Day 12

Well this morning I needed to do some backtracking to fill some holes in his training. You see he doesn't want to hook on to me as he should be by now. If I go in the pen and try to get his attention and catch me he just blows me off. That is why he won't stand still to be saddled and would be the root of other issues. So this morning I decided to really round pen him so long that he will hunt for me. So that is what we did. I didn't even attempt to brush or saddle him. As soon as in entered the pen and asked him to stand with me for a moment he decided it was time to get away. So I let him and then wouldn't let him stop. 7 minutes later he asks for a parlay and I let him come to me and rest. I didn't do anything for 2 minutes. Then started to just brush him with the stick and he took off again. Well this kind of dance went on for another 30 minutes, back and forth. He would come to me on his own or when I asked him and rest then I would send him off or he would leave on his own. I had to make sure that I wasn't giving him an inadvertent cue to leave. There can be no misunderstandings about what I mean with him. Towards the end I could catch his eye with a snap of my fingers and my body leaning like I am asking for a disengagement and he would come to me and stand. I did that several times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I want to be able to catch his eye and pull him to me, even from across the arena. So I made sure of this then we quit. I might add that during this entire process we did work on back up and disengagement and moving his shoulders without a lead. He was so hooked to me that his eyes were glued to me no matter where I went. He stuck with me. If he even acted like he wanted to depart I would try to bring him back and if not then make him keep going for a lap or two or maybe a half of a lap and then do my cue to draw and pull his eye and he would respond. By the time we quit he was spent, there is no doubt. I didn't bother saddling him. I think that would not have been fair to him and I didn't ride him. He has two days off to recuperate and think about our conversation and on Monday we will start again.