In the round pen finally

Well, it's been a long time coming, but we finally got the round pen usable for Cabrito and I. He handled the trip down the "chute" very well, no trying to jump panels or anything. I tell ya, he has such a great response to pressure - not too sensitive and not too dull. At first, I just tried to let him get used to the new surroundings and get him to let me move him around the pen a little bit. Then we went to work on letting me get close and in position to eventually touch him. I started him to the right (his harder side to get on, but more accepting to try and touch) and he did pretty good. I was able to get very close, and bring the handle of my flag up to his neck like I was going to touch him. I did that a couple of times and then backed off and let him have a break. Then I went to moving him around to the left. At first all he wanted to do was stop and face me, so I insisted that he keep his shoulder on the fence and just look at me. That lead to him not stopping well, so I put more pressure on to get a better stop, which lead to wanting to turn back into the fence and go the other way. Boy he sure tested me with that, but I just kept sending him out and setting him back up the way I wanted him. He eventually got the message and was able to stop promptly with his shoulder on the fence. I then repeated the process of getting in position to touch him, hold the handle of the flag up and when he was comfortable, retreat. I switched both sides and got that accomplished a couple of times on each side and decided that was enough for today. The best thing was that after all that, I knew that I could touch him if I wanted to, but wanted him to have a chance to think about this and process it over night. Plus, I didn't want to run the risk that he would get too bothered and end up setting us back. Although I'm sure we are the farthest behind in the competition right now, I have confidence that we are going to be the most solid team in the end!