Day Eight

I try to be super professional about working with my Mustang. I get so intensely focused on him when I'm working with him that I don't notice anything else. Everything is slow, methodical and predictable. But today, when we got that halter over his head, I've never felt that kind of elation in my life. I called out to Cindy like a Kindergartener who just colored a picture. Highly unprofessional, but I had to share that with someone! I'm a real trainer, I have taught this horse something! He went from what he was when he got here to wearing a halter in fourteen days.

I have learned so much about training from this, even in the short amount of time so far. I've learned that you've got to know where to draw the line between too harsh and not firm enough. Some of the girls aren't being firm enough, and although I know this journal is not about them, from watching them I've learned what I don't want to do. We've had to push Bob Marley out of his comfort zone a few times, but the idea is to push him barely out of his comfort zone so he'll get acclimated to a new thing and then his comfort zone is expanded. Last week his comfort zone went from accepting our nearness to accepting our touch to accepting a rope touching him to accepting a rope around his head to today, when he accepted a halter and began to give to pressure.

It seems like once we were able to touch him, a wall was broken down and he became immensely easier to work with. He's still nervous around us, but instead of getting high and staying high, he gets high and then comes down as we stroke him. That one thing, touch, became our first aid in working with him.

We got a halter on him!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!