KBR Training Case Study:

"Keno"

Keno and Jackpot
Joyce North adopted Keno at Palomino Valley. Actually Keno was part of a "package deal" which included Jackpot. They decided to leave Keno undisturbed for a while to raise Jackpot. When they decided it was time to start gentling Keno, the mare had figured out pretty well how to take advantage of various situations and was a handful.

They managed to get Keno into a trailer and down to the ranch where we put her in "Mustang Manor." We worked with her a couple of days with the pole and trying to get her to pick up on click/treat patterns. She wouldn't take carrots from us so we put a piece of old conveyor belting on the ground and tossed the carrot bits onto the belt and she'd have to walk over to get her treat.

She started to let us in closer, but the going was pretty slow. She seemed level headed enough and we quietly coaxed her into the gentling chute. Once inside we spend some time rubbing her on both sides. When it came time for haltering, Keno would drop her head to the ground where we couldn't reach it in the chute. Sharon came up with the idea of stretching the halter across the ground, then raising it up simultaneously from both sides under her neck. The idea worked great.

Once her head was up, Keno tried all sorts of evasions but we got the halter on. A minute or so later we had the leadrope on, then let her out of the chute.

Hello, Kitty! She really didn't like being haltered and she liked my handling her by the leadrope even less. She had to get some charging and cagey moves out of her system, then when she realized that I wasn't going to leave and that she wasn't going to pull me off of my feet, she settled down. I was able to let her on a loose lead and she eventually touched my hand with her nose. That was enough excitement for one day and we didn't want to stress her out. I expect her to be a great deal more thoughtful tomorrow. We'll see.

Notice the "carrot holders"
at the end of the chute
Rubbing Keno in the chute
Getting ready to halter
On a loose lead
Keno

Continue to Part 2


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