Montee (Part 3)

On Sunday, I started out in much the same way I had on Thursday. (If you're interested in learning more about the work I was doing with "thresholds,"  watch this video.) Asking him for small signs of relaxation before proceeding to the next thing. It took far less time to get him to breathe deep and lick and chew! 

J helped me find a saddle that fit him pretty well and T made a suggestion on which bits to bring down, so armed with 3 bridles and a saddle, pad, and 2 girths, I brought all the stuff down to the outdoor arena before my lesson time, and as the class before me was wrapping up, I brought Montee down, too.

We put the Clinton Anderson halter on under his regular halter and then she sent us out to the nearest corner of the arena to start lunging. At first, he was very hard and kept pulling me toward the gate or trying to bulge his outside shoulder to get away. She had me pull and release the rope and gently send him forward with the whip. Eventually, he softened for a few strides at a time and started to lick and chew.

When he had softened more consistently, and mostly stopped pulling toward the gate in both directions, we stopped him and saddled him before sending him back out on the line. This resulted in more pulling and more hardness for several circles in each direction, but again, he eventually softened and licked and chewed, so we brought him in to bridle him and then sent him back out again.

Finally, we brought him in and T stepped into the arena with a small plastic step stool, which she proceeded to drop all around him. He remembered this, and stood still. She had me step up and down on the stool a few times, and then put my foot in the stirrup. He didn't move. So, she had me stand on the stirrup and since he didn't move, she told me to put my leg over, but to not look for the other stirrup, she would put my foot in it so I didn't goose him. 

I opened my outside rein, turned my body, and gently asked him to walk forward with my inside leg and voice. He scooted a little at first, but quickly settled into a really nice walk. 

We walked for a bit in each direction and then called it quits. He stayed reasonably soft throughout and tried really hard to listen to me and T. When he whoa'd, he turned toward her, but always had an ear on me. He stayed soft and relatively relaxed while we were cooling out, too.

Also, T told me that he had started volunteering to come in rather than having to be cornered to be caught, which was HUGE progress and made everyone's lives easier. He's a smart cookie.

We agreed to do the same thing the following Sunday.