It was a slightly breezy day. I wanted to do a little riding with Dani, not sure what I was going to work on with her. When at the barn I noticed a new horse. There was a female Arab named Bella in the pasture that had just arrived about a day ago. Her owners are from the area but don't have their property horse ready just yet. Apparently she'd climbed through the fence in the morning to be with Beyjo and cut herself up a little bit. Her owner was arriving shortly.
Dani was certainly in a more excited mood, perhaps from the new horse. I rode her on the property but by the fence line near the road. Dani has been pretty good with traffic driving by. We stopped near the fence and something caught her eye....was it another tumbleweed? Was it her shadow? She tried to wheel away in a shy but I didn't let her get away with it, we faced the area again and we kept walking by the scariness. I still have no idea what scared her and she didn't seem to calm down much but at least she didn't try to shy away or bolt.
We rode back to the arena after chatting with the new owners and seeing their horse. In the arena the same old bunny that darts around was in there and he caused Dani to start again. Wow. What's up with this today? We rode around and I made her do many changes of direction and yielding of the hindquarters. We kept walking by where the bunny was and at least there weren't any issues with Dani being nervous. She calmed down and we walked the arena for a bit. Today was just exciting I guess. New horse, exciting event of her climbing the fence into the pasture and then Beyjo neighing his head off while her new owners took care of her injuries.
After the ride I decided it would be best to do some groundwork next time I was out. I also want to do some more desensitizing. I wish I knew what things, aside from the darting bunny, were causing her concern. We'll have scarier things that she gets exposed to in the future so I want to make sure that we are well prepared!
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