29th November 2024
Belle is now living at Faugere Leisure Association after a pretty rough life, where all her trust in humans, and their intentions, has been lost. She does not want any human in her personal space, even when they only want to help. It is not a nice thing to see an animal so fearful, and it is not a good way to live for anyone.
The way forward is to go as slow as she needs, work at the pace she can feel comfortable with, be aware of how she feels, and work to help her find peace with our intentions.
Slow, patient and persistent. If you think you are going slow enough, go slower.. the intent is trust that will be for life, not a quick fix for now.
This video is just looking at a little way of approaching and retreating with Belle, understanding her boundaries and showing her that we respect them.
If there are no urgent or immediate health and well-being needs, it is important to work with the emotions / trauma / PTSD. We should try and let go of what we believe is an urgent need (such as a hoof trim), when in reality it can wait a while. We often say that when an animal really needs help they will let us help them, so it is not necessary to push boundaries. Often our human desires to conform to human practices of the eight week trim, or dental every year, can get in the way of really developing trust and giving the animal a say.