But a great session!! Took him down the road, for the first time alone since I bought him. He was calm, easy and willing. We were about 1/2 mile from home, which seems like nothing to most but I know how hard this has been for Gem. He's had to learn to trust me and to be trustworthy. He's had to gain confidence away from the herd and confidence in me as his leader. We've put in some good time and I've learned a ton along the way about preserving his dignity and putting the relationship first.
We could have gone farther, but I didn't have a lot of time and I decided it was better to reach this new milestone and let him graze at the farthest point away. I decided to try to make him sweet on that spot. I expect that next time he'll be happy to go there and graze and maybe we can push the bubble farther away from the property.
We did it alone... easily and calmly, Gem needing only my leadership to get him there. The sky is the limit now. And we'll keep reaching for it.
Oh, before we left down the road we were working in the roundpen on maintaining gait at liberty. We also are developing better COD's and working on lead by the tail and the hocks. I'd like to film L3 Online with him in the next 4-6 weeks. He's ready and so am I.
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