I'm your personal safety icon!

     I really wanted to play with Gingy and the scarey, murky, mud puddle, but Gingy showed me something else that needed work.  Our catching game and not really even that so much as his respect for me and his confidence in me.  I know this is strange he's a self-sufficient LB, but now that I am really trying to become the alpha neither one of us is sure of where we belong.  Sometimes I am firm and assertive and sometimes I am...not.  I know this is part of our growth so I'm trying really hard to trust in the process, but Gingy and I are changing so much which makes it super hard. 

     Today he showed me his nervous RB side.  He kept trying to find comfort with his herd mates or with my mom(who was filling the horse tank).  Normally, if you just bug him a little slow down, he'll get interested and come, so that's what I tried.  However, this time bugging him didn't make much difference, he went and hid behind who-ever was handy(besides me).  At this point I began making it very uncomfortable to ignore me.  This worked, he came and I took all of the pressure off.  He blew and licked his lips, so we just stood there.  Until he saw my mom with the black bucket(he thinks that always means food).  I bugged him, trying to remind him to stay with, which worked for a bit.  Then he left, so I half-heartedly started making it uncomfortable to hang out with my mom.  He faced up to me and I waited, for him to make his move one way or the other.  His move was to fall asleep, I took this the wrong way and thought he was thinking.  Now I'm pretty sure he wasn't, he was really falling asleep(quite comfortable without me).  My intuition told me I that I hadn't really gotten my point to his feet yet, so I again persued moving him around.  It didn't take much, just the suggestion of discomfort and he came to me again.  This time I didn't wait, I asked him to follow me.  After that he wouldn't leave me, even when Marsan and Cherroke ran right past us.  He spooked, but then he looked around for me and we resumed our tour of the corral.

    I've been puzzling over why he left me the first time he came to me.  Now I understand it.  I finally stepped in with firm leadership(when I made him really uncomfortable without me) and he recognized that, but then I let him get bored.  At that point he left to because he got distracted and I didn't make a big enough deal about those first few steps away from me, so he took more.  Then he did feel inclined to pay attention, but once again I let him get too comfortable without my leadership.  In the end when I sorta realized all of this and started to make it uncomfortable came back I kept him interested.  Moral of this long story?  In leadship consistency is the key, it gives the follower/s something to depend on, which is what makes them feel safe.