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[blitzen_]

YIKES
i just made a coffee, put on a load of washing & was making a list of potential books to swap with zzrmags and athystle when the fone rings and who should it be but my (new) chiropractor saying he's driving up from ALBANY and will be at beej's by 1.30!!! there goes my afternoon of naked lounging around watching Friends & obsessively checking the internet

Comments

[penella22]

erm, half-awake when I wrote that apparently. The point I was trying to make was a.) Beej is probably a bit claustrophobic, and b.) he may have some associations with different pieces of equipment as he seems like he may just be that incredibly sensitive a horse.

Pat Parelli often says "Horses (and mules) are born skeptics, cowards, claustrophobics and panicaholics." They don't like tight spaces. But more importantly they don't like feeling hemmed in. There are certainly situations that we place horses in, where they are technically in a big open space, but we have still made them feel incredibly panicky and trapped. I think Beejay has an easier time paying attention to you at liberty because he is not busy combatting his natural tendency towards panic and claustrophobia, which may be caused by more confining equipment.

And...Sage is *very* perceptive to changes in equipment. Several studs I know are trained that in one halter they are going to be going for breeding, in another halter they are going to go work. They *know* the difference.

Think about how different you feel in your most comfortable stay at home outfit (or naked since we're on the subject) vs. being all dressed up on a day when you didn't want to dress up but for some reason you had to?

I also know that outfits I have worn to funerals, or things I have been wearing when really awful things happen...I don't like wearing those clothes again because my brain is associative enough to be reminded of those events. Not all horses are associative like that. (Thea seems absolutely impervious to equipment changes for example, she's never been given any reason to have any different associations with different headgear or anything.) But, I think Beejay is.