Harvey, 3rd go, 3rd Video
The third and final video from this session. We worked on haltering. If you notice the peanut gallery in the background and all the banging and clanking and climbing around she was doing. He was totally unconcerned. That didn’t bother him near as much as the thought of getting touched by a halter.
His whole demeanor changed. His head went up, he wanted nothing to do with it. When he was dropped off the lady was horrified that I wasn’t going to leave a halter on him and he does know how to wear and behave in a halter but I don’t want that sort of “good” behavior. The people who accept this sort of haltering are the same ones who want advice on how to get their horse to let them catch it in the pasture, how to get their horses head down so they can bridle it, what to do about their horse always having its nose stuck in the air while they’re riding, oh well, a tie down will fix the problem.
I want him to come willingly, drop his head and put his nose in the halter himself. No fear, no stress, knowing what we do together wont hurt him. It will probably even be fun!
Watching the video, and at the time even, there are a few things I would change. I followed him backwards a couple of times while he tried to evade the halter. I don’t like that. I should have just stayed put and let him leave then welcome him back enthusiastically.
There were things liked too. His mat training was going well. He did let me put the halter on in the end. Not the good haltering I would like but once on we ignored it completely and did fun stuff. We let the haltering be a good experience then took it off again. When I have time, as if that will ever happen, I want to halter him then bring him out to graze, build some good associations. He’ll be haltering himself in no time!