The Wheelbarrow Method

Okay, most of us have heard of the bamboo pole method of gentling mustangs, right?  Lay the pole on the horse's withers, wait until it stops having a hissy fit, then gently see-saw the pole back and forth to offer feel-good scratches, then touch the horse all over with the pole, then scoot yourself closer and touch the horse with your fingers.  Pretty soon you have a gentle mustang.  Or at least it's supposed to work like that.

Personally, I haven't had much luck with the pole.  I don't feel like it facilitates trust-building between me and the horse, but rather escalates fear responses.  Or maybe I just don't do it right.  In any case, Belle and I came up with our own method this evening.  I'd like to call it The Wheelbarrow Method.  Do I give the wild mustang a ride in my wheelbarrow?  No, I do not.  Do I hitch the wild mustang to my wheelbarrow and ask it to give me a ride?  No, of course not.  Do I push the wheelbarrow at a reasonable distance behind the wild mustang and ask it to walk in a lovely circle ahead of me?  Yes, I do!  And guess which direction I asked Belle to walk in?  Yes, to the right!  And she did!  Without blowing up!  We must've looked rather silly walking laps around the pen, but nobody was looking, so that's alright.

After a couple of easy laps, she wanted to stop and check me out, so I stepped out from between the handlebars, stood in the middle of the pen, and invited her to come to me.  She didn't come to me, but she looked at me with both eyes and held my gaze for several seconds.  This was a big improvement over the usual quick, one-eyed glance that she has been giving me.  When she lost interest in me and looked away, I put her back to work walking and trotting laps to the right, then when she was ready to check me out again I repeated my invitation for her to come to me.  Twice, she took tiny steps towards me.  That's the most I've gotten from her without holding the rope, so I was quite pleased.

Belle's eye was softer tonight, compared to the glassy-eyed stare that she usually has.  She made happy, relaxed, nose-blowing snorts, which was the first I've heard from her.  And, she let me stand very close to her outside of her pen while she ate her dinner, which was also a first.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get her in the round pen and put her to work.  I think if I can work her to the left and right, with lots of changes of direction, then I can get her mind engaged and really make some progress.  She's had two and a half weeks to get acclimated, and I think I've convinced her that I don't like the taste of horse meat, so let's get that girl busy, by golly.