Looking for Her Reactive Self - and her name: "KAIAH"!

 I finally decided on a name: Kaiah, which means "pure" in Native American, or "small but wise".

My friend tells me "Kai" in Hawaiian means the sea, which is also perfect since having this horse has so much to do with my brother Dave who loved surfing, the ocean, and Hawaii.... and I am planning to mostly call her KAI. Maybe it will be Kai and Kai alone....

The other day I took a lot of ugly video showing my attempts at amping her up enough to see some energy and reactivity. Included within this is 1) keeping her engaged and interested, 2) keeping her reassured, 3) when directing her, being consistent with my own body language (you will see I am not! - Thus an area to work on/be more mindful of).

As a note I would generally not recommend you go this far, i.e. get this pushy and fast, with a new mustang. She is just so mellow and basically unafraid that I felt it was OK to really push her to see what is "inside" - she IS a wild horse - and though it's tempting to think of her as domestic, I don't want to be working with the feet and all of a sudden have her feel her oats, and not be prepared. I also want to give her an idea about me; that I can ask, direct, and drive. But most importantly, that I can stop and immediately lower my energy (Sharon Wilsie* says "go to zero" - a term I like.)

Starting with scratches and some reassurance and relaxation.

General communication - or trying to get some.

You can see her confusion in some of these that I need to be more clear 

and position myself better, 

At same time I want to be a safe and comfortable place. 

I plan to go back now to lesser things: 1) being able to touch her all over including hind legs (the most sensitive), and eventually 2) get down to the feet... to hold my hands there, pick them up, hold, and let down. Might be a tricky one! Have watched some video and need to re-watch and see what might work. Most use ropes. 3) Giving/softening to pressure, starting at the head/poll. 

*Sharon Wilsie, "Horse Speak, Conversations with Horses in Their Own Language"