One of my best volunteers, Jill, who comes out regularly to help with barn chores has nicknames for all of the horses. She calls Star, "Starry Starry Night", which takes me back to my younger days when I loved to listen to Cat Stevens. Jill is much younger than me, but I am often surprised at how much she knows about the music that I grew up listening to. In my book, she is a very "cool" person. The picture at the top is Jill and I showing off our muck boots. We try to stay in style.
In the meantime, Star's training is going very well. Natalie and her mother, Terri have been coming out on a regular basis for over a month now. It amazes me at how much patience Natalie has working with the horses. Her goal for now is for them to want to be with her, which is challenging, since these rescue horses have been mishandled by humans. But Natalie hasn't given up and it is finally paying off. All of the horses have come so far!
Star was one who was terrified of the "stick and string", a tool used by Natalie, as well as most Natural Horsemanship trainers. Now he has come to accept being rubbed by it and today, her mother, Terri, who brought her own "tool" sat in a chair while tossing the string over his back, which is huge, since Star had such issues with it 30 days ago. He would not even stay at the same end of the pasture with Natalie, if she had that "thing" in her hand.
Now she is working on making him comfortable with putting on and taking off the halter. In the past, Star has immediately ran away when the halter was removed, so he is learning that the halter is not a bad thing.
Thank you Natalie and Terri for being so kind to these special horses. They deserve the time and patience that you give. They deserve a chance.
