Isis

Making progress

We first met Isis on Memorial Day 2007. She is a very pretty yearling BLM Mustang filly. Foaled in captivity from a wild-caught dam, she was adopted this spring, and is now with us learning to be a good equine citizen.

 Isis has a very high self protective instinct and has accepted only rare touches from any human. obviously this is not to her long-term benefit, so she will now be in "boot camp" to learn the ropes, as it were.

She arrived here on October 11th and was unloaded into the round pen. Because she cannot be caught or haltered yet, she will stay there for the time being. Ted is working slowly on gaining her trust and allowing her to realize that humans are not the enemy. On the 13th of October he spent some time in the pen with her and used Tuf to help her begin to trust human interaction with horses. He saddled Tuf and rode him in the pen with Isis until she accepted Ted's being on Tuf and began to follow them.

The next week was spent in teaching her movement around the pen, giving to pressure from a distance and actually getting her to lead and follow all without any touching of her, which still sent her into fits of panic.  Ted could reach out and touch her briefly when she was eating, but too much would send her away.

On October 23rd, he decided it was time to push the issue.  She needed to learn to halter and accept human touch. This is for her own safety as well as the safety of the humans handling her.  She had calmed to the point where he thought it was the right timing....

Using a soft, quick-release ring rope, Isis is roped.

She learned easily to give to the rope pressure and was very soft right away.

Still not sure about being approached and touched.

Hesitant, but trusting

Introducing the halter

Haltered

Haltered several times at random and leading now

MUCH better!

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