The horse in the right of the photo is Rebel - a rather handsome Warmblood. Rebel has a very interesting problem, in that he is afraid of being caught in the field. He originally came from the Continent and has always been known for his catching problem, which had led to some previous owners being reluctant to give him any turnout at all.
Rebel's owner has been able to work out a system to make sure that Rebel can have his needs (such as having the farrier, or vet) seen to, but her aim is to be able to catch Rebel in the field. On our first session, Faye was able to make contact with Rebel - using non-confrontational body language techniques, she was able to get Rebel to be happy with her stroking his face and head in the field. It took an hour...but this was the first time Rebel has been touched in the field for at least 7 years. There's a lot of previous history to undo, and Faye really had to prove to Rebel that she, as a human, is not a threat to him. At the moment we are concentrating on rebuilding Rebel's trust in people when he's being caught...hopefully it won't be too long before his owner is able to interact with him in this way too. Rebel's owner has been brilliant at understanding his problems and giving him as much time as he needs to build positive experiences.
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