Owen had made so much progress since our last update, but yesterday was a stellar day for this fine young man. Owen is now wearing a halter — on his face!

But before we tell you how that milestone was reached, we have to say a great big thank you to Jenny M, who you may remember as one of the founders of SAFE and a member of SAFE’s first Board of Directors. Jenny came up from Portland last weekend to farmsit for me while I was out of town, and she spent some time doing ground work with Owen while she was here. There is no doubt that her work contributed in a big way to the progress that Owen has made — she did great work with him. She also managed to completely fall in love with him, and is now trying to concoct a plan to be able to adopt him and keep him forever. Jenny was completely impressed with his mind, his demeanor, his willingness, and, of course, his cute bod. Unfortunately Jen’s not in a position to own two horses, and her OTTB Laddie might have a thing or two to say about it, but it’s fun to dream.

Owen has been letting me scratch the top of his butt with the end of the carrot stick, which has allowed me to start touching him while keeping a safe distance. We soon graduated to scratches along his back and then scratches on his withers. Once that seemed okay, I started draping the string over his back while scratching him with the stick, and he seemed completely unfazed by that.

We’ve been doing short sessions, 5 or 10 minutes at a time, a couple times a day. Once he submitted to being scratched with the stick, I’ve been able to get close enough to him to scratch and pet him with my hand. I watch him carefully to make sure he’s okay, and while he doesn’t exactly seem to like being touched, he tolerates it, and doesn’t pin his ears or display anger. If it gets to be too much for him, he will move away. But he will also choose to stand still for it, which I take as a positive sign. I’m dying to get to work on him with a soft rubber curry…he is SO badly in need of some good old fashioned grooming!

A few days ago I came home to discover that the broken halter that’s been hanging around Owen’s neck since his arrival was gone! I found the halter itself draped neatly over the fence. Owen isn’t talking, so I have no clue how it got removed. We’ve been calling it “the halter of shame” so I was pretty glad to see it was finally off his neck.

Yesterday I decided to try working with Owen in his stall. This was not the first time working in the stall — we usually do some kind of work in the stall every night, like when I ask him to put his nose through a halter to get a treat. But this was the first time I’d felt comfortable working with the door to the paddock closed. With nowhere to trot off to, Owen completely submitted to being scratched and petted…on his withers, his shoulders, and even his neck. So I decided it was time to give haltering a try. I unbuckled the crown of the halter and draped it over his back…no problem…then over his neck…no problem. I reached under and grasped the noseband, and raised it up onto Owen’s nose. This was also not a problem, possibly because we’d been practicing with the noseband already as I mentioned before. Once the noseband was in place, it was just a matter of buckling the crown piece. He backed up a step but I was able to steady him and then I buckled the crown and just like that, Owen was wearing a halter! It didn’t even take that long, we got it on the first try, and it was accomplished with just praise and petting.

Afterwards, I let him back into the paddock so we could take some pictures of him in his new halter. He yawned about six times, which made for some funny pictures. Today I will attach a short lead rope to the halter so we can get started learning how to be caught and led. Great work, Owen, you’re a winner!