I got there a little early for Phoenix who wasn't quite finished with breakfast so I walked into the paddock and said good morning from a distance and waited patiently for him to come to me. When he was done eating he came to say hello and we started our session for the day.
I had no set goals today; I simply wanted to ensure that we both made some progress and I think that's how it's going to remain. If we're not BOTH progressing, learning something new or reinforcing something which needs to be reinforced, then I'm doing things wrong.
I realized today that one of the biggest dangers I'm going to face with this little guy is boredom. He's very smart and gets bored fairly quickly so I have to work to keep him engaged.
Phoenix getting ready to come say "Good morning!"
Anyway, so after our good morning hello, I spent about an hour working on getting him comfortable with me handling him on his terms, that is, no halter, no restraint. When he needed a break I let him walk away, gave him a rest and then approached him again once he relaxed. My thinking was this: I wanted him to understand that there's absolutely NO danger in approaching me and that if he needed to relieve the pressure of my presence, he could. But, I also wanted to make it easier to hang out with me than to not.
The small though significant victory here was that he very quickly came to realize that if he came & hung out with me, I'd help him keep flies away.
During that 1st hour, I spent a lot of it working on getting him used to my hands moving on and around his head, neck, shoulders and front legs continuing where we started yesterday. Today I REALLY focused on getting him used to having my arms on and around his neck from the underside as well as from above though, as I'd noticed yesterday that he has a tendency to fling his head in the air and back away if I put my hands close to or above his hears or high above and behind his upper neck. It's interesting, he's actually more comfortable with me picking up his feet than he is with me touching his neck between the poll and the crest.
Anyway, after the first hour, we took about a 15 minute break where I left the paddock, walked around a bit and just gave him some "away from the crazy girl" time.
2nd hour, I'd thought we'd just continue with what we'd worked on during the 1st hour but I could see almost immediately that Phoenix was getting bored so I brought out the rag and the halter/lead rope.
I started by making sure he say both items. Then holding one or the other I'd just kind of hold it with my arms lowered and wave it a little to get him curious. He'd come to me and I'd let him check it out (this guy has to explore EVERYTHING with his lips, it seems) and then I'd slowly raise it to see if he'd let me rub it 1st on his nose and forehead and 2nd from the poll to the withers.
He was having none of it past sniffing and lipping both items. So, new tactic: I coiled up the halter and lead rope, tied it so it wouldn't turn into a big long mess, let it fall to the ground and then walked away. Phoenix immediately approached, sniffed, picked it up in his teeth, swung it around and played with it, dropped it and then pawed at it. I repeated the same thing with the rag once he decided that the halter/lead were harmless and relaxed. He handled the rag the same way: pick it up, wave it around, toss it on the ground, paw at it, decide it's harmless and walk away. I think he just needs to see that there's nothing to be fearful of. Yesterday, he wouldn't even get near the halter and lead on the ground or the rag (which I sprayed with fly spray before our session started because I want him to get used to the scent) so, as far as I'm concerned, that's victory number 2. Yay!
Next, it was break time again and I broke out the carrots. The last half hour I decided we'd do something that I personally hadn't done with him yet: I did a little reading up last night and one of the things I read suggested that if you have a difficult to catch and halter horse, initially, bribery with treats can help. Right now, even though he's ok-ish (that is, you can lead him around and he's jittery but he'll stand still for a bit) once the halter's on, Phoenix does NOT associate it with anything positive so he's absolutely NOT interested in allowing anyone to put a halter on him. I decided that we're going to make it "fun" to be haltered. Every time he comes to me, stands and allows me to halter him, he gets a piece of carrot.
I started by giving him a small piece to let him know I had goodies. Next,I walked away and I gave the command "Phoenix, come here" and when he did, he got his carrot bit (that was easy, of COURSE he'll come for the carrot!) Did that a couple of times and then progressed to "Phoenix, come here," and then when he came, holding my left hand lightly on the bridge of his nose and my right hand on his withers, I'd say "stand" until he stood still and relaxed (that was actually a little scary as I was concerned about getting kicked or stomped on as he tried to sidle away). Once he calmed down and stood still, he got his carrot bit. Finally, after I think he figured out I wanted him to be still, we did "come here" and "stand" and I looped the lead around his neck, haltered him, told him what a good boy he is and gave him another bit of carrot.
Once we got the halter on the 1st time, I led him around a bit(he gets SO bored with it that I don't actually lead him around as much as I should, to be honest. I need to work on that) and introduced the rag again and tried to get him to let me rub his shoulders and front legs with the rag. That was a mixed success as he'd only let me do his left side. For some reason, with the hater on, he's not OK with me approaching his right side... it takes a lot of coaxing and repetition and that wasn't our main goal at the time, so I didn't push the issue. After just a few minutes, I let him go, gave him a break, repeated the whole process and then called it a day.
I can't wait to go back tomorrow! I'll work on getting better pictures but for now, crappy shots from afar are going to have to do. He's not quite ready to deal with me waving a camera around yet.
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