Progress

Well, Rusty is doing fabulously. He's facing me consistently 100% of the time; coming TO me when frightened; lowering his head for scritches and hugs; allows me to pull, tug, poke and pry in his ears, hold his head, rub all over his body, pull his tail, lift his hooves and still follows me everywhere until I tell him it's OK to go eat, play, drink, whatever. He comes right to the front of the stall and backs up just one step or two so I can enter. His ears remain forward and he is quite comfortable with Matilda sitting on her eggs in the corner of his stall! :) Very careful not to step on her or the eggs. He's just been acutely attentive to me and very quick to respond. Does his sidepassing VERY nicely in concordance with *my* feet ... and backs up when I do. He also is yielding his forequarters for me very well. I think he understands "leadership" thoroughly! He's also waiting very patiently for me to give him the "go ahead" to leave his stall and go out to the paddock. He doesn't rush the stall door nor does he run away. He stands, patiently, until I turn aside and say, "OK! You may go out, now." and off he trots to his hay pile. He's also good to wait until I put his feed down. Will wait about 3 feet back from me and stand still until I tell him its Ok to come eat. He's learned ALOT in the past couple of weeks. This week coming we'll pull out some scary things (umbrellas, tambourines, shiny pom-poms, etc. and teach him how to deal with those types of pony-devouring items.

He did prove his athleticism on Wednesday! He is in a paddock with a 4 rail fence that is 6 ft. tall. He knocked the 2nd from the top rail off and JUMPED over the bottom two rails to get out to the larger part of the paddock! Wise little guy, he is ... *LOL* Just for visuals, the highest rail he jumped over is as high as his croup. So, he's got some good abilities for a little munchkin! But, when I called him to come to me from wayyy down back, he trotted right up and then followed me back into his usual area. What a good troll pony he is!

So, that's the update for now. Will post again after we learn how to relax around noisy, shiny, flappy things.

:)