Deviation Actions
Description
XDEarly March
For the first few weeks after the mare’s arrival, Jessalin only fed and observed her. She tried to come up with a name for the Kaimanawa mare, but so far nothing stuck...
1st Day of Training - March 10th
Jessa knew she needed to get started on her little Kaimanawa’s training as soon as possible, without rushing her, of course. So one day while the mare was finishing her breakfast hay, Jessalin entered the pen holding a rope halter and soft cotton lead rope. The little horse looked up, hay hanging out of her mouth, and watched as Jessa crouched down in the middle of the pen, looking at the ground. The mare watched for a moment, then went back to eating while watching Jessa with her peripheral vision and keeping one ear turned towards the strange human. When the mare seemed relaxed, Jessa shuffled a little closer. The still-wild Kaimanawa stopped eating again to watch Jessa and take a step away, then continued eating. Jessalin reached an empty hand out towards the mare, being careful not to make eye-contact. Nervously, the mare sniffed the human’s hand, but pulled away and backed up a step when the girl reached a bit further in attempt to stroke the mare’s face. “Come here little one,” Jessa spoke softly to calm the horse, “iti hoiho*...” the native-tongue words seemed to trigger something in the mare’s primitive brain, and she became more curious about the human.
After about half an hour of slow approach-and-retreat by Jessalin and her little mare, only a little progress had been made and Jessa decided to give up for the day to prevent excess stress to the horse. The Kaimanawa would now let Jesslin stand, facing away, a few feet from her and the mare would sniff her hands and the halter - but that was all.
*Iti hoiho = little horse in Maori, Jessalin had taught herself a tiny bit of Maori, the native language of New Zealand, where Kaimanawas come from
2nd Day of Training
To Jessalin’s initial disappointment, her mare was, at first, just as wary of her the second day as her had been the first day of halter training. However, after only 10 minutes of work, Jessa had the mare back to where she had been progress-wise at the end of the first day of training. Therefore, she was able to continue working with her horse and make further progress. “There’s a good little one, my iti hoiho, my little...my little mouse.” Jessa cooed more to the mare as they progressed through the training, and in her cooing she realized the perfect name for the shy mare - Mouse.
Later that evening, Jessalin did some research and found that there is a tree in New Zealand called the mousehole tree, and the Maori name for that tree is Ngaoi. Jessa thought that sounded lovely, and so her finalized the paperwork for her Kaimanawa girl - naming her WDCR’s Ngaoi, aka Mouse.
6th Day of Training
At the end of a week of diligent work, sometimes putting in two training sessions a day, Jessalin was finally able to halter little Mouse and rub her almost everywhere. Only around her underbelly and hind quarters was she still tentative, but Jessa was confident that she would soon overcome the mare’s reservations.
No references used
Characters, Art & Story (C) KnK
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