No real improvement

So this morning I went up hoping BG would have forgotten about everything and have her head collar on in her shelter with no issues. Another part of me was thinking expect a fight.

So BG came down to her shelter as good as gold, but would she have the head collar on - no! One look at it and her hind quarters swung round. It is really weird, she will let you make more of a fuss up around her head than usual, but turns away at the slightest sight of the head collar.

I tried the patience approach, I tried the ignoring her and leaving her to it for a bit approach. Eventually, as she was letting me stoke her without an issue I used a lead rein to rub her over her shoulder and up round her neck. She hadn't seen me pick it up but I was expecting a protest as I looped it over her neck, she was as good as gold though. Then my husband held the rope whilst I put her head collar on. Perfect. She didn't pull back when she saw it, her ears didn't go back when the nose part went on. It makes you wonder what all the fuss was about originally.

Since the head collar was on we finally got to give her her breakfast, then let her eat it in peace whilst I topped up the water buckets. Next thing we know P1 was in there eating it instead of BG!

Tonight we used BG's food bowl to tempt her down to her shelter. In she went good as gold. Headed over the her food bowl, putting her nose straight in her head collar....then a car door slammed and she spun round and out the shelter. We got her back in but would she let us anywhere near her whilst we had her head collar on us - no.

In the early days with her last owner she had once had to the have the farrier hold her hoof whilst her owner put her head collar on. I always thought I would never do this as I could imagine her getting very upset and trying to pull away, I also thought it could be quite dangerous. Tonight though the head collar wasn't working, she wouldn't let me get near her with the leap rope. So I showed my husband how to hold her hoof and I put the lead rope round her neck. We took it slowly, and she never tried to pull away or get upset so I don't think it was such a bad method.

My husband then tried holding her by the lead rope whilst I went to get the head collar. This time she did get upset and spun round so that my husband couldn't hold her. We got her back, calmed her down and the I held her whilst he approached her with the head collar. She wasn't as good as this morning, she was still very wary of it, but we got it on without any real upset, even with something banging the side of the shelter just as the nose part went on.

I lunged her once she'd had her tea, then took her back to her shelter before letting her go, to slip the head collar on and off her nose to try and show her it wasn't scary.

Tomorrow morning could be interesting, she might well be going without her breakfast as I can't spend hours up there, I'll need to get to work.