Haltering and Leading!

This will be the last entry for a while because Patrick and I will be gone for the next week spending time with family in Belgium. But, I wanted to update with pictures of Sage from today.

She has been haltering very well, and has learned to yield to pressure to the left, to the right, and down (although down is a bit harder for her). With that, she is now starting to lead up, which is awesome.

So how do you teach a horse to lead who has no idea what you're wanting? Well, some people use a butt rope like for a weanling. But I thought she wouldn't like this, and I knew that the second she figured out how to take one step forward she'd be leading in a heartbeat. So, I pulled on the rope and waited, and if she even thought about taking a step forward, I released. A few times, I pulled her to the side and kind of forced her to step forward. Doing this, she was leading up within 10 minutes. Good girl? Of course! She definitely needs more work, but today is exactly two weeks since she's arrived and she went from being untouchable to haltering easily (even in the pasture), leading, yielding to pressure, and allowing me to touch her everywhere.

Here are some photos!