Day 3 out of at least 7 of avoiding avoidance with Nigel and the trailer......

It was better. A little better. A little tiny bit better.

I would say that yesterday Nigel was mostly Left Brained*. There was no sweating, no dancing around after getting out of the trailer. Just heading for the grass. I'd redirect him and send him back in. The one thing I did notice was that his tail was tight. Now, this is a typical thing for him. When we got him he would clamp it to his bum. No way he'd raise it for us. Even when he was super Left Brained and everything else was very relaxed. Of course, he's over that now and for the most part it is loose. He even happily does lead by a tail 80% of the time. So yesterday while he was standing in the trailer, I played friendly game with his tail just lifting it gently and swishing it back and forth.

He understood that swinging the door meant keep his feet still but, it was many many time of getting in and getting out before he decided to. I started a new thing which was to bang loudly on the door every time he would paw on the front of the trailer. LOL. We were both making quite the racket. That worked though. He would quickly stop and either get out or look back at me like: "what in the hell are you doing?".

I'm getting this feeling that he's now just trying to out persist me. Especially with the door open. I think he is worried about getting shut in all alone and going away....but yesterday I kinda felt a lack of try. Well, a lack of trying to do what I wanted. He wanted to get out and eat grass....lots of try for that...mostly in a passive-ish way. "She lets me get out...so I'll get out....how many times before she gives up." BUT. I can be pretty dang passively persistent in the proper position too. *narrowing eyes in determination..... Not even Pat Parelli is more persistent than an Emma Kline.

I might sound a little (or a lot) direct lined. However, I have thought about this. I know we've done plenty of preparation. Nigel can jump over stuff, he can stand with four feet on a pedestal, he can back over a pole, he can squeeze sideways over the barrels, he can maintain gait and direction both Online*, Freestyle* and Finesse* etc, etc, etc. He also can stand calmly for quite a long while in all four Savvy's*. There comes a time, I've learned, when you've gotta get to it.

I imagine starting a horse undersaddle. Even when all the preparation is done, the horse needs to wear the saddle. In fact, he needs 200 hours undersaddle to have a proper foundation.

As Pat has taught us, the trick is to put principles before purpose and let the horse be in charge of the timeline. I feel like I'm doing that. I'm using Love, Language and Leadership....keeping the Eight Principles in mind and yet NOT AVOIDING THE PURPOSE. I feel like I'm letting Nigel be in charge of the timeline by not just locking him in the trailer and heading off to where ever I want to go. We'll just practice and practice and practice, isolate, separate and recombine, until he finally accepts the purpose and lets loose.