Artemis and Her Blanket

I've been focusing a lot on Artemis' desenitization training lately.  As I told E, I spent a good year torturing...er...training...her mother so she gets to have the same things done to her.  First we started with the blanket.  I used my english saddle pad and got her used to seeing it and smelling it.  Once she was comfortable with it, I put it on her back.  I flopped it around and she danced a bit.  Once she stood calm for me moving it around, I brought it up onto her neck.  Then onto her ears and I finished with the english blanket by tossing it onto her and then pulling it off of her quickly.  Once she was completely fine with the english blanket I grabbed Socks' western blanket and repeated the process with her.  This time however, I brought the blanket up over her head so it covered her eyes.  She was not very impressed but she didn't do anything to lower her head.  Slowly I began leaving it on longer and longer.  I was able to leave it on her head and walk over to Jimmy (he was right beside her so don't worry) and she didn't move a muscle. 

After that I brought her in the arena and led her around.  I kept the blanket on her neck and kept her walking.  Slowly I raised the blanket so it was going higher and higher up on her.  She was a little trooper and didn't care.  Eventually I covered her head with it, so she couldn't see anything.  At first she didn't move.  She didn't want to go forward so I pet her and talked to her softly.  She took a tentative step forward and nothing bad happened.  She took another and again, nothing bad happened.  She decided that even though she couldn't see, it wasn't that bad.  She followed me around the arena, her head at my elbow.  I talked to her the whole time.  E came to watch for a while and laugh at my poor tortured pony.  Once I finished with the blanket I tossed the lead rope over her head, her neck and around her legs.  She could have cared less.  I left it over her neck and picked up all her feet.  I moved them all around and held each of them up for two minutes.  Artemis didn't move.  I took her back in the asile and picked up her feet again.  She was horrible.  We took her back outside.  We need to lead her by Socks' pen now to put her out and, poor Socks, but Artemis doesn't give her mother a second glance.  She's more concerned about getting out in the pasture with all her new friends.  Socks on the other hands calls to her each time and follows us down her pen, but her baby doesn't care.

On Sunday we brought her in the barn again.  I did her feet again and she was absolutly perfect.  I talked to her more when I did them and that seemed to keep her calm.  We brought her in the arena and this time we brought out the balls, not the blanket.  We have a few plastic, beachball-like balls that we used for Jimmy.  This time it was Artemis' turn.  She does NOT like when you kick it.  I rolled it under a few times and sometimes she stood still, other times she tried to kick it.  I rubbed it over her and bounced it against her lightly.  By the end she would stand still for a few seconds and then walk forward.  She did great for her first time with them.  We'll definitly be using them again.  By the time she's ready to be ridden, I hope that there's not much that will spook her.  She's had a cat on her back and she's completely fine with it.  She, however, does not like to be alone in the barn.  We're working on it but she still likes to throw a little temper tantrum.  She's great about a lot of things but everyone now and then she likes to remind me that she's still a baby.