Montee (Part 2)

I mentioned when I left that first Tuesday night that I could probably mess with Montee again on Thursday, weather permitting (and if they were able to catch him -- apparently it took 4 people almost an hour to catch him that first day).

She ended up leaving him in because of weather, so on Thursday I went out again specifically to work with him. I had done some research and had decided how I wanted to proceed (at least that first day, whether I kept doing it depended on him!). So I checked in with her to let her know I was going into his stall and had my phone on me, then donned my helmet and vest, and grabbed some brushes. 

I opened his stall door and let him sniff my hand, palm down. He sniffed and I took it away. I did this a few more times, and then inserted half of my body into the stall and continued asking him to sniff and taking my hand away when he did. I reached for his halter and he didn't move away so I scratched him and praised him and stepped away for a moment. 

I continued working like that, asking for even the tiniest bit of relaxation before stepping away for a moment, until I had attached the lead rope to his halter and threaded it through the crosstie ring (so he was "tied" but could get away if he panicked). I left the stall door open enough so I could escape if I needed to.

For about 45 minutes, I worked on pushing the boundaries of his "threshold" for contact on both sides of his body. If I touched him with my hand or a brush, I watched for a blink, a slight turn of the head, an ear twitch in my direction, a slight exhale -- anything that indicated he was thinking maybe this wasn't so bad, and then I would praise him and step away from his space for a moment.

Could almost be actual footage of his face lol

At first, he mostly looked utterly perplexed and worried. I don't think he'd ever been asked what he was comfortable with or had his space/threshold respected. Eventually, his confusion and wariness started to become curiosity. He would turn to look at me like, are you really listening to me? And then...and then he started to breathe! And then he started to lick and chew! Finally, his eyes softened and his body relaxed ever so slightly. 

At T's urging, I ended up bringing him into the arena to walk him around a bit and then she convinced me to lunge him for a few minutes. She helped me get a Clinton Anderson halter on him and we went off to the end of the ring. After that, I helped turn him out and hoped he'd be good the next time they tried to bring him in.

T asked if I wanted to work with him in my Sunday class so she could help me with him, and then I could hack Jo, if I wanted to -- I said sure, that sounded great!