Since Thursday evening's success with the halter Pebbles has continued her progress. Our sessions are always short, 5-10 minutes tops, in her stall after her meals. She has learned to back up from pressure and from voice command and she will move around her stall both left and right when asked. I can now reach out and grab her halter from the left hand side and this morning I put on the lead rope and started teaching her to give to pressure. With the lead rope attached I was able to pet both sides of her neck. She has also progressed to allowing the flag to touch her hind quarters without getting concerned. If her age is really as we were told, 11, then it stands to reason she had to have been handled at some point. Speculation doesn't change my course of action though. We will continue doing everything as if it's her first time so that I can build off of trust. That trust has to be mutual for us to move forward particularly when it comes foaling time. I've been around a lot of mares who got very protective/aggressive with newborn foals and those were all well handled/socialized mares. I have no desire to stress her out like that and risk injury to myself or the foal.
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