A good question came up in the comments, about how we communicate with the animals. Before I go on to Sam's Day 2 I will address this.
First of all "we" is my mother and I. After one of our most precious horses became ill and would not heal, we started our still continuing journey of learning the holistic healing. In the years since, my mother took/takes classes and has certifications in various holistic healing ventures and passes on her knowledge to me. We were always just ordinary people, no special gifts really- at least concerning this- other than just being observant when it comes to horses. My mother has always loved the horses more than anything else, but I am more connected to the canines. I have always had a special connection with all animals and the holistic healing path has certainly been easier for me to grasp, especially when working with the energies. However, my mother was/is very diligent in her learning and has mastered the communication pretty well. She was even able to help locate a missing cat she had never even seen.
I am telling you this to prove anyone can do it, it does not take being born "special" to do these things. All that is required is the desire to communicate with your animals and the openness to believing YOU CAN communicate with your animals. Here is a link with everything you need to communicate with your animals: http://www.pet-health-advisor.com/howtocommunicatewithanimals.html.
http://www.pet-health-advisor.com will give you other information on the holistic healing process and the many methods that can be used or combined to help your animals, whether they be horses or anything else.
Now, on to Sam. We started ground work and he is an amazingly quick learner. He already, in only about an hour or so, will walk and trot on the line in both directions. He respects the circle fairly well and seems to try at anything we ask him to do. We asked him to go between the fence and a pole, while jumping over a small jump. We use this small jump to help build up the muscles he has lost, particularly those in his butt and legs, it is not meant to make him jump anything high, just an agility exercise. Anyway, he jumps just fine, going one direction. In the other direction, he presents a bit of refusal, not so much out of fear, but uncomfort. Sam is not sure, yet, that he will be safe in the tight space. But, given that he would go through the same space and jump in the other direction, I am led to wonder whether something happened to him while he had that side of his body facing people, or if his eyesight may not be quite as good on that side of his body. He hesitated a little but not too much on the other direction. We will get this worked out, he is not being exceptionally fearful, just pretty unsure, as his trust grows in us, we can grow with him as people and we will be able to 'jump' every hurdle thrown our way.
The next new bit of knowledge we learned was that Sam's tight spaces issue applies to gates as well. We were hoping he was just extra nervous on his first day, but this seems to not be the case. Sam speeds through gates, but not disrespectfully- he trys not to run us over- but he is scared. I think this may not only stem from his cruelty case, but maybe even when he was ripped from his home on the free range. The Bureau of Land Management took many free Mustangs off of the land, so he may still associate unfamiliar gates with that traumatic experience. Regretfully, we may never be able to change his thought process toward unfamiliar gates, although we will try out best. What we can do, is associate new places with positive experiences, so gates just lead to something new, which will then likely lead to something good. Sam has a thriving sense of curiosity, which makes him a joy to work with! I believe Sam will try most things at least once, even if it requires a bit of coaxing.
Speaking of trying new things, we learned, Sam will most likely hate bath time. Filling up his water bucket, we noticed he could not stand the water splashing him, but, unfortunately, it was not an annoyance, but a hint of fear. We are unaware of whether or not this is due to his cruelty case or lack of bathing at the hands of a human. The latter seems more likely to me, because Sam still seemed curious about the water.
Bath time. The five other horses that live with us have differing opinions on this matter. A couple of them usually enjoy bath time, but the others are indifferent- though they do not appreciate their faces being washed or wiped off. We have decided Sam will get a sponge bath the first time, so we won't scare him before he gets the chance to get used to us and watch the others get bathed. Sam will get the opportunity to learn by watching on most everything we try to teach him, so he can see how the other horses handle it, what he is supposed to do, and that it does not harm the other horses. We have trained many horses by having them observe others first, just like people training for a new job often do. In fact, we had sent a horse out to a trick trainer, who used this method to train him to sit on a bean bag chair. After we brought this horse( Gizmo) home, we had him sit down many times and one horse(Short Stop) in particular would always watch, without us even asking him to. One day Gizmo was getting attention from a group of people for sitting, so Short Stop decided he would go sit down too. At the time, Short Stop had never sat before and we did not know what he was doing, but he sat down and surprised us all. So, Sam I hope you will be curious and observe what we do with the others. I know you have seen them and I hope you realize they will be your support crew, and that they are watching you too, they want to help most of the time. If you need some help just let them know. Below is a picture from his groundwork training on Day 2. Everybody was watching!
And Sam, just for your information, don't try to flirt with the only girl (Sunny), because Gizmo and Buddy are kind of protective and don't make fun of Gizmo's height, but other than that, you should get along okay with everybody.
Oh Sam, I think this is going to work out well, as long as you keep trying, we will do everything in our power to help find you a great, new, loving, and permanent, home.
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