Mustang Saga

See what we did today?

 

He accepted the saddle pad with no problems over the weekend, so I pulled out the lightweight saddle.  He thought it was scary.  I left it next to his pile of hay all day yesterday, and today we revisited it with some flagging and sacking out beforehand.  He was still worried but he was willing to try for me, and soon he was ready for his photoshoot.
 

Oops, he moved and then he was scared of his rope.

Silly boy.  He got over that soon enough.

 Did you see the mounting block?  We played with that today too.  He got over my tallerness after a bit.  It was especially worrisome when I touched him with both hands when I was taller.  Two handed touch has been a kind of goosy issue for him from the start so it's not surprising that it would be a problem again when something new is added in.  He didn't seem to mind me leaning on him, waving my hand on the opposite side, and patting him.  This is all so much fun!

I love his curiosity in this one:

I didn't cinch it on.  In fact I took off all the rigging.  The rest will come with time.  No hurry.

I tried turning him loose in a bigger area today.  It didn't go as well as I'd hoped.  Scout and Bella were on the other side of the fence.  He got himself shocked repeatedly and I'm pretty sure he thought it was Scout who was shocking him.  He was pretty scared, poor guy.  Little does he know Scout is a goober and there's no reason to be scared of him.

 But what did go exceptionally well is that he was scared and excited all at once and he came to me for reassurance and let me halter him and take him back to his safe zone.  What a good boy.