I learned a Good Lesson

I learned a lesson yesterday-slow down, be more aware of my surroundings, and don't try to rush through the scary place hoping to get to the other side in one piece.

When walking Chance from the driveway to the barn, (which requires walking on the main road and is a hot spot for me) Chance became very aware of something that was making him nervous. I looked around and saw nothing. This is when I get myself in trouble, my horse starts to show signs of being afraid, I don't see the problem and force him through it. Now yesterday I did look around and when I couldn't see the problem I thought that getting to the barn as quickly as possible was the answer to his fear. And hopefully we would get there without an explosion. I was lucky because we did get there in one piece. As we were turning into the barn driveway he ran in front of me very quickly and spun around and I heard a voice say "Hi Laura." It was a neighbor out jogging in a very bright shirt. I had no idea she was there, but Chance did. And as far as he was concerned she was a very bright mountain lion getting ready to eat us. Now if I had listened to my horse and taken a couple of minutes to figure out what was bothering him this whole thing would have been avoided. Nothing bad happened but in Chance's mind this brightly colored mountain lion was chasing us and getting ready for the kill and I set us up for it. If I had slowed down and checked things out I would have seen her too and we would have been behind her. I did look around, but quickly. When I didn't see anything my answer was to just get through it. Well, Chance I'm sorry and I promise to slow down and listen to you. I want better than to just get through it. I want him to trust me. I think I finally know how to fix that. With a better awareness of my surroundings, my horse and just plain slowing down.