Quit being such a negative nancy!

Blogging without riding still is not a lot of fun, but mentally I'm on a better track the past few days. Yosh and I have been taking every other day off from grooming and have been just hanging out some. I have also been working on the pillars of the balance through movement method from Celeste Leilani-Lazaris in hand. I took her online master class at the beginning of the month and have been following along in the discussions there. Yoshi really seem to enjoy the work and enters a bit of a zen state while we do it. He is actually much more in tune with me and my movements than I would have thought. I've been working in a rope halter after Mr. GY and I had a long discussion about the poll pressure applied by a regular leather/nylon halter. It makes sense, his regular nylon with leather crown halter is much heavier in my hand than the rope halter. I never tie him in it and never really apply more than light pressure, he's a really sensitive guy. 

He also has finally earned himself solo turnout. It was a bit of a struggle to come to this decision because I do truly believe horses are happier together. But he got either a bite or a kick right across the front of his hock and then bit around his throatlatch in the span of 24 hours. The trazodone did nothing for changing the frequency and severity of his injuries, so he's been off of that for a bit, but we are putting him back on it while he adapts to solo life again. The plus side of this is that he can get alfalfa - Ms GY's horse colics if he eats any alfalfa (strange, strange pony), but Yoshi would obviously really benefit from the extra calories. I am selfishly looking forward to having him look less like a propeller struck manatee. 

Maybe part of the reason he hates grooming... how can that not hurt? 

When I was working with him after his first night of solo living, he was pretty dull, which is unusual. His reactions may not always be what I want, but he usually does react and pay attention to nearly anything I am doing around him. Instead as I applied light pressure to the lead, he just stood, and stood, and so I stood, and stood, and then his eyes closed and he took an actual 5 minute cat nap in the sun. It was adorable. 

It does make me worried too though, did he not feel safe enough by himself to sleep the night before? We'll give this some time before deciding. The problem with the set up at the GY's is that the fields don't share a fence line so that he could even feel safely close to the others. 

There may be something slightly more exciting on the riding front in the future, but I have to sort some things out before making it official. Yoshi's 30 days off riding are done on 1/27. And he's got a dentist appointment, farrier appointment, and another chiro visit this month. Keeping busy even if it isn't exactly with what I had planned.