The Next Chapter

There's been a lot of thinking happening in my small corner of the world in the last few weeks. With Stella and I on a new path, and my life moving into a new and exciting direction, I think it's time to leave this blog behind a start anew.

I will still be blogging about my journey with Stella, but this blog started as a tribute to Ernie, and in honor of him I have decided to leave it behind and begin a new chapter. It will be left up in his memory: I think there's a lot of value on this blog, not just in information but in lessons learned, and I will probably be visiting it frequently.

I am very happy to say that I have found a wonderful training partner in K, who in our very first session showed me a method of round penning so different from what I have learned, and with fantastic results. Last Sunday she came out and tutored me from outside the pen. Stella was wary and wild at first, but by the end she was completely calm, poking around for food, and recognized immediately when it was time to pay attention again and would "offer" to listen by approaching me head on and standing by until I gave direction. The next day I worked with her again and with the same results: we went for a post-work graze and even with the snow covering most of the grass she was completely relaxed and happy to stand in the same spot and nuzzle around. This is a HUGE change from this summer, when the grass was lush and completely visible and she'd still wander anxiously from spot to spot. This time, her eye was soft, her breathing was regular and she stayed with me all the way back to the barn.

This sounds so minor, but for us it's so huge. I'm learning how to press her enough to get a change but not enough to cause her stress, and realizing with K's help that a lot of what I thought was disobedience is actually her expressing confusion and frustration. And it continues to come back to me: what this mare does is a direct reflection of where I am in my own recovery, and I'm continuing to see it. It's proving to be a blessing and a curse, but it's causing a change in me first, and that's exactly what needs to happen.

You can continue to follow us on the new blog, which I will be linking this one to in the next couple of days.