Developing trust takes time.  Working with Rey is teaching me a lot about myself.  I know that I am one of those annoying, extremely competitive types! Fully admit that.  I do think I have mellowed a bit though over the years though.  It is now more about the journey with horses.  My OTTB Awfully Lucky taught me that. Once I decided that it was just about the joy of being with him, our connection improved. In fact, our show record improved. We even started competing in stakes class and won cash! (see, I am still competitive!) I miss him terribly as he was taken too soon by a watermelon size tumor in his intestine, but what he taught me is now filtering over to how I work with all the horses, including Rey. Trust is key and Rey is showing me that my ego needs to be left at the barn door.  She tells me when she is ready to engage with the weird human.  

I have started following Eicher Ranch and trainer Nate.  I came across his videos while searching for 'How to get the first touch with untouched mustang'. For over 30 years, I have followed various horsemanship gurus, 'natural horsemanship' trainers, and clinicians.  I always get a little tidbit of info I like but the marketing gimmicks drive me nuts. 'Buy my training stick'.... :-/   This Eicher Ranch is different and really resonates with me.  After watching and rewatching some videos as work is done with an untouched mustang, I was all in.  And it works beautifully.  Step one is to get positioning and little Rey was responding to me just like the mustang in the Eicher Ranch video.  Next day, the touch.  In fact, she started the touch. She reached out to me.  Day 5, after I reminded her about the position, she let me touch her.  I do admit, I want to get that rope/tag off her ASAP as it’s driving me nuts, but we need to go through the steps. It will happen!