Ruth was getting a little worried that her clicker technique might not be quite perfect and asked me to go out and check. Since there is nowhere to contain this pony in his field, which is huge, or in a stable, clicker is all that we have. If anything goes astray, we will either be right back at the beginning or lost completely. She needn't have worried at all.
Prince comes straight up to engage with us, leading the others up the field.
It has been less than two weeks since I saw them for the first time, and I was pretty astounded. I wondered what would happen if she approached him with the feather duster. He looked very wary to begin with and positioned himself out of its reach.
I was elated when Ruth, without being told, started to roll and rub it around his face, relieving him of the flies.
Working mainly on his left side, where he is the most open to learning, she was also able to 'pop-in' to the right-hand side and begin to equal him out.
The great benefit of the scarf and the feather duster is that they begin to accustom the horse to accept foreign objects around their face and along their body - the feather duster has a telescopic handle so that it can touch him further along without the same risk of being kicked. With a lovely rub, deep and flat, the pony starts to realise that humans are useful and in time to accept the hand in the same places; I'd suggest that this would happen after Prince had accepted a headcollar again.
Prince has worn a headcollar before, and indeed been led, but he was never trained to be caught without a fuss and now the headcollar is his nemesis. For now, we aren't even thinking about introducing it.
