The Belle Chronicles: Saddling, Needles again

So Belle wore a Western saddle today. Mike came back out to do part two of needle desensitization. We worked for a long time on ground work, playing with her in the front of the pasture where she would be quite distracted--she was pretty good, even though my neighbor was stnading ON TOP of his truck, through stuff off the back, and the sprinkler next door came on, and so forth. It was a pretty good session. Mike has a saddle pad that has silicone beads in it, and she thought that was pretty darn scary, but then she settled in, and by the end she was all cinched up in his big western saddle.

Then he got out his toothpick again, and did the same ground work all over--going left, yielding, right, yielding, turning, standing, backing up, and then (she's still wearing the saddle) he poked her. She reacted as always the first time, angry eyes, backing up. But she didn't try to bite him. Then he did more ground work, and pretty soon, he poked her again. She didn't react! Perhaps there's hope?