KBR Training Case Study: "Tonopah" P.3

KBR Training Case Study

"Topnopah"

Part Three

The Objective

Day 5

For two mornings preceeding Day 5 Dave came in before work and polled Tonopah for a few minutes. Tonopah had gotten pretty used to Dave by this time. Now it was time to get Tonopah out on the line and make contact.

Tonopah was very guarded about his face. Old battle scars suggested that he had suffered a nasty bite on his nose at some point so we needed to get him relaxed about having his face handled.

We put him back into the chute and quietly worked our way up to his head with our hands. Once we made it up to his muzzle without upsetting him it was time to get him comfortable with ropes around his face. Dave, Corrine and Betty first worked with him using the rawhide loop and when he was good with that they put on a halter.

Starting at the withers

Working up the neck

Quiet contact on his muzzle	Working with the neck loop
Not knowing how he would react once he was let out of the chute, Willis worked Tonopah at first. He was disturbed at first by the lead line dragging after him but after a couple of laps he stopped and investigated. We were able to pick up the line using a bamboo pole and he was very attentive and relatively quiet on the line. He would give a little bit to pressure and before long we could slide a hand up the rope and briefly touch his nose.
First few minutes on the line	About ten minutes later
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