Now officially known as "Cabrito" - the baby goat!

Yep, so I finally settled on Cabrito. Even though it means baby goat, it's a cool name and is easy to call him. Today wasn't such an easy session for anybody - me, Cabrito, or my saddle horse, Roxy. I started out getting him roped on my second try (small victory there since he didn't really move and was about 3 feet away lol) and went back to work with moving the hindquarters and seeing if I could get him to stand a little closer to me and Roxy. I have to give Cabrito credit, he is VERY smart. He figured out that if he reared and spun away, that I couldn't stop him, so you can imagine how quickly that little trick escalated. This was also flustering Roxy, which was frustrating me, so I opted to hand Roxy off to Spencer and go back to working on Cabrito afoot. Things went a little better and I was able to get quite close to him. My hand was just inches away from his neck, but whenever my hand would go in the blind spot, he'd get too bothered and I couldn't touch him. His curiousity was stronger however and he was sniffing and touching my hand with his nose more often. After a while, I needed a break, so Spencer started working with him some. And this is where more of Cabrito's intelligence surfaced. He figured out that when Spence was almost close enough to touch him, that if he struck out with a front foot, Spence would back away. Fortunately it was nothing too malicious, but that colt has got some reach with those front feet! So another good chunk of time was spent keeping his feet moving while allowing Spencer to get close without striking. To end the training session, Spencer was on a roll and was able to get close and pull the rope off of Cabrito's neck. He didn't even run, which was a really great way to end.

There were several times today that I felt completely over-whelmed and frustrated and wanted to tell myself that "you have no business doing this", "you're no good", "this is way too hard". But I kept with it, and thanks to Spencer's great coaching and help, we got through it. And now reflecting on what went on today - I know that we DID make progress, and things weren't that bad. I also have to keep reminding myself that I chose to do this so that I could learn and get more experience. I guess part of gaining experience is having to be put in a situation that isn't easy. So, I'm going to try and keep remembering that and stay away from the bad attitude. I can tell already that this little mustang is going to have a significant impact on my life!