Happy Burr's Day

Today was Burr's day.  Burr and I did 1 hour this morning. I got the rope over his neck, tied a big loop in one end and threaded the other end through so I had lots of length and he couldn't duck his head out of it. We worked at standing still while I rubbed him with the whip. He was very suspicious of me touching him with my hand.  When he would leave I would put just enough pressure on the rope around his neck that he knew I was there and wait for him to look in and immediately slack it.  There was no point in putting more pressure, he's too big to pull around, there's no sense teaching him he can out pull me and pulling does not create trust.  I'm working at having him make choices that he believes are in his best interest and accomplish what I need at the same time.  This will build both trust and confidence. I firmly believe as a trainer you should never ask a horse for something you're not going to get. Re-read that last sentence it's an important one.
I got Burr to where he would let me rub his neck on the left side and he would yield his hindquarters but would not step towards me yet.  I pulled the rope off him and left him in the pen during lunch.
After lunch we spent a couple more hours together. I repeated the morning lesson and he was much better and standing still. I rubbed and rubbed him on the left side of the neck, then through approach and retreat was able to rub the left side of his face.  He allowed me to put my arm across his neck and rub the other side.  It's too bad no one was there to take a picture.  I had my right arm around his neck, rocking his neck back and forth while rubbing his right cheek with my right hand and his left cheek with my left hand.  When I quit and stepped back he stepped sideways with his front feet to come have more. Yay! We repeated this many times.
Next I tried to get to his right side and show him how good it would feel there.  He was very good at blocking me. When I would get to his right side he would leave and then instead of stopping he would turn in, changing sides and we'd have to start again.  Finally by rubbing the whip all over his face I was able to get it to the far side as a block. When he tried to leave I backed off. When he tried to turn in, I blocked. He finally figured out to stand still and then he let me do all the same rubbing on that side.  The only thing he didn't do was step towards me on his own on the right side but it was feeding time so I pulled the rope off him and called him and he followed me out of that pen and through the next two to go have dinner.  He was standing well enough I could have flipped a loop of rope over his nose and caught him but I felt this would scare him and it was worth it to take the extra time and earn the right to have him give me his head.

The day I took pictures I only got one of Burr, he's very good at hiding in the crowd.
Look at the burrs in his mane!