15

Ten minutes. Liberty. Peach paddock. Wwylm around the brick circle used in lieu of witch's hats. Verbal cue Head down and backing when I back, forward when I forward - perhaps I'll call that mirroring. I wasn't going to work at liberty in the paddock, thought when he saw me in the yards he would come but he didn't so I went to him (that's something which gives pause as one would think all those carrots would have a horse running to eat them. Bet if I just gave carrots, ad lib, with no waiting for offered behaviour, no cueing, no walking in small circles, Balthazar would come running). Anyway, he did mug a couple of times. When he mugs now he crowds me with his head. He isn't actually chewing at me or the bag (with the exception of the other day when my leg was stretched out behind me in an effort to *get* mirroring). I thought before it was a bad idea to give ground, that whole dominance alpha thing. Now, I walk away. With the treat bag. It was interesting as he didn't follow me but stood stock still. After 15 or 20 seconds I would c/t and we'd start again. Interesting for today I walked away (not for his mugging) but to avoid an evasion. He walked away too, in the opposite direction. I was first but perhaps I should've gone a second sooner. He did evade a second time too which wasn't good.

The stallion like behaviour, loose in the peach paddock, was a bit more intense than it's been. Because we were practicing wwylm, he was getting reinforced very frequently. He tended to float behind me although he did improve in the end. When the intensity mounted (no pun intended) I would walk away to give him a chance to cool down. I can tell he gets frustrated. I'm not sure if it's because he's so sexually excited or because he's not getting a continuous flow of carrots but he does this little half, not even half, eighth bounce, almost a rear, and kind of snort.

I think he is starting to get the verbal cue for head down. It's not instaneous but it is happening. I can almost see him putting two and two together. He backed with one finger today. He does know backing. I tried to c/t when he was rocking his weight back before he took a step. Wasn't always successful but we'll improve with practice.

I hope I can look back at these posts a year from now and see how far we've come.