Udder Crud

My yearling has a small umbilical hernia that I want to have checked by the vet in January.  She has been desensitized to me feeling of it in the past, but I thought I'd review in light of the upcoming appointment.  It's been a while since I had done that and in the interim, she changed her mind about having it done!  So I had to start at square one rubbing where she was comfortable and working slowly toward the areas where she wasn't.  The hernia area wasn't the main issue, she was just touchy about the whole area of the belly near the flank.  And that's understandable.  Horses are hardwired to be protective of that area.  It's the strike zone for a predator.  Anyway, I worked with her a bit and to be safe I had her haltered.  She knows to give her head to pressure, so I held the rope by her withers keeping her nose around.  She's soft on this already otherwise I'd have to hold it there and move with her until she stopped moving and softened into my hands calmly.  So standing close to her with her head around keeps me relatively safe.  If you're not comfortable with the horse and the positioning, best not to try this because the handler is vulnerable to being kicked.  My yearling isn't the type to fight or kick, but she was very touchy this time with the process.  Strange because it hadn't been an issue before. 
Mares develop "udder crud" that needs to be periodically cleaned out.  It's a buildup of sweat, dirt, etc. between their teats and they're usually very touchy about this at first.  When I had her standing quietly for the rubbing in the area, I cleaned out some of this crud and of course that felt good once she relaxed.  Then the light bulb went on and she remembered this was not only not a big deal, but had the potential to feel good!  It was a good thing to reinforce and I'll continue to work with her on it so she'll be a model patient for the vet. 
Since I was in the "zone" I decided to start desensitizing Abbey to this touchy area.  Horses!  They just always keep you guessing.  Abbey, who a few weeks ago was terrified of being touched anywhere, didn't even twitch.  In fact she had her upper lip out telling me how good that all felt.  Since she was being so good, I worked with putting her front legs between my knees and her hinds on my bent knees.  She was just in a willing frame of mind as everything went perfectly with her totally relaxed.  Light bulbs all on for her today!