Who is training who?

I have been frustrated with getting a bit in Black Elk's mouth. Impatient. Yes, I admit it. Even though I firmly believe many of the issues with starting horses are created by people not giving  them the time they need to understand  what we are asking. Sometimes it's about a  threshold, they can go to a certain point and no further and we ask too much to fast. I know the secret to success and that is to break it down into tiny little pieces, steps that the horse can be successful with. 

Constantly I remind myself, how do I want this part of our relationship to be in a year, in 5 years in 20 years. So, I take the time it takes to do it right. This is the polar opposite of Get 'er done.. With Get 'er done.. you most likely will never get the Partnership you want. The horse may comply.. but is left with a bad feeling.. as you will be too.

I use a clicker. This is how I gentled Black Elk and he LOVES it!  He also 'get's it!'. Working loose in a round pen, he will continually come back to me to solve the puzzel. I always end before he gets bored or discouraged. So, I got out my clicker and my bucket of pellets. We started with a crop. Having him touch the crop with his mouth. Now keep in mind, Black Elk is an introvert, it has only been recently he'd take an apple from someone's hand, and he still prefers you put it on the ground. He does not liked to have his mouth fooled with.

For the past few days I have been gently playing with his lips and putting a finger in the side of his mouth. But whenever I tried to put in the bit.. oh, no.. he said NOT THAT!  I never let it escalate into a fight, but I was discouraged. So, I needed to back track.

We spent about an hour together, first with the crop and then with holding the bit and having him line his mouth up with it, then click and treat, hold out the bit, line up his mouth, wait a little bit longer and click and treat.. then finally line up his mouth, and have him open his mouth.. click and treat, and then line up, open, put in the bit, click and treat. YEP, you guessed it. It was successful!  Black Elk trained me to do it slowly and he got lots of treats and by the end I was tried so I gave him the rest of the bucket of pellets and fed the boys and called it a night!