Victor and Jasper had a highly educational day. Today I started Jasper's halter training with his owner, Nathalie. Jasper is four this year but his first year was marred by some pretty rough handling. He was born on the Forest and ended up at Beaulieu Road Sales Yard four times in his first year!
You can see that he has started putting on weight following his spell on the Forest. He will allow people close to his body providing they have nothing in their hands so I decided to take him one step back to see how he would cope with the feather duster. As usual he much preferred to have me on his left than the right but that's not a problem at the moment.
He quickly allowed me to touch him with the soft scarf, to put it around his neck, to create a figure of eight around his face and even to lead him with it. Nathalie took over from me with the same result. Although there is no limit on how long we have to halter train him, all of this happened within one hour. Tomorrow we'll see what he thinks of the headcollar.
Thank you so much for the pictures and also for today; what a wonderful day. I was smiling from ear to ear all day! I tell Jasper every day he is the best little gelding in the world because to me he is. No one but H has ever understood why on earth I bothered with him before so I am really pleased you think he is brilliant and his fan base is growing!" NH
Victor met a few obstacles this morning and showed that although his front feet are comfortable with all sorts of new things, his back ones are very sensitive! We need to build up confidence both with his right hand side and his back end.
A similar pattern with the tarpaulin.
A natural obstacle out on the Forest
