Tried endo tapping w cha'cote

Well, that was an interesting experiment.  I thought I would try out endo tapping w cha'cote to see if I can get a 'calm down' cue for him for trailering.  After watching the dvd I was intrigued and I found a small tennis ball that I was able to jam onto the end of a broken lunge whip.  Even though he did it on the dvd with a lead rope and was using it to encourage the head to come down and also to keep the horse from walking off, and he also did it next to a wall so the horse could not escape sideways.....I decided to try it at liberty, just to see his reaction to the tapping.  Cha'cote is a highly sceptical horse when it comes to objects, and also is high headed even when he is relaxed.  He did show some skepticism when i approached him with it, but he didn't move, so I started tapping just behind his withers. He was curious as to what i was doing, but again didn't move.  I used impeccable timing and released if his head even moved a millimeter.  I tapped for a good 20 min or so, and while his poll never dropped quite to the level of his withers....he did fall asleep.  Goofy boy.  My arm got tired of tapping, so I showed him the ball and his eyes bugged out of his head.  I did the usual retreat as he went to sniff it, and i had his head on the ground in about a minute.....i also was just tickling his whiskers for a cue and he would follow the ball down to the ground......i found that really interesting.  I tried tapping him on his legs to see if i could get a response leaning toward picking them up at all.....nothing.  Then i tried tapping on his croup, and he instantly started stepping back n forth with the hind legs....so i started to alternate the tapping on top of the hips with the leg i figured would likely be picked up next and within a few minutes i had him kinda baby piaffe-ing on the hind end.  i stopped there because i don't want to mess him up for further lessons and i was basically just goofing around to see what his reaction would be.  i finished the session having him follow the ball and play stick to me and i just love how he is so bonded to me.  we sat for a while w him nuzzling my hair and neck and rubbing his chin on me.  he is such a good boy.  so that was my first endo-tap session, and now i will just ponder the results.

savvy on
michelle