Baker training session 7 - Review leading and picking up feet

Baker was awesome today, and Fiona was a lot better too!  Fiona actually walked up to me today, rather than walking away and trying to avoid me and hide Baker.  Slowly, but surely, she is starting to come around.  While I held and fly sprayed Fiona, Baker couldn't wait for me to turn my attention to him.  He followed me around while I dealt with his mom, and kept trying to touch me and get my attention.  He is definitely a snuggler, and definitely craves attention!  I worked with him for about 9 minutes today.  He was super easy to catch since he was coming up to me and following me around.  It was simply a matter of taking a hold of his halter and attaching the leadline.  A lot of babies will jump slightly whenever you grab their halters, but he just stood there and waited patiently for me to attach the line.  I started by rubbing him all over again.  I always want to start and end our sessions on a positive note, since those are the things he will remember the most.  I have to figure out what each horse likes - rubbing, scratching, treats (although not for babies), stretching, etc, and start and end training session with those things.  I can't remember where I read this quote recently, or who said it, but the person said something like "Horses are not our slaves, they are our partners, and we need to treat them as such".  If we are to expect them to do certain things for us that we like, then it's only fair that we reciprocate with things that they like.  Anyway, Baker LOVES to be rubbed and scratched, so that's how I have been starting and ending each session with him.  Once he got somewhat satisfied with the attention, we moved on to review picking up his front feet.  In the last blog entry, I said that it would probably take several sessions for Baker to get really comfortable with me picking up his front feet.  Well, I was wrong.  He was so relaxed while I picked up his feet and put them between my legs and rubbed his back.  He just stood there knowing that this was his job right now, and he was completely ok with it.  I don't think I have ever worked with a baby that made this part that easy!  I started this whole blog idea to show people how much repetition and work and effort it takes to train a horse, but Baker is just making things so easy (for now).  Since that went so well, and since I had some help today (my son Dylan was very excited to help me since he hadn't had a chance to touch Baker yet), I decided to review leading with Baker.  Just like before, Dylan led Fiona, while I led Baker.  I had the leadline wrapped around his haunches, and called out my voice commands for "walk" and "whoa".  He was a little resistant to go at first, but quickly remembered what was expected of him.  After just a few minutes, he was walking with very little pressure on his hind end, and halting with even less pressure on his nose.  He was so relaxed that he was even "licking and chewing"!  For those that don't know, "licking and chewing" is one sign that a horse is relaxed.  They will start to chew like they have something in their mouth, even though they don't, and they will move their tongue around to wet their lips.  Other signs of relaxation include lowering their head, "resting" one leg, droopy ears, droopy eyes, and deep sighs.  I was thrilled to get a sign of relaxation after just a few minutes on only the second time I have asked Baker to do something.  So far, he is really proving to be very intelligent and quick to understand what is being asked of him.  Hopefully, he will keep this up throughout his career!  We ended today's session with some more rubbing, of course, and Baker seemed quite content.