“Well,” Henry sighed. “I guess I’d better say goodnight.”

“I guess so,” Jessie reluctantly agreed. There was another moment of silence.

“Well,” Henry smiled, gently rocking Jessie’s hands back and forth. “Goodnight then.”

“Good night, Henry.”

Henry continued to stand for a few more seconds before unwillingly letting her hands go, turning and walking down the steps. He had yet to reach the bottom step when he stopped, turned around and went back to where she was standing. He removed his hat and gingerly kissed Jessie on the cheek.

“There,” he said, slowly stepping back away from her. “I been worried about that all night.”

“Me, too,” Jessie smiled.

“I guess I better go now. Sleep well, Jess.”

“You too, Henry.”

Henry put his hat back on, turned and walked down the steps and into the shadows. “Goodnight,” Jessie heard him call from the darkness.

“Goodnight,” she called back.

Content and happy, Jessie turned, opened the screen door and went inside.

CHAPTER 32

Something was wrong, and the gray colt knew it. The other horses in the pen also sensed it and had instinctively begun to make their way to the back of the darkened paddock, as far from the gate as they could get. The colt had only been in this larger pen for a day because he had become so easy for Jessie and Henry to catch and lead.

The day after Jessie and Henry had gotten back from their date on the Fourth of July, they started paying more attention to helping the colt give to the pressure of the halter, rather than simply follow whoever was in front of him while he was wearing it. Giving to physical pressure was part of the colt’s education Jessie didn’t want to skip over, and in fact if done properly, would help later on in his training when they started riding him.

Jessie and Henry both knew that initially most horses, particularly wild horses, will instinctively push into any pressure they feel on their body, or pull against something that they feel is pulling on them. In training, their goal was to get the horse to override that instinct and give to the pressure, whether it pushes on him or pulls on him. That was the idea in getting the colt to give to any pressure he might feel from the halter. If he could give to pressure, he could eventually learn to stand tied to something without pulling back, or not pull away from someone who was handling him. A little further into his training he might be able to transfer the idea so that it would be easier for him to give to the bit when learning how to stop, turn or back up.

The first time the colt actually felt pressure from the halter in the area behind his ears was when Jessie was in the pen with him holding the lead rope that was attached to the halter. Jessie then had Henry walk into the pen just a little faster than he usually did. The colt was not only not used to having two humans in the pen with him, he also wasn’t used to seeing the quicker movement the second human provided. Immediately, the colt began backing away, which Jessie allowed him to do. However, Jessie also didn’t move with him at first. As a result, the slack quickly came out of the rope attached to the halter, which put pressure in the area behind his ears where the halter rested. The colt, upon feeling this kind of pressure for the first time, panicked and instinctively pulled back in order to free himself.