One of the Things I've Learned

One of the things I've learned over the past seven years of owning horses is that you learn as you go and to trust your instincts and what may work for someone else, may not work for you. For instance, for me it is better to give a new horse to your property significant time to adjust and build trust. And by this I don't mean a couple of weeks, I mean it took Misty about a year to know me and me to know her. I purchased Kola in September '06 and we are finally making progress towards trust. The example being that I've learned that Kola is a titch head shy and didn't take too kindly to worming. Now I wormed the girls this week and Kola brought her head down, took the wormer without even a flinch and she's beginning to allow to clear the occasional eye booger. Of course Misty witnessed the wormer being given and immediately stepped away, but just one "whoa" and my hand on her halter she too took her wormer without issue and that's normal for her. I know it's baby steps but anytime I've gotten a new horse and did not give them a long time to adjust and get to trust me, an injury occurred and not really by any fault of their own. So I caution the advice of others to just "jump in". That may be good for them and it just may mean the difference in a confidence level, but I really think it takes time to build that trust and just by starting with the everyday handling and ground work.