Halter Training
Sinners Cathedral
- When Sin first arrived we put her in a large round pen, wanting to keep her in a smaller area where we can work with her. From what I can see she doesn't seem to bothered by her new location and is more interested in the grass that has been aloud to grow in the unused round pen. From the moment she was in the pen, so was I. She trotted the perimeter for a little bit, and stick her head over the fence to see what was going on, but after an hour she was grazing contently. I sat down and leaned against the fence, waiting for her to display the tell tail signs of relaxation. And eventually I was rewarded. She would rest her legs and wander around the pen. At first she seemed indifferent to my presence, but after a little exploration she became curious and wandered over to sniff me. Once she had walked away, satisfied that I was not a threat, I stood. She watched me stand but displayed no signs of distress. This was where my lack of height often came in handy, I was not intimidating. As she aloud me to enter her space we began a game of contact. I would enter her space, and stay there till she touched or sniffed me, and then I would move away slightly, she would follow and touch me again, and again I would move away. I was trying to get her to feel un-threatened by my presence. By lunch I was able to walk around her completely and get her to move with just my body language, always rewarding her by releasing any pressure my body directed. I decided it was time to try with the halter. I got her used to it at first, letting her sniff it and putting it over her muzzle and taking it off a few times. I rubbed the thing all over her (currently dirty) roan body, making it smell like her and desensitizing her to it. After a short while she let me put the halter and lead shank on. She shook her head a little and shied at the waving lead, but eventually she was walking around perfectly, I still used mostly my hands and body language to direct her around the pen. Once I was satisfied that she was comfortable with the whole process I took the lead off and let her go back to grazing, keeping a watchful eye that she didn't try to paw it off.
\this is: Unfinished.
