14

Two sessions today. One mid-afternoon, one after feeding up. In the first one I kept his halter on after grooming and we played with wwylm around the bricks, rather than cones, that I've got set up in the peach paddock. He did well. He stayed with me and although he was close behind me he didn't actually physically touch me with his chest as he had the first time we worked on it. Rather than reaching across my body to give him the carrot as I had done previously, I held the lead in my left hand (circling left) and treated with my right. That made it easier to keep him at a distance.

He was doing so well at this that I thought we'd change direction. I stopped and 'combed' the lead rope with my hands to indicate that I wanted him to change direction. I want him (and me) to start working from the lightest possible 'feel' rather than being directly indicated by pressure on the rope. The turns were a bit clumsy but okay. Really okay actually as they were accomplished with the lightest possible feel.

The second session was at liberty. Worked on verbal cueing of head down. He might be getting the idea although I suspect he is reluctant to offer behaviours yet. He is very much more 'with' me than previously. There were no evasions and the stallion behaviour is less intense. I thought he might be getting a bit ho hum with the head down so I stood beside him and walked forward. If he followed, c/t. Same with back. After a few goes he was shifting his weight as I did. BRILLIANT! The only time he mugged was when I was ahead of him at the start and he thought he'd nuzzle my hip, leg and shoe. I don't view that as a failure. He was just testing the waters and he didn't test for very long. Again, there were no evasions.

At the end, I gave him a handful of carrots, said All done! and threw the bag out of the yards. He continued to follow me as I cleared feed bins but he didn't mug. It was really nice.