Rain, Rain Go Away!

I haven't been able to do much with Rio lately due to record rainfall. The week of Thanksgiving it rained so hard that I seriously thought my horses were going to float away. We had rivers flowing through the pasture's, the creek was rushing so fast and my pond turned into a lake. I guess I have always wanted lake front property!

My creek is usually about a foot wide and here it is about 4-5 feet wide.

My 3-tier pond turned into one big lake.

Pond after record rainfall.

So Rio had the week of Thanksgiving off. I have worked her 4-6 days a week consistently since she came home. So I thought that since it had been raining so hard and I did not want to be miserable, slipping around in the mud trying to pet her, that it might be good for her to have some time away from me. I thought maybe she would miss having me around, even though she never seemed to care that I was there anyways. Last week I got 3 days in between rain showers. The first day's lesson last week was pretty normal. I went back to stick/glove work. I lost a lot of trust with her when I tried taking her drag rope off. She hasn't wanted me on her right side at all, and that is the side she is usually most comfortable with having me on. But that was the side I was on when I tried getting the rope off. I have been making progress on her left side. It took awhile. But she now will position herself so I can access her left side. She lets me rub and pet her all over the left side with the stick glove. I can't get my body too close to her on this side yet and I have yet to pet her with my hand on the left side. 

Lesson 2 last week was strange. She trotted down to the gate when I walked up to her corral, which is normal. Then when I went to get the wheelbarrow that is stored on the other side of her shed, she trotted up and into her shed with me right there, which is not normal. As I was pushing the wheelbarrow down to the corral gate, she ran back down to the gate. I went into her corral and she was trotting circles around me as I was scooping poop, which is not normal. I locked her into the lower half of her corral and did some stick/glove work with her. She either wasn't into the lesson or her mind was elsewhere. She would hardly hold still while I was petting her and she kept trotting off and digging holes in the mud and just not into the lesson at all, which is not normal. I kept it short and sweet and stopped at a good point. I opened up her corral and I went into her shed to put some treats in her grain bin. Rio likes her treats, but she will not take treats out of my hand, nor has she ever shown any interest in coming into the shed while I am in there. She usually stands from afar and watches what I am doing in there. Then when I leave the corral she will go in there. But this day as I was dropping treats in her grain bin, I heard her tromping through the mud behind me. I turned to see what she was doing and she was right at the shed entrance. Well, how about that. So I moved over to the other side to give her an opening to come in if she wanted to and she walked right in while I was standing in there. This is NOT normal. She started munching on her hay. So I stood there and watched her. She would back out a few feet then come back in and eat. She did that a few times. I then wanted to leave her shed and I knew she would probably leave when I tried walking out. I started walking out and she backed up a few feet then went right back in. I watched her for a couple minutes then left. Overall it was the strangest lesson I have had with Rio.

Rio decides it is okay to be in her shed with me in there.

On the 3rd lesson of the week, I did stick/glove on her left and right side then after about 10 minutes I put the stick down and decided that I needed to get back to petting her with my hand again. I had been doing a little bit of this since the drag rope incident, but she has not wanted me up that close to her at all. So as I tried to approach her, she would walk away and I kept right up with her until she stopped. I would be able to get a couple feet of her and I reached my hand out and was able to pet her butt. But she did not want my body close to her wither/shoulder/neck area. So I had to really reach out to pet her wither and shoulder, which made it very difficult. I was also taking treats and dropping them in a grain tub on the ground in front of her to reward her. She was enjoying her treats, but when I backed off to release the pressure, she would walk away and then when I went walk up to her again, she would walk away and circle for a few minutes until finally she would stop so I could get close to her. We did this over and over and over. She just wasn't trusting enough to let me get that close to her. I did get to pet her a lot, but she won't let me get close to her neck like she did before the drag rope incident. You would think that by now she would enjoy the petting and really want it. But it's like she just doesn't care. 

It is supposed to rain pretty hard this week. Right now there is a break in the rain so I better get out there and try to get some Rio petting in before the clouds open up. I am hoping this weeks lessons aren't as strange as last week!