Starting over: yesterday was good. P did very well in the round pen actually walking and trotting when I asked him to. Didn't do so well with the water bottle. We spent between 2 and 3 hours with me standing in the middle of the pen methodically squirting a water bottle and P telling me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't quite ready to let me near him while I had that thing in my hand making those scary noises but, by the time I called it a day, he was stopping and staring and thinking it over every so often so, I called it good progress.
I think he did wonderfully. I know the sound of the water bottle must be very frightening...especially considering how much it sounds like a pissed off snake. P, in all reality, isn't doing anything wrong. I just need him to understand that the bottle is NOT dangerous and that I won't hurt him. Ever. So, we'll keep working at it.
Got the info from Marc and Debi regarding the farriers and found out that the one I'm hoping will give it a try with P next Friday was already scheduled to come out to see to someone else's horse that day. Hopefully, I can get in touch with him in time for him to schedule me in.
Had a nice chat with one of the other boarders named Pam, whom I've decided I quite like. She's very nice and it seems we have a few things in common which is pretty cool.
Marc described to me a snake he's seen out at the facility and had an encounter with... and what he described sounds like one of these:
Tantilla planiceps - Western Black-headed Snake
But, I don't think what he saw IS one of these because the snake he described was considerably larger than these get.
Today's my first day volunteering at Falcon Ridge Equine Rescue and I'm really looking forward to it. When I first contacted her about possible volunteer opportunities, Nicki was totally understanding of what I'd like to accomplish and told me to come on out. Since then (it was a few months ago), I've been searching youtube and watching David Lee Archer's videos and I think I could learn a lot from both of them so I'm pretty excited to get to help them out in whatever way I can as well as learn from them.
Contacted BLM about Phoenix a couple of days ago and was pleasantly surprised to get an email yesterday requesting some additional info and letting me know that they're pretty sure they found Phoenix in their database but needed to be sure. Hopefully, I'll get some concrete info about him some time next week. It doesn't matter one way or the other, but I think it'd be fun if P is a CA native too. I love where I'm from and am absurdly proud of it for reasons I cannot explain.
Debi told me yesterday that they're OK with me bringing Arthur (my dog) out to the facility with me which is great! I may bring him out today in the late afternoon and introduce A to P and see how he does. I'm fairly certain that Phoenix will be fine with Arthur as long as Arthur doesn't act like a freak but I'm not so sure how Arthur will act. He's all boxer all the time so he might be a total spazz. Whatever the case, today would be the perfect day to find out because I'd planned on giving Phoenix and I both a day off anyway so if Arthur acts like an idiot, it won't be a big deal to just turn around and go home.
Arthur at about 6 months old
We'll see how I feel after Falcon Ridge. I've been feeling ill the last couple of days and I may just need to give myself a break from all the driving today. Guess I'll just have to resign myself to being flexible.
One last thing, I thing the most significant thing from yesterday's session with P wasn't so much anything that Phoenix did or didn't do but something I realized about myself. I was, for the 1st time, really getting an inkling of a clue about my own body language. I'd never realized just how aggressively I carry myself ALL THE TIME, until yesterday. Relaxing is not something I'm very familiar with at this point so it's difficult to do. I'm working on it though. I'm pretty sure I know the reasons why I do this (not relevant so I'm not going to give anyone here all the gory details) but faced with the realization that I'm still carrying that past around with me in such an obvious (to everyone else, I'd imagine) way is, I think, going to help me overcome it and learn to not be so defensive all the time. I guess I owe P a great big thank you.
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