Getting to know you

Getting to know you...

getting to know all about you...

What's that you have there?

Day 3:

Opal was very happy to see me today. She walked right up to me and began following me around. We started today off by just approaching her and having her touch my hands. She let me pet her nose easily. Next I added the halter to the end of the pole.  Yesterday she was very eager to touch the pole with her nose, and after sniffing the rope halter, was just as willing to let that touch her muzzle. 

 

You have the pole?  Ok, I'll touch it.

 

We took several breaks, one of which I used to string empty water bottles on hay twine to string up in her stall. They not only moved, but made noise and would touch her body while she moved around in the stall. I also hung a rope up for her to touch and move around. She wasn't 100% on board with this, but after a few laps around the pen she settled down. 
Since she was willing to walk up to me and the pole, I just moved around the pen putting a bottle or rope between us. This made her have to walk up to them, past them, or under them. With each lap she began to realize that those items wouldn't bite her.

 

Oh, they won't hurt me either....but they feel funny when I walk under them.

 

I then took the pole and swapped out the halter for a carrot on the end. She had been wanting to mouth and nose the pole, so I wanted to give her something she could chew and eat. It didn't take long and she had chewed up the first carrot on the end of the pole.....then spit the carrot out. (I think a few of the turned out horses gasped in disbelief at this moment). I added another carrot, same result. Well, she will get the idea soon enough. 

 Is this how you do it?

Then she did something I wasn't prepared for. She walked right up to me, touched my hand, sniffed my shirt, then blew softly in my face...if I had duck faced (which I don't, its silly), I would have kisses her. However, I wasn't in the best place to escape a bolt or a kick, so I just blew back on her nose softly. She did this 4 more times by the end of our session. 

Lastly I put the halter back on the pole and lifted it up so the halter took up the whole length of her face. A snort and a few pressure releases later and she touched it.   By this time the rain was really coming down so I gave her a flake of alfalfa and called it a day.

 Position, wait, touch, and release.

  

Day 4:

SHE ATE THE CARROT.....mind you like an ear of corn, but she took it off the pole and ate it all the same!

 Like this Mom?

Another rainy morning...isn't it almost July?  It was 60 when I left the house at 9 this morning and nearly 90 when I left the barn this afternoon!  Poor critters.  As you can imagine we worked in the shade as much as we could today.  Opal expressed interest in the cart and pitchfork I was using to clean her stall.  Aside from her snorting as I dropped her piles into the cart with the pitchfork, she didn't seem to mind it much at all.

 What are these round, black things?

Next I went into one of the pens and set up the bottles and ropes again.  I noticed her following me in and stood very still.  She sniffed my back pockets (I had a few carrots in them) and then moved to my shoulders and helmet.  Once she reached my helmet I moved forward and turned to face her.  She stretched out her neck and blew softly into my face...I did the same back to her this time.  We exchanged a series of sniffs and blows before she moved on to checking out the green rope I had hung up.  

 Something new and different today, I must investigate.

I'm glad she is a horse and not a cat...she is full of curiosity.  I spend a lot of time using that to my advantage to get her to do things.  Sometimes I'll pull out my phone and have it make noise, other times I drag things around behind me...like a rope.  She approached it, grabbed it, gave it a tug with her mouth, put it down, and smelled it some more.  She didn't seem to mind me wiggling it or gathering it up and tossing it near her either.

 Wait, it was hanging up, now its on the ground?  Let me see this thing.

She was also letting me touch more of her face, I was able to touch just below her eyes today.  I was told by the ranch owner, Marialaina Batoog, that she was able to touch the side of her face this afternoon.  Greg Faria who boards at Kickin' Back Ranch and owns the mustang named Amigo, that Opal took hay out of his hands today.  Opal seems to be catching on quick.