Memphis, Day 3

Again, day 3, day 2 of training. Memphis was still pretty shy when I'd come around, and was far from volunteering himself for attention or work. Another funny thing about him is that he isn't food motivated AT ALL. He won't touch grass hay. He will nibble his alfalfa off and on all day, and will eventually clean up his grain, but won't even go it right away when it's given to him. He won't take anything from my hand. This is fine by me; he finds his motivation in better things and I like that. Given his stature though, I was surprised he wasn't more of a chow hound. :)

We worked on leading and giving to pressure, as well as getting him to tolerate me touching him everywhere. He is a kicker, so I've spent a lot of time working with his back feet and desensitizing him there. I worked with him for a while that morning on these things, and decided to come back in the evening again as well. That evening, we worked on yielding the shoulders and hindquarters, giving to pressure and sacking out. He was being really good, and calming down so much, I decided to see how he'd handle being sacked out with the saddle pad. Again, that went well, so I moved on and went ahead and saddled him.