Friday the 13th - Gwen

Took Gwen outside the pasture for the first time today to test her thresholds. She did GREAT! Cheyenne would freak out and start screaming for her and running up and down the fence line, and at first that made Gwen really insecure. However we got an amazing system down that when I walk, she walks, and when we stop together she can graze :) She picked up sooo quickly! Soon we were doing the squeeze game over brush, yo-yoing through thick grass, all while being calm and level headed :) By the end of the day I was so excited, and so pleased with her performance :) How relaxed and easy going Gwen is really makes me raise my expectations for Cheyenne. Gwen has really had a fraction of the experiences Chey has, and yes Gwen can rear or explode when she gets insecure, but today we had one rear when Chey was screaming, and Gwen quickly recovered from it and stayed level headed the rest of the outing. It was so impressive, and it makes me wonder if I've become "okay" with Chey's RBE Hysteria and just started expecting it and managing it instead of asking more of her, asking her to be more centered and use her brain more. When Chey freaks out, she literally stops thinking and purely reacts.

But again, I was extremely impressed with Gwen. She has so much potential! I have to approach her completely differently than I do Chey, and she can be extremely stubborn, but I think once I figure out how to successfully motivate her and have us work as a team, she is going to be invaluable :) Not that she isn't already ;p