It's fairly rare for me to go and work with horses any more but I am always tempted by a semi-feral New Forest Pony needing some help. Prince's story is uncannily like Benji's - and they are also a very similar colour. Although a few years older than Benji was when he appeared at a riding school, Prince was also one of a pair that it was hoped would turn into reliable riding ponies. Prince had other ideas and was very distrusting of people having been branded, gelded, and no doubt rounded up on one or more drifts.
He was informally adopted by Ruth, a teacher, who befriended him and has been quietly working with him ever since. As a result he will let her touch him all over his face, down his neck, and along his back - she can even back him up - but he will not let her put a headcollar on him. With only the big field to work in, we needed to see whether we could make progress without enclosing him and have therefore introduced the discipline of clicker training to 'pay' him for allowing her to do these things.
With this all well-established by the time I left, we were pleased that he had allowed someone else to work with him, allowed two people to be close to him at the same time, and Ruth was able to begin rubbing him with a soft scarf in her hand. This is the first subtle step to asking him to allow it to be all around his face in preparation for a real headcollar. He is very wary of any movement that suggests that we are about to grab him so hopefully this approach will persuade him to trust us.
