Its raining so bad here that the place is awash, the dam is flooded, the run off to the lower properties is like a fast moving river, the cows and Teddy are in the back paddock drenched! Even though Teddy has a full winter combo on he must be soaked after all this none stop rain.
This rain has given me a bit of time to think about my best course of action with Teddy and my horse future. I have come to the final decisions.
Step One - I have decided to put an ad out to sell Teddy and see what happens. In the mean time I will love and work with him as normal and consider getting a schoolmaster for myself which can also be a companion for him. If the schoolmaster comes along while Teddy is with me I will work with the new horse and this will give Teddy some emotional rehab time (he clearly seriously needs this - I'm not sure how he got so messed up but I know how it feels so I can sympathise with him). I can also learn what I need to teach Teddy from the schoolmaster and then Teddy can benefit from that when I pass it on. Hopefully this will work and I can have the two horses on a permanent basis. Horses are herd animals after all so he should have a companion when I am not with him. However, if a loving, educated and suitable home comes along during this process I will consider it, but only with Teddy's best interests in mind. Deep down I still feel I can get us through this.
Step Two - I realise that at home Teddy is secure and sees me (somewhat) as his leader but not enough to trust that I will take care of him outside of his comfort zone. Therefore I will step up my own education and his training. I will ask more from him and put him in a lot more situations that he wont be comfortable in until he develops a higher level of trust with me. This will start tomorrow as I know that the rain will not be the most comfortable of environments for either of us and I am willing to get cold and wet to ease him step by step out of his comfort zone and then step by step back into it with me. I think this will be a true test of whether Teddy's issues are what I suspect, but if they are not I will have more insight into how to move with his future.
Step Three - I will use the week I am having off to do a riding refresher and work with an instructor to find my seat again and build my confidence before getting back on Teddy. It's been a while and I would have liked to have done this with Teddy, and preferably on my own, but I think it will be smarter to do this away from Teddy and come back to him in control. Otherwise he will feel the vibe and feed off it.
I hope this all works. At least I feel I am giving Teddy, me and any possible future owner of Teddy every opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment