Blaze had Visitors Yesterday

And he liked them A LOT! Miss Hannah, Miss Elizabeth, Miss Katie and Miss Linda!!!
Even Linda noticed how much better Blaze was doing. Last time she visited, Blaze was still jumpy. This time he nearly climbed over the fence to see the kids. It just did my heart so much good to see Blaze loving on kids!! He was gentle and inquisative. Even gave a few licks on Hannah and Elizabeth's coats... sorry mom... they will need to be washed.

Thanks so much for visiting girls! It was good for Blaze!!!

Blaze will have more visitors tomorrow since we're hosting Easter here! He's very excited!

Finally Face to Face

This might be one of my most exciting horse days ever... and it all merely happend in about 30 minutes!! It all started when I went out to feed Blaze this afternoon. I decided, after feeding Blaze, to brush and pet him. As I said in a previous post... he has SEEMINGLY gotten past his headshyness. This alone is amazing to me. So, I have tried to persistantly give him attention regarding his head to be sure to instill in him that he was right to give in and he CAN trust a person to touch his head. A couple days ago I started to work with Blaze to get him to obediently step forward when pressure is applied to his halter. The first day of working with him, it took about 20 minutes and after a little understanding he finally stepped forward. Seeing that stepping forward brought a release, he was quick to do it every time I tried from then on out. Even today as I walked up to his stall, I gently grabbed his halter and barely pulled it forward and he stepped forward like a pro. After he stepped forward I praised him and pet him. After petting him for a few minutes I realized he was (for the first time ever) lowering his head by his own choice while I was in close proximity to his head. The last few days I have been working on his mane and I have applied pressure behind his ears to get him to lower his head. Today... I didn't even have to ask, it was as if we finally had gotten to a place in our relationship where he wanted me to be around. You see, I had come up with a way to explain how the relationship between Blaze and I had been... I was like the middle school girl all giddy and in love with a boy... Blaze was the middle school boy, who while he may have been starting to be interested, really still just wanted to be a boy and really had no interest in the girl clamoring over him. Well... today... I think we finally fell in love.

As I was petting Blaze I put my forhead to his (something I HAD never ever done before for fear I would get knocked out by Blaze's sporatic fear based behavior). Blaze.... just stood there.... ears forward... eyes soft... and he soaked it in. I thought this was great, but I was certain Blaze had to be nervous... until I saw his soft eyes... eyes tell a lot about a horse's attitude (in my unprofessional opinion) and Blaze's eyes were certainly saying.... "I like this". You know I started crying... this was a breakthrough for both of us... I had gotten over my fear too... and on a windy day... when Blaze is usually at his worst!!!! Blaze has had his moments.... and this was one of the best!!

After all this I asked God what He wanted me to learn from this lesson. He told me that just as I had longed to be face to face with Blaze, He longs to be face to face with His children... even in the windy challenging times in our lives. And when we step forward from the gentle pressure applied, He certainly is there, face to face loving every minute of it, even more than I loved being face to face with Blaze... which I can't even imagine!!

"The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Exodus 33:11