A Little Early Morning Tantrum

Got up at 5:30 and fed the horses yesterday and at 6:30 took Jessie out for an early morning work out. We went through all the basic exercises LFR I & II, yielding fore and hind quarters with both touch and rub and finger in the air, backing up, and desensitizing.

Then I went to the C-pattern exercise from the last NWC DVD. Our work area is about 200 feet long and we did one length and as we were doing it the second time Jessie started getting all pissy about. She actually stopped a couple of times and gave a little rear which I thought was good in a way because at least she was working off her back end. We did it for about 15 minutes before she seemed to give in and do it correctly the whole length of our arena.

I finished with some desensitizing and flexing and tied her up while I went into take a shower and get ready for work. I started to think about the reaction I got from her and realized it just like a long distance relationship. You know the kind, the one where you might only see someone once or twice a month and you're in love and all is great. Then, when it's time to actually put up with each other on a daily basis, it's a different story.

From Jessie's perspective she's thinking most days that life is good. She just thinks about eating (which she does constantly) and, viola, hay is in the feeder. I come around a couple of times a day and scratch her good spots and rub and brush on her. She must think I have an evil twin who comes out with the stick an string and starts bossing her around. It shouldn't be any surprise that she's going to protest a little bit. A least the tantrums are getting smaller.