I’ve been introducing my mustang to the idea that ropes are not, in fact, horse‑eating snakes. She’s totally fine with me brushing her, scratching her, and touching, but the moment the halter appears, she suddenly remembers she has very strong opinions and it is game over.

So, we’ve compromised. I’m using a training stick with a rope attached — basically the equine equivalent of “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you,” but in a helpful way. It lets me get the rope near her without triggering her dramatic “absolutely not” routine.

Each day she gets a little braver, a little calmer, and slightly less convinced that the rope is bad. Progress is progress, even if it comes in tiny, suspicious sniffs. With enough patience (and maybe a few bribes), I am sure she will accept the halter!

Got the tag OFF! Took a lot of patience, 3 days of slowly working the frayed rope through the metal thing, and me finding my inner Budda... and 1 hr  later, I got it off! Now we are hanging out eating. I like to end our training session with a good relaxation event, particularly if she may have felt like there was more 'pressure'. Since getting the rope through the last hole was challenging, as the end was frayed thus had to work it carefully through the other 2 holes, Rey was getting a little tired of this game. But by the time we were onto the 3rd hole, it was pretty loose and flopping around, thus it had to come off.  I may have pushed the pressure a bit more than usual so to end our session, I grabbed some hay and we hung out together. No ask, no pressure.