Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Day Four - Graduation!

First, the big news -- Notice anything missing?:


Today was Graduation Day for the mustang! (Jasper? maybe..?) After our session tonight, I took off his necktag and then his halter. He hasn't been crazy about me touching his head, but after I took the halter off, he really enjoyed me rubbing where it had been sitting the past few days.

When I first got to the barn, I couldn't see him in his stall and then I saw the tips of his ears. He was laying down, taking a nap. After he got up, I took this picture and I love the way it turned out:


For our training session tonight, we went to the arena and did a bit of lunging work, then some more on disengaging his hindquarters. Then I turned him loose in the arena for the first time since we started our training. I left him there and came back a few times to approach and pet him, then retreat. He did well, only leaving me once. After my barn chores were done, I did more approach and retreat with him at liberty before clipping the lead rope on. Then we worked on some yielding of the forequarters and hindquarters.

After he was back in his stall, I undid his neck tag. I was happy to be able to get it off of him without cutting it. Onyx's tag was so gunked up with mud that there was no untying it, I had to cut it off of her on her big graduation day. I'd say that is certainly an advantage I have with him over Onyx - he is CLEAN.

His necktag, on the kitchen counter instead of around his neck:


After he stood so nicely for me to untie and unwind the necktag cord, I decided to give him a pop quiz on being caught and haltered. He was unsure, but he did very well and so I took his halter off. I then rubbed and rubbed his head and he seemed to really like that.

Today was a great day with him!

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