Another day down!

Goal for today: Fix the damaged gate then work in round pen. Hopefully get Spade haltered.

This morning I was so happy to see Mr. Spade at breakfast!!! As I started pouring feed this morning I realized that there was an extra face in the barn. Spade was up in his stall waiting on his grain. It has not taken him long to pick up the routine around here. I was so excited and ready to get closer to him today.

Later this afternoon Danial and I finally got to a place where we could go and start working on the damaged gate. Boy, did we really make a good one. It looks like another section of round pen. The entire time we were sawing, clanging and drilling we had a curious bystander peaking around the corner to see what we were doing. With in a few minutes he was so interested that he came all the way out in to his run and stood 15 feet away as we were cutting boards with the Skil Saw. I was really proud of him.

As soon as we were finished with the gate I got to work. We drove Spade in to the round pen and I walked in. Immediately he was faced up to me. All the work that I had done in the stall yesterday proved to pay off. But then for an hour we were back and forth, approach and retreat, dance here dance there. I even bummed it up a notch and made him run extra laps for leaving the conversation. In the beginning he was very compliant although he defiantly had his bubble that I couldn't enter. But as the session progressed he slowly got more confidant and started having almost a "Nana boo boo" attitude. It started to feel like a mean game of keep away and I was the one in the middle. It was like I was speaking clearly and then for some reason we both were confused so it turned into a game.  He still kept his ten foot circle and would not allow me past it. Finally I found a stopping point and just left him. I was tired of the aggravation of him teasing me then running around the pen with the look on his face like a little giggling school boy. As disheartening as it was not to reach my goal today. I did learn a few things about him. He is EXTREMELY athletic and is really good at reading my movements. I am excited to see the things that he can do once he is under saddle.

Later this evening I started to watch the video that Danial had recorded today during our session. I was trying to see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. Immediately I spotted the problem I didn't wait when I should have. Mainly because I was trying to move things in my own time and not the horses. I started to get greedy for the goal of the day instead of allowing him to tell me when he was ready. On the way out of the pen I asked myself,"Spiritually what did Spade teach me today?" The Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance Psalms 46:10. It says "Be still and know that I am God." There are so many times that we try to move things in our own timing and end up messing things up. Then it takes long to achieve our goals. Sometime we just have to let go and allow God to make the progress. I hope to go out tomorrow and Spade is willing to allow me to touch him. But after today I will not be rushing things.