Okay, this is not as dramatic as it sounds, but since I've had Marty in the round pen, he has slowly been breaking and/or chewing off the lead rope on his halter that the BLM folks attached to him in the chute. Since I have not got to the point of where I will grab that lead rope as yet, it hasn't bothered me. His rope is now about 2" from his halter now so I thought I might be able to get close enough to him to remove that latch and put a fresh lead rope on him. And I was right. There was nothing to it. I really need to do the head turn to the hip with the lead rope in my hand but I'm scared to try it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not nervous around Marty, I just don't want to fail and have him pull away from me and get away once I have that rope in my hand. That is my biggest problem with my 18 year old gelding Bo and that's why Bo gets away from me all the time. I want to be able to do this step right so if anyone can stop by to help me to make sure it is done correctly, I would greatly appreciate it!
In the meantime, however, I was able to stand by him without holding his lead and use the buggy whip to pet him all over. Tonight was the first time I did this. I can tell he is definitely warming up to me but his ears are still back a good majority of the time. But yet, he's coming to me and allowing me to pet him and everything so it's a little confusing as to what he's feeling. I covered his front section pretty much with the buggy whip, legs and all. Boy did he stomp when it touched his leg but he recovered quickly and then it didn't bother him. He is definitely shy on his left side. I actually stand on his right side while I'm petting his left side just to get him used to it. Without being able to use the rope just yet, I can't get over to his left side and pet him.
All in all it was a great night. And we ended on a good note.
Oh, and I took the rope off of him because that has turned out to be pretty easy to latch on and off of him now.
Sorry, no pics tonight, my photographer went fishing....
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