This 10 minute video shows the first interaction with Friday, a BLM Mustang filly from Oregon. Friday arrived at Equine Outreach horse rescue on Friday the 13th. The BLM staff left a halter and lead rope on her in hopes of making her easier to handle. We are combining clicker training with pressure and release in order to get up to her. She has about 10% vision and is believed to be blind from birth. She must be extremely special to have survived a round up as a 3 month old motherless baby.

Because this is a new situation, both Kali and the filly have to learn together. Kali experiments with using shuffling her feet as pressure, since the filly has trouble seeing hand movements. Kali also used a "click" to mark when the pressure was taken off. Using the marker signal really helped the filly understand the release.

It was interesting that the filly ultimately chose to have Kali approach her forehand. It was very surprising to all that were watching because horses usually would prefer to have you touch their neck or shoulder.

Stay tuned for more videos of Friday's progress! (less info)