Phase 2 | Learning to Trust in Me

Ophelia stood out in the sun, sweaty and panting. She stood with her hands on her hips, fingers in the pockets of the severly worn out overalls before she moved to pick up the large sunhat off the ground and put it back on her head and dust off the seat of her pants.  "You need to actually try and hold her,"John called from  the paddock gate which he opened for her as she strode out of it and headed towards the open barn doors. "I can do it, I just didn't expect her to bolt like that," The woman jogged into the barn where she found the  mostly white and champagne colored mare  pacing in circles in front of the closed stall doors, the reins swinging around as she did.  She strode towards the mare who was trying to find a way into her stal through the closed door and grabbed the reins, pulling her round to face the barn doors.  "That was incredibly rude to buck me off like that," Ophelia said as she turned the mare's head so that she would focus on her instead of trying to turn back to the stalls.

"Did you catch her?" John asked as her came striding in to the barn hich spooked the mare, making her rear up  to which Ophelia tugged the reins to bring the mare back down on all hooves. "Easy with that, you're going to hurt yourself," She said with a huff to the mare. She nearly jumped out of her skin though  when John's voice came from over her shoulder as his hands wrapped around hers on the reins.  "Get back on, let's start working on this," He said as he gave her hip a gentle push towards the mare. Ophelia nodded and moved to climb up in the saddle again. The mare danced a bit while John held her  and once Ophelia was seated and ready he walked them towards the doors. The mare's tail flicked angrily back and forth, whipping against Ophelia's leg a time or two.  John stopped them at the barn doors and handed the reins to Ophelia. "Trot her out there until she starts to try and turn around, when she does pull the reins into a turn and spin her around  until she stands idle." John said as he stood there and watched them. 

"You're not going to do this with me?" Ophelia said  as she stared at him. "Nope," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "This is your horse, i'll be here to supervise but your relationship with her will be much better if you tackle these sets backs yourself. She needs to learn to trust you, not me." Ophelia nodded  as she urged the mare forward. The champagne mare tossed her head but walked forward a few yards before she flicked her tail and made to turn around. Ophelia gently tugged on the reins, turning the mare back around facing away from the barn. The mare pinned her ears back and pawed the ground but she moved forwards a few more yards before doing it again. "That's it, again," John said as he walked non chalantly towards them while Ophelia turned the mare in circles until she stood turned away from the barn. "Now that's she's turned away and not throwing a fit, reward her," John said as he came up beside the mare, running his hand along her side. The mare's skin shuddered under his hand. "Like.. with a treat?" She said as she ran her and over the mare's neck  for scratches. The mare tossed her head, her ears flicking between perked forward and pinned back. "A treat,  a pet. whatever. Make her believe that getting farther and farther is good,"  

There were out there doing this for a very long time before the lead the mare out into the paddock with the tallest fence.  The two of them watched the mare as she paced the fence line like she was trying to size it up to see if she could jump it.  When she realized it was too tall she stood there and called out, squealing and whinnying at any movement she could see. Her ears perking foward any time a distant sound came.  She whipped around and started galloping around the paddock, bucking and squealing  loudly before running over to the corner closest to the barn and pawing at the fencing. "Hey! Knock that off!" Ophelia yelled as she rushed over to the mare and shoo'd her away from the fence there "You're gonna get yourself hurt" She grumbled loudly. John chuckled as he came up to Ophelia with the long lunge lead, "come on now, let's get her feet moving so she  doesn't think that's acceptable."  

The mare was fed up with this lunging , but she  had to keep going. Everytime she got  fed up or tried to find her way out of the paddock to find a way back to the barn  the woman clicked her tounge and made her run circles until she finally got fed up and laid down. She could feel her sides starting to slick with sweat. She was tired and hot, staring at the two humans while they were talking, about her she presumed. She hoped that this would not be a recurring issue whenever she wanted back in her stall. She had laid there for a few minutes before the woman came over and grabbed the lead. The mare picked herself up off the ground and shook the dust off herself.  "Come on now, it's getting late. You can go back in now," She had said before looking at the man who nodded. The mare looked between the two of them as they all walked painfully slow back to the barn. Growning only a little frustrated when the humans stopped and stood around when the mare picked up her pace to get back quicker. How very annoying.

She was so tired by the time they had actually made it into the barn, the sun had set and the mare was more than just a little peeved at how long the humans stood around when all she wanted was to just get back in her stall in this new place. She took a nice long drink of water once she was back in the stall finally, the tack off her as she stood there while the woman brushed her down and got ride of the sweat that had collected on her coat. "We'll give you a proper bath soon," The woman had said, which didn't sound fun either and she was already dreading it, but for now she just wanted to sleep, she was so tired. Once the humans were gone she looked around at everyone else in their stalls peacefully sleeping or munching away on the little bit of grain that they had given out before leaving. The mare wished it was more than a mouthful or two, it was very good and sweet. For now though she was thinking about ways she could get out of that high fenced area, she was sure they would use that one eclusively for her since the woman had seen she was very good at jumping fences already.