Success and Not...

Well the last two weeks have been interesting. The weeds have been out of control in the round pen, so we have been doing more lunge line work and handling work (such as hoof picking, staying BACK instead of crowding me when I stop leading, backing up, turning his head when the lead rope is pulled to each side, and getting him to face up.

It seems for every good day of training we have, we have a rough day the next. Certain days, Tonka will work really hard and totally improve his skills, then other days, he will be SUPER testy, try to run me over, step on my feet, and dig his heels in when I ask him to move.

On the lunge line, I have had to resort to a knotted rope halter to get Tonka to quit trying to bolt away. He got away one day when we were still using the nylon halter and now tries it every time he is lunged. I will NOT let him get away again though. He is favoring his right side, in the sense that he doesn't want to run when his right side is facing out. This side is hard for everything. I'm really trying to work that side more, but he REALLY rebels when I make him turn that side out.

The other major thing we have been doing is getting Tonka to leave personal space and back up. He wants to be practically on top of you or running over you, which is extremely disrespectful and unsafe. He also is still wanting to turn his hind end at you occasionally, rather than keeping the two eyes on you. The part that makes this training difficult is, up until recently, he hasn't been responding to the light gestures with the whip stick- he actually has to be hit, pretty good, before he will move. Or in the case of backing up, the rope has to be shook REALLY hard to get him to back up. And tell me if this is odd.... there are days that when you apply pressure, he applies it right back!!!

So it's obvious this is going to be a difficult road. Hopefully soon, I will have the money to have some professional training done. I feel if I keep working with him though, and educating myself more, we can get quite a bit done. He does show many improvements already. Any advice is always appreciated!