Journal Entry
When we first got Leia, we spent the day helping her settle in and get comfortable in her new home. We haltered her and worked a little on introducing fly spray that evening. The next day, we took her out into the yard to do some light groundwork and let her explore. Over the next few days, I gave her time to get used to my other horse. One issue we noticed early on was that Leia became buddy sour whenever my other horse wasn’t nearby. A few days later, we had a trainer come take a look at her to see what we could do. He suggested separating her to help with the buddy sourness, so we set up her own pen inside the larger one but far enough away from my other horse. When we started training, Leia was still pretty buddy sour and anxious in the round pen. Even simple things like lunging or bringing the saddle near her made her nervous. Since her anxiety was making training difficult, we decided to try a natural calming supplement that helps balance her hormones and reduce stress. After starting it, we noticed a big difference, she became calmer, more focused, and more willing to learn. Now, we can saddle her with only a little bit of movement, and she picks up her front feet very well. We just recently started working on picking up her back feet, and she’s already showing great progress and becoming more trusting every day. This process started off rough but with the minor adjustments we made, this experience has become enjoyable and beneficial.
