Too fast.
Too much.
Too soon.
My enthusiasm with “doing stuff” with Reecie overrode common sense. I became impatient, rushed, trying to train Reecie to do stuff she wasn’t ready to learn.
Winter passed into spring, she started to become resistant, pushing into me, balky. I became more impatient, not realizing what she needed from me.
Reecie, by her behavior, as well as Tony and a few other barn friends (using words) were suggesting that I needed to slow down, to get back to basics, stop hurrying, quit rushing her.
So, I returned to what we already knew – leading, ground tying, playing games, and build from there. Sometimes with a saddle on, sometimes not. But not skipping over stuff that she needs to know. Instead, I needed to provide her with a fair, kind, leader. To be that leader and teach things in an organized progression.
As part of this return to fill in the chinks, the holes, in her training – we worked on the principle of giving to pressure. Outside, doing groundwork while she wore a saddle, and when I had her in her stall, I placed my fingertips on various parts of her body to signal when to back up, when to move to the right, then to the left with her hips, and then with her shoulder. These tasks were incorporated with grooming in addition to reinforcing them as individual training sessions. She relaxed, became responsive, stopped resisting me.
In Reflection ~
Reecie showed me by her “bad” behavior that I was getting impatient and rushing her. That I needed to get back to the basics.
Often, in my Christian walk, it is vital to go back to the basics as well. Especially if I find myself resisting God, becoming “balky”.
Scripture reading, prayer, and fellowship with other believers, all help set the firm foundation. When we turn away from God, get pushy, or balky. Start over, go back to the basics. Build from there. Let God build from there.
“He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock, and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built,” Luke 6:48 (NASB).
paynefulponderings 