Mustang Saga

May 24, 2006 - Day 4

This morning I went in just to say hi, see if he'd let me catch him easily. He kind of did, but when I went to touch the halter he ran off. We did some "round pen" type work, which was made harder by the fact that my pen is square. He didn't stick in the corners and put his butt toward me, he stuck in the corner and wanted to keep his butt pressed there, against the fence. We got through that, and I put a lead on him and worked on leading. I wanted him up next to me, about with his jaw/neck in line with my shoulder. That was a bit difficult for him but he figured it out, except where he wanted to stick in 2 of the corners. He was also distracted because I'd put a horse he hadn't seen out in the pasture with the others, which is near his pen. Emma was in another pen on the other side of the property because of an injury. We did a bit of hindquarters yielding mixed in with the leading, and he's a pro at that. Finally we made a few circuits around the pen with no getting stuck, and then I stopped. He was very up-headed and tense, looking at the horses, so I asked him to drop his head. He did it better than he has before. Funny how you can let them sit and "soak" and they come back with even better skills than last time. Like they thought it over and figured it out. I untied the lead and asked him to drop his head again. We ended with his nose almost to the ground, his eyes sleepy, licking and chewing. What a good morning!