Big Success

Well today we hit a milestone - Cabrito let me put the halter on!! And of course, no one was around to take pictures of it... lol. I roped him again and started the "rubbing" process up to his ears where we left off last time. He was okay with that so I started working my way towards his jaw, which he allowed me to do also. So then I picked up the halter and lead rope and started rubbing him with that a little bit. He was surprisingly okay with the lead rope touching him and being draped down on his other side. Then I presented the noseband of the halter to him and rubbed his muzzle with it, followed by rubbing all of it under his neck and on his chest. Next I worked on putting my right hand and arm over his neck and getting him used to me standing so close and having pressure from both sides. That took him a little more time to get used to, but soon he was comfortable with me almost "hugging" him around the neck. So, the last step was to pass the halter under his neck so I could grab it with my right hand and put it over his nose. He did great and even stood quietly while I got it tied. PHEW! Talk about a huge relief for me! We then spent the next 15 minutes or so working on leading exercises and just wearing the halter. I even led him back to his pen with it. It was really tempting to want to leave it on him for fear of not being able to get it back on, but I realized that if I couldn't get the halter back on him, he would not be ready to do any other exercises if I'd left it on. It's a trust thing, and besides, practice makes perfect right? :0)