Well AppleJack is something else--We are still working on trust--every morning I go in his pen and have to remind him that I am not going to eat him and we start all over. But each day is better at least! I am realizing he is going to probably take a month of lots of ground work before I ride him.
I can pick up all 4 feet (briefly). I can lead him out into the barn and the round pen. He has issues with going through his stall out into the main barn so I have worked with getting with that the same I would work on trailer loading. I can curry him all over gently and I am starting to get a little more careless around him and he is handling that a little better every day. He gives to pressure in his face very well and backs up nicely as well as flex's his head real soft.
He is not even close to being ready to tie---I need to be careful not to put any "scare" into this horse as it would likely stick with him for life.
It's all about the horse and setting him up for a successful future. He is going to be one heck of a performance horse though and we think he's going to have a lot of cow in him!!
Today I am going to take him out and into the round pen and just see what he'll let me do. I'll put some logs and maybe a barrel and just see if I can get him interested in some games--jumping? putting his nose on stuff? walk trot canter transitions....side passing. Maybe he'll let me jump up and down next to him by the end of todays session? We will see =)
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