Magee

What a difference in this little guy in the last few months! He is the cruisiest, loveliest natured horse! Sure he has his moments when he is afraid of what is about to happen, like "what ARE you going to do with that sack?" where he moves away to evade it, but then stands still. Eventually he allowed it to sit on his back. Then allowed it to move up and down, over to the side, then it got bigger (I unfolded it!) and over a period of about 8 weeks he was finally able to accept a full sized cover laying on him!

I was getting so impatient and thinking it was never going to happen before the cold nights set in, but was very determined not to rush him or push him over the edge. "Take the time it takes so it will take less time" is a phrase I learned a long time ago, and I beleived in. So eventually it will be no problem for him because I've respected his reservations ...



Now he wears his cover, allows it to be removed with only a little concern at the tickly feeling, and will stand it have it put back on, though watches me carefully! :-) Slowly and with patience is the key with him, whereas with Camdin it's more "lets just play with it" lol. It's interesting adapting my strategies to their personalities - and challenging for me too. If I go too fast with Magee, or put too much pressure on, he sucks his top lip into a tight ball and prepares to "disappear" on me, so I need to watch him all the time. As a consequence I'm getting really good at reading him!



With Camdin I can approach directly and catch her by the halter; with Magee you have to take it slow and offer to scratch him and prove you don't want to do anything to him. The other thing I've found with him is he is so good on his nearside and awful on the offside. I think he must have had all his initial handling done on one side! So I'm re-doing a lot, and more, in his right eye in an effort to balance that out. He does need more time than I have, but then he needs it all to happen slowly too, so perhaps it's not a bad thing that I don't have much time. He has certainly been much better too being grazed in with Bailey. Bailey looks after him and teaches him as he is so very relaxed and cilled out about life - great help for me! :-)

Lovely! I can visualise this look in the dressage arena and show ring! :-)