Jumpy bum

Maraschino had been a bit jumpy over the last couple of days. Not sure why, but he tried jumping out of his yard after dinner last night so I let him out and he ran off down the track bucking and then grazed till well after dark, then happily came in.

So today when I brought him in he was the same I decided to do some Parelli with him. I think we spent about an hour, in the rain on and off, in the washbay, doing all sorts of games. Started with friendly with the rope as he was jumpy with me stroking him with it.

Then friendly with the carrot stick, then with the savvy string moving around. I tried skipping up to him with low energy and smiling but he freaked out and ran backwards so retreated and skipped away from him and in front of him (not a huge wash bay) when he stopped following me (threshold at one point of the washbay).

Then tried the plastic bag/pulling back exercise form the last savvy times but he didn't move. Hmmmm.

He is very introverted - and could easily fool someone... he cocks his leg, stares and stands very still and clenches his jaw and lips. But if you look closely he is shaking and his little heart pounding.

We then did lots of head down, with me doing a Pat and crouching down on the ground and combing the rope. This worked really well. I finally started to get some lip licking and then a bit later a baby yawn.

He was jumping initially at all sorts of things like George coming round the corner in his new raincoat and at the farmer riding his motorbike next door (which he does every day) but I did lots of yo yo when he was distracted to get his attention back on me and that seemed to pay off in the end.

He started to look quite sleepy so decided I had given him enough to process, and that he would not likely get too excited about being in his yard, and I was right - even though we had really stormy conditions again (again!!) he settled well.