Finally Haltered Burr

For the first few minutes I thought I must not have worked this horse yesterday.  Burr seemed to have forgot our lessons.  I tossed the rope over him then he remembered how to stand still and be rubbed. He even let me change sides fairly easily. His face was another matter.  He still didn't want me to touch it. He kept trying to hide it in the fence panels. I worked at it and was able to rub a halter all around it but he wasn't sure I should put it on. I didn't want to rush and have him bolt away so I just kept working at it.  He would drop his head right to the ground which was great for him to show submission and get lots of endorphins but not great for getting a halter up over the nose. Finally it slipped in to place. He moved his feet forward a little as I did up the buckle but very carefully.  I attached a lunge line in case he bolted, not to stop him with but to suggest he give to light pressure and find his own stop. Then I went back to rubbing on him.  I made a point of moving the halter around on his nose so he knew it was there and lots of massage which he was really beginning to like. He let me rub both sides but was still trying to hide.  I decided to work on bending him at the ribs to bring his nose around.  I found, just like Blue, he was very thick skinned.  It took a lot of pressure to get a response. I would release at the slightest try.  Eventually he gave to a lighter signal and finally turned his head to me and held it there himself.  On the left side he would step towards me when I asked.  On the right side he thought he was supposed to move away from the pressure.  I rewarded that the first few times by removing the pressure.  Then I went to just lightening the pressure if the feet were moving away and removing it when the  nose came towards me. I worked at that until he looked at me on the right then I took the halter off and called him to follow me out of the pen.  I will try and work everyone tomorrow and Sampson is going to need this same lesson.