Day Three

Huge progress was made today, and I'm actually okay with the idea of hazing them into the pens. Now that they're all five in separate pens in the round pen, things will be a lot easier.

My big bay (still as yet unnamed), does not like the idea of confinement as well as the babies do, and that's a bit discouraging, though entirely expected. Now that we can each focus on our babies, I can give him the quality time I believe he's going to need to overcome his fear of humans. I have no doubt that, in his three years of life, he's had many unpleasant experiences with humans - or at least, what he perceives to be unpleasant. Its up to us to fix that. I want to be the one he trusts more than anything, which means that I have to think about every little move that I make. If I accidentally sneeze and he gets scared, that's a step backward, and at this stage, a step backward is not what we need at all.

We don't have another class until Monday. This weekend, I plan on busting out my lawn chair and a novel and sitting with him until I can't sit any more. Then on Sunday night, I'll reevaluate where he is with Christina and we can formulate a plan for class on Monday. Some of the girls have been talking about using a squeeze chute for their yearlings...with mine, I think that's a terrible idea right now, but we'll get there eventually. Sure I want him haltered, but I'm willing to give him the time he needs to make that happen. Even though I'm on a time schedule myself, I'm on his schedule.