More trailer today. This time we loaded with the 22′ rope around his neck. He loaded at a trot the first couple of times! Whoowee! Same as before, he exploded a couple times when he first loaded. I managed to drop and grab the rope when he exploded out of the trailer. Then he ate a bit of grain, turned around and stayed quiet. I had dropped the rope. I had to figure out how to get the rope in my hands to get him to come out. I didn’t want to step in the trailer with him just yet.
Finally I was able to keep the rope in my hands when he loaded, ate, turned and stayed. I asked him to come out with a little pressure on the rope.
Next I led him into the trailer and kept him from turning. We backed out three more times, all with quivering. Tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to stop him from turning around…after he gets over the initial explosion turns and settles down.
Then we played with circling. Circling with the 22′ around his neck is fun. Whe. He put pressure on the rope, I put more pressure on till he got light again. We ended with a game of “catch me”. He circled. Via body language, I told him to reverse and go. Then I took off running. His job was to catch me and run beside me. Oh that was fun! This is the pre-liberty, “run to me”. Running is something else again for me. It is a foreign language.
Having lots of these horsemanship goals are wonderful. This gives me a lot of purpose! That is what I need to stay motivated. Cisco gets a better leader! You can’t beat that!