Another post to keep you all in anticipation of photos! And for those of you not on GMT it is currently 11.19am so tonight is hours away (sorry!)....say about 8pm so that is in about 9 hours time if my maths hasn't gone mad.
Took Rupert out on Sunday night for a bit of work. He was good to catch (first time without bribery!!!) He just let me rub the rope on his neck and then slide it round. Then he put his nose into the headcollar for me. We had a slight disagreement about going through a little patch of mud (he HATES mud with a vengance
) but he eventually picked his way through delicately. He was very lively and kept nudging me and prancing around. He was very good with Stephen, he asked Stephen to scratch his favourite itchy spot (he has learnt that from me working on his handling - whenever he sees me now he offers me his neck to scratch
) and when Stephen scratched it he groomed him back! That is the first time I have seen him that comfortable with a man.
We had a go at some long reining off his halter (I haven't longreined him before). He got a bit confused at first and I got Stephen to walk with him and he was fine (Stephen appears to not be 'that scarey man' any more). Only did a few minutes as he found the halter confusing so I think next time we'll try with his bit in. I was very impressed as he let me put the rein round his rump rather than over his back and was fine. He walked as if he had wet himself for a few yards as he got used to it and then was fine. We then went onto lunging as he knows that better and had a little bit of a mad career around (he believes lunging is for charging at full speed). However we had to call it a day before we had done very much as there were huge horseflies about and poor Rupert was getting really anxious about them.
But I was very pleased as he accepted the rope around his quarters which would have sent him mad a few months ago and he caught well and related well to Stephen - he is really coming on.
Took Rupert out on Sunday night for a bit of work. He was good to catch (first time without bribery!!!) He just let me rub the rope on his neck and then slide it round. Then he put his nose into the headcollar for me. We had a slight disagreement about going through a little patch of mud (he HATES mud with a vengance
) but he eventually picked his way through delicately. He was very lively and kept nudging me and prancing around. He was very good with Stephen, he asked Stephen to scratch his favourite itchy spot (he has learnt that from me working on his handling - whenever he sees me now he offers me his neck to scratch ) and when Stephen scratched it he groomed him back! That is the first time I have seen him that comfortable with a man. We had a go at some long reining off his halter (I haven't longreined him before). He got a bit confused at first and I got Stephen to walk with him and he was fine (Stephen appears to not be 'that scarey man' any more). Only did a few minutes as he found the halter confusing so I think next time we'll try with his bit in. I was very impressed as he let me put the rein round his rump rather than over his back and was fine. He walked as if he had wet himself for a few yards as he got used to it and then was fine. We then went onto lunging as he knows that better and had a little bit of a mad career around (he believes lunging is for charging at full speed). However we had to call it a day before we had done very much as there were huge horseflies about and poor Rupert was getting really anxious about them.
But I was very pleased as he accepted the rope around his quarters which would have sent him mad a few months ago and he caught well and related well to Stephen - he is really coming on.
)
