First touch

I spent several hours with Marika and Whetu this morning, and while she allowed me to come within 1-2 metres of her (a huge improvement), she was still not overly comfortable. She is nervous and lacks the curiosity about people that some Kaimanawas have, probably because she's constantly worried about her baby. She's reasonably ok with me being near her, but she was clearly not intending to make any moves of her own and I'm not going to push her. 

I opened the gate to the yard race, and wandered back to the shed to make a feed up for her.  By the time I got back she and Whetu had taken themselves in there and were standing quietly.

So since they'd decided to go in of their own accord, I took the opportunity to very gently handle Marika.  It wasn't my original plan to handle her in the race, but that's the way it worked out.

I'm not doing anything with Whetu at the moment - she's naturally more bold than her mother anyway, and also I have all the time in the world to work with her.  She'll learn off her mum and my other horses in her own time.

She didn't want me to go near her face, so I respected that, but spent a quiet couple of hours gently teasing the enormous mat out of her mane. 

I don't want them stuck in the yards for too much longer, so she's going to need to show me that she's ready to go out in the paddock with the others.