LOTS of getting touched today!

Well, we went back in the round pen this morning first thing since the weather was supposed to deteriorate by this afternoon (which it did lol). I have to give Cabrito credit for being VERY smart. I had a harder time getting to the point where I left off yesterday since he decided that leaving was still easier than standing still. So I roped him again (and woo hoo, caught him with my first throw!) and did more of the same work from yesterday, only this time being able to help encourage him to stay put a little better. This was working OK, but not great, so I decided to get his feet moving, but towards me rather than away from me. This helped me work my way up the rope and do a little "accidental" touching of his nose. Roger then came out to help me and suggested that I approach him with my flag handle a little bit more deliberately. I guess I might have been trying to "sneak it up" on him. Oops. But Roger was right, a little bit more deliberate approach actually helped. Cabrito was still pretty bothered by me getting in close to try and touch him with the flag handle though, so Roger went and hunted up a pole that is about 8 feet long that I could try touching him with. It worked pretty good! I could touch him with it and he could get worried and leave, but the pole never went away. Long story short, after an almost 3 hour session I was able to rub him with pole all over his hindquarters, back, neck, chest, and even up by his ears and I was able to be fairly close while doing it. We ended with me rubbing him on his left side, and then I walked behind him, he switched eyes and I rubbed him on the right side. He was hipshot, relaxed and had a very soft look on his face. I hope this is the breakthrough that I needed to help him get ready to be touched by my hand and haltered. I would have to say that this is the hardest horse I've ever worked with and he's challenging me every step to think of new ways and approaches to get where I want. But what a great horse, he has a lot of try and seems to want to figure out what I want!