First Day of Work...

.... and boy was it work for both of us!! We started this morning at about 10 a.m. Spencer roped the little guy around the neck so I could start teaching him how to yield his hindquarters, not run off and hopefully get to where I could put a halter on him. It didn't take him long to figure out that running wasn't a good option and I had him driving by me, yielding his hindquarters and switching directions pretty quickly. The little guy seems to have a lot of feel and is very smart - lots of licking and chewing during breaks. We kept at this for a while and I kept working my way up the rope. We finally hit a bit of spot where he stopped progressing - and that was when I could get up about 2 feet away from him. Then he'd get a little bothered and need some more space. So with the help of Spencer's dad, I quit pursuing touching him for a while and started seeing if I could get him to lead at all. Working his hindquarters around both directions encouraged him to start taking steps forward with his outside front foot, which of course leads to leading!! He eventually got to where he would come around and then lead forward about 10 steps.

By this time, it was apparent that I probably wasn't going to be able to touch him today so it was time to look for a good stopping place. Not being able to get close enough to touch him made for a challenge of getting the rope off his neck. After flipping it around both sides of his head and body hoping the rope would slide through the honda and loosen up, we decided to fashion a "hook" that I could get close enough with to let the rope run through. By 1 p.m. I had the rope off, had a refresher course in my rope handling skills and my mustang's as well!! He got it over his back, around his butt, wrapped all the way around all 4 feet and handled it all quite well!! No kicking and firing or bolting off. What a very sensible young colt!

3 hours is a pretty long first session for any horse (and me for sure lol), let alone one that has never been handled, but I gave him lots of breaks and "soaking" time so he never quit on me. I'm very happy and encouraged with what we got done today. I think once he gets over the hump of being touched and is able to relax all the way, we're going to be rolling along pretty quickly!

Here are the name ideas we have so far:
"Cabrito"
"Ollie"
"Gunner"

Any other ideas?

This is about as close as he would let me get today