After Belle walks up to me, I reward and begin to bond on her. I start by standing beside her so that she can see me at all times (horses see best from the side, not in front of them) and I begin rubbing on her face to search out her favorite spots to be touched and rubbed, to file away mentally for later bonding/nurturing purposes if she's ever afraid, and to help her to relax more right now. Belle's head is still high as I begin this step, and a high head is a tenser horse, a low head is a relaxed horse. If she decides to exit at this point, I will allow it, but I will also calmly toss a rope at her hind feet as she exits to "send her," still posturing being the director, the leader, regardless, making it appear to her as if it were my idea she leave.

I'm continuing with bonding here, averting my eyes, as my hands search out and find her pleasure spots, her most favorite places to be touched and rubbed on. In Belle's case, I filed away that she loves to have her eyes rubbed, as most horses do; I also noticed that she preferred her right eye the most. Each horse is a unique individual and it's important to search out to find their favorite love-on spots to serve as a nurturing tool later when needed. Belle's now-softer body language here (lowered head, half-closed eyes) shows me she's enjoying this step, this moment. Here in this step, I am simply giving, making life easy for her, nurturing her, requesting nothing more of her for the moment. She's not haltered here; she's choosing to be with me and life is good and easy for her in this spot. We are bonding. She works her mouth. She sighs. Her body language shows me she's ready to move on to the next step in her training.

I continue to bond on Belle, helping her to relax and as I'm doing this, when I perceive she is ready, relaxed enough, I start to move her head around slowly, using pressure and release from pressure to introduce her to my next step: teaching head yielding. It's important to maintain soft eyes, soft body language in yourself as the leader here; it helps the horse to relax, to build confidence and to trust. Note, Belle is still not haltered at this point; my halter remains at my feet. I do as much work without the halter until I feel the need for it to progress.

 

To encourage Belle allowing me to move her head a little (first head-yielding lessons), I rub her eye at the same time - the very eye I memorized earlier that she preferred the most, which gave her the most pleasure. Rewarding the horse speeds learning along tremendously.

 

I get as far as I can with the head yielding without the halter, and when I perceive she has gone as far as she can without it, threshold-wise, I halter for the next progressive steps. Here I'm beginning to halter Belle, but at the same time, I'm working to teach her to put her own halter on softly, which is important to learn. Teaching a horse to stick her nose into the halter herself starts her off each day on a willing mode.

 Here I'm teaching Belle, using gentle pressure and then release of that pressure, with the rope around her neck, to lower her head and turn towards me when I'm tying the halter on. I'm not forcing, I'm simply applying pressure and releasing it when she finds the spot I want. This is correct haltering position for a horse at all times, but I'm willing to "take the try," reward baby steps as I go along in the beginning.

After haltering, I'm rewarding Belle's success here by rubbing on her face while simultaneously moving her head slightly, getting it looser and ready to learn true head yielding. Going slowly, patiently with a trust-issue horse is crucial.  Belle gets softer and softer as we go here because the lesson is kept pleasureful for her, and I keep my own movements soft and slow.

 Reward for every try is important. Reward the smallest try, the slightest change and the horse gets there faster.

Here I'm getting Belle accustomed to having her head held, and to seeing my hands on both sides of her body. Horses see separately out of each eye, because, as prey animals, their eyes are on the sides of their heads, so it's important to get them familiar with seeing you on both sides at the same time, which will translate later to when you are in the saddle. I stroke her favorite spots during this exercise so that the lesson remains pleasureful for the horse.

 Here I'm progressing to accustoming Belle not just to having my hand and arm around her, but I'm also covering her outside eye so that all she can see and experience at that moment is me, blocking out the world around her, which greatly helps to build trust in a horse. If they can block out the world, then all that exists at the moment is you and the horse. This can be hard to do at first with a trust-issues horse, but I worked slowly with Belle until she softly allowed it. It is not about force, it is about trust, until they trust enough to softly allow it, and then you reward.

Since Belle is progressing so nicely here, and enjoying the bonding tremendously (often trust issue horses have become touch-deprived on various levels, without them even knowing it), I work to handle her ears in this mode if I can; and since she enjoys it, it helps to desensitize her ears to being handled, all at the same time.

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