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Intention is everything. Animals are smart in ways we can't imagine. Balthazar must think I'm a frustrated school marm. I go in there with the set lesson plan and off we go. I should be wearing a lab coat or wear spectacles and have my hair in a bun (which I kind of do). Anyway. Didn't work with him yesterday because I got home too late. He was still locked in the stall when I went out so I went in with him and collected his feed tub to put away. He was still standing in the stall and I asked him to come using the 'come' hand motion I always use when I call him. He hadn't budged before then but he came when I asked. It was too mucky to work in the yards so I just asked for a couple of head down and then moved into the paddock.

He is definitely improving with the head down cue. Also improving with the wwylm except when he is on my left. He slipped over to the right and I didn't c/t so he came back to the left which was good. He tried to mug once (at the feed pouch) but I just blocked him so that was good too. The stallion behaviour was present but only verging on over the top so that was also good. He evaded once as did I. I didn't catch the signs the first time but did the second so that was also good. He was also quicker to mirror me, backing with less hesitation than before. Also good.

But the sentence at the beginning of this post about intention was made apparent at the end when we'd finished, the treat pouch was gone and I'd put out some pumpkin for the horses to eat. Balthazar doesn't like watermelon and he wasn't too sure about pumpkin either although he did try some in the end. I was standing on the other side of the gate. He left the pumpkin and came over to me. I scratched his face and neck as I often do and he pressed himself into the gate so that he could press into me, hanging his head over my back while I scratched him. He's never done that before. I continued to scratch his neck and then stepped back so I could lightly scratch his face. I blew in his nostrils and he stretched his muzzle out so we could *breathe* each other. It was lovely. It is the first time I have felt affection from him. I know he was getting scratched on places he can't do himself but it seemed more than that. Because I was out of 'teaching mode' and just hanging out with him, albeit on the other side of the gate, the feeling was one of friendship rather than teacher/student.

Now I need to bring that same intention, that friendly intention, rather than teacher intention, to our sessions together. It always comes back to me. The problems and challenges I have with horses (or birds, cats, dogs and husband even) is not what they do but how I *do* to them, how I react or act towards them. What my INTENTION is.