working with this guy. He's taught me so much and given me so much, after yesterday I'm starting to see that maybe I'm doing the same for him.
Threw someone else in the ring for a change! Using my trusted friend Madison ( who has great body language and understanding of reactive horses) I put them both to work on some of the normal things I do with Eros. This was about 20 minutes of working him myself and giving Madison an idea of what I do and how it looks. She translated so well and Eros did AMAZING with her. I for sure thought there was going to be more stranger danger but he worked with her just like he worked with me. I couldn't be more proud, especially of the both of them! She even helped me pick up all four feet and work on his ground work too. It was really fun seeing how well he did with Madison and I feel much more excited for the future when he's with his new person! Gives me lots of hope.
The adorable cube eating needed a post of it's own. Look at how calm he looks!!! He's body language is so different from even a few weeks ago.
