Chance is at Piper Ridge

I opened the trailer door and asked Chance to come out. The 1st thing he saw was the beautiful green grass. He stepped out with his front legs, bent down and started eating right away, leaving his back legs in the trailer. Who cares where your feet are if there is a nice meal to eat?

After his whole body was out I started walking him to his turn out. A pretty large paddock with a stall and cover to get under if it should rain. We had to walk by a big spooky trailer 1st and then a sharp right to the turn out. I decided to walk past the trailer a couple of times with him so he was feeling okay about taking the sharp right turn. After about 3 trips by the trailer he was better and then we did a couple of retreats going into the paddock before he was really ready to go in.

Chance is one of those quiet types. Some horses are very easy to read, when they are upset or worried you know it! They will get big, dance around or try to leave. Not Chance. He slows down, sometimes he will snort and if he is really scared he will stop dead in his tracks. His feet get stuck. Then he will explode. My other horses were always the other type. Learning to read his behavior has been a quite a project. Walking him in hand is much better now that I can recognize when he is having a tough time, I can help him out before he gets to the exploding stage. My hope this weekend is to gain the ability to support him from the saddle so we don't go to the exploding stage when I am on his back.