I can groom Echo.

Echo and I made more progress. As I've mentioned before, Echo will not let me touch him with anything other than my hands. If I attempt to touch him with a brush or rope he becomes horrified and bolts. I bought this very soft jelly like brush that I can wear like a glove but as soon as I touched him with it he ran backwards like I'd touched with with a cattle prod! Here's the brush.

It soft and flexible for even legs.

I know if I can't get Echo to except this brush/glove then I might as well rule out him ever wearing a saddle in the future. lol.

To get him used to the sound the jelly brush made I brushed my sweater and of course Echo ran off soon as he heard it, so I made him to his circles at a trot. He doesn't like doing circles and wanted to turn in and approach me. I let him stop and come to me and when I brushed my sweater he ran backwards again, so I made him continue his circles. After awhile he decided the little soft sound the brush made was better than circles and he came and kissed me as I brushed away at my sweater. Then I held the brush towards him and told him to 'step up'. I trained him to touch things with his nose when I say 'step up' and he touched one of his whiskers briefly on the brush. I made such a big fuss of him for doing that and so the next time I held it out and told him to step up he gave the brush a firm nudge and was rewarded with hugs and kisses like he'd just won the Grand National.

He figured it out; run from the brush and he has to trot in circles around the corral but if he touches the brush he gets cuddles and lot's of "good boys". I then put the brush on his neck and brushed him which quickly led to an all over brushing. He stood very still and was tense, he never moved a muscle. I don't restrain him when I do these things because there's no point in it. If he decides to bolt I have trouble holding him and it just makes matters worse. By the way, the brush is very good for legs.

Tonight I went to groom him and we had to do the whole thing over again. It takes a long time for Echo to become comfortable with something new. Once he settled down and let me brush him, I flipped the brush over and used the other side which has bigger firmer knobbly bits. I think he enjoyed that more but we had to stop because all the brushing created static electricity and I felt some little jolts in my fingers.

Next I'll try some different brushes. I really want to use a brush on his mane and tail and pick his feet out.