Week 1
Day 1-
Nova arrived home last night and started settling in nicely. Today I sat with her and read a book while she ate some hay.
Day 2 -
This morning I went in with every intention to sit and read my book. I was very surprised when she tentatively started to approach me as I entered her yard.
Ok, well it looks like Nova has others plans for our time together today. So instead I went and grabbed a biscuit of hay and sat in the same place as I did the day before when I read my book. The first few bites were cautious and then she started to grow confidence.
I slowly got up and walked away. I repositioned myself in another part of the yard and waited to see what her decision would be. If she was still willing to interact, I was open to it and if not, that was fine also... I could always go and get my book. Over she came again.
We repeated this pattern a few times before I gave her a bunch more hay to eat in peace.
Day 3- Today was very similar to yesterday, keeping things the same and allowing her time and space to be confident enough to explore her curiosities.
Overall this past few days Nova has settled in nicely and I'm really enjoying my time with her.
Tori
Week 3
This past two weeks Nova has settled into farm life here really well.
She is a very sweet and inquisitive mare and is growing in confidence everyday. Her curiosity in new things combined with her growing confidence has meant she has at times taken herself out of her comfort zone to explore new things and trusted that everything will be ok.
I have not been in any hurry to get a headstall on Nova. I feel at times we as humans get really set on the end goal and forget the journey.
Nova has realised that she can communicate with me and I will do my best to interpret and react to her body language so that she never feels threatened or fear from our interactions together. Our progression together has gone from me sitting in the yard with her, to her cautiously approaching me, eating hay from my hand and eating chaff from my hands (first touch of my fingers on her muzzle).
Her allowing me to place my hand on her neck, then different parts of her body. More recently my touch has turned from a touch to a stroke and then a curry comb.
The first time I gently started moving my hand and Nova got a fright, jumped forward and kicked out. This doesn’t make her a dangerous horse, just a prey animal reacting off instinct. The movement of my touch caught her off guard.
As she ran away I spoke to her calmy and reassured her it was ok. Shortly after she settled and returned back by my side, this time she was accepting of my hand moving gently.
I think its important to remember only a few weeks ago these horses were un- handled and not so long ago they ran wild.
Overall I'm really enjoying the journey with Nova and look forward to the next couple of weeks.
Week 5
For the readers out there who may be reading this. In this update there is both "little to see" and so much positive change. Our progress to some may seem small. But in reality Nova has taken some of the biggest leaps of faith, of trust, she ever will in her life.
In the past two weeks, she has shrunk half a hand. Softened in her eye. Follows me around the open field and has allowed me to both place a headstall on and lead her.
To me, taking the time and waiting for Nova's consent to touch her, to approach her, to place a halter on for the first time- are some of the most important interactions she will ever have in her life.
The reason these interactions are the most important is because, how I choose to react to her communication while she is so new to human interaction, dictates whether she chooses to trust me. If Nova trusts me it means us working together is because she has given her consent.
Or....
If i was to be in a rush, my body language would be showing her that her communication and consent is irrelevant to me.
These initial interactions are the most important. Rushing the first interactions can be the reason a horse is hard to catch for the rest of its life. The reason a horse becomes shut down and internalises. Or even the reason someone ends up seriously injured in hospital.
Everyday I work with Nova, the only thing that matters is that I continually ensure everything I do with her is in her best interest. Not in the interest of winning a challenge or prize money.
The best reward is knowing that I've done the very best I can to set Nova up for a successful future.
Week 7
Training through an absence of "Training".
Around the beginning of July I asked my friend Emma Loftus Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy for Horses and Humans to do a remote healing session with Nova.
The beauty of energy healing is that is may also be done by distance. It never ceases to amaze me just how profound energy healing can be. Everything in this world is made up of energy, everything vibrating at a different frequency. You and I are energy. Thoughts too are energy. Hence the saying be careful what you wish for!
At the time I initially spoke to Emma she noted that Nova was not ready to engage with her and that she would hold space for her until she felt she was ready.
The fact that Nova did not yet feel safe enough to open up to a healing session, also corresponded with what I was feeling- Nova was not feeling ready for our work together to progress any futher either.
The past couple of weeks with Nova have been fairly quiet. After our last update I let her out in the paddock with my mare, Honey. Since then Ive been going about life each day as normal, feeding eveyone and working other horses. Asking nothing of her just allowing her to be present.
I think the power of allowing a horse to simply "be" is often under estimated. Each and every day I walk past Nova, in-front of her, behind her, beside her on my way to do other things.
Some of the most valuable training is done without doing any training at all.
On the 1st of August I noticed a change in Nova, she nickered at me as soon as I came close to her paddock, she then began following me around with a new found confidence I had not seen in her before. The night of the 1st of August I recieved a message from Emma Loftus to say that Nova had given consent to a remote healing session.
It's the special moments like these that are the milestones when working with animals because for the first time Nova had opened her heart space and said yes of her own accord.