Lucky – accepting the bridle

After the weekend off, I had plans to ride Lucky again tonight.
You know what they say about plans…
When I went into the corral with his hackamore, he walked away. He had done this the last couple times we worked together. I was focused on getting out on the trail and let it slide. Tonight I paid attention, realizing that skipping steps would lead to issues later. So we would play with accepting the hackamore.

After some time just standing in his area, sharing space, some brushing and some body ttouches, he again walked away from the hackamore.
Now, I certainly can get the bridle on without his full consent. Easy enough to run him into the stall, or chase him around until he submits, or even just keep keep offering the bridle until he is desensitized.
My goal for us is to have partnership without resistance, that honors his free will.

After a bit of gentle leading from behind at the walk and some sharing space, he reluctantly took the hackamore. With hindsight, I probably could have done the EFT without the hackamore on first. It’s a learning process for me as well…
I tapped in several statements with EFT, the 2 most effective being:
Bridling Lucky is fun and easy
Being bridled means fun time together
Lucky was fascinated by the tapping, moving in close and resting his nose on my hands.

When I finished, I gave him a few moments to process, then took the hackamore off and let him walk around.

A few minutes later, I again approached to put the hackamore on. He still tried to dodge at first. Hmm… better, still not 100% So my next strategy was to do some random tiger ttouches with the pads of my fingers on his neck and body, followed by some forelock slides, put on the hackamore, and repeat the ttouches. I gave him some time to process again, removed the hackamore, and let him wander around for a bit.

When I approached him again with the hackamore, he stood his ground, head a bit high and was willing to touch the hackamore with his nose. Still some fear and resistance. He then retreated to his stall. After some brushing and petting, I again offered the hackamore. He let me put it on, with his head high and tense. I asked him to lower his head and as soon as he relaxed and moved his head down, I removed the hackamore. He licked and chewed. We repeated the sequence again. Again more licking and chewing when I brought his head down. One more time through. More licking and chewing, and that “ah-hah” look he gets when he is making a connection.

At that point, my gut said stop and see what happens tomorrow.

So, I learned some more today about Lucky. His resistance to the hackamore appears to be fear-based. He is super sensitive to how I handle the other horses, not just him. If I turn up my body language with Foster (who loves to invade space) Lucky regresses a bit in his trust.

Overall, as I continue to work with him, I’m noticing that he watches me most of the time when I am outside. He keeps an eye on me whenever I’m within view. He comes to greet me much more often, and is very curious about what I do in the barnyard, approaching to investigate.

I’m really curious to see how he is tomorrow.