Day 22

The wind gave us a break today and remained at a tolerable breeze so I was able to ride Marley again.  I started in the round pen as there was a lot of traffic in the large arena.  Marley was great and picked up right where he left off.  I worked with his feet a little bit and his bow behavior before I moved on to riding him.

Target

Bow Approximation

I usually spend some time moving around Marley and playing with the saddle before I get on, but today I went straight to the mounting block, and he didn't miss a beat.  He was quiet and stood for me without any hesitation, and when I asked him to move forward, he did so willingly.  One thing about being in an English saddle is I feel like I have much better contact with Marley.  He is much more responsive to my seat and leg, and he is starting to understand moving off the rail as a result.  After some turns and a little bit of trotting in the round pen, I moved into the large arena where we worked on staying off the rail (his security blanket).  I only stayed in there for about 10 minutes as I'm still wanting to work slowly into more work with him.  He is currently happy to go out for a ride, and and he learns a lot each session, so I don't want to push him.  I think I will have a much happier, more willing horse in the end for it.

After a wonderful, positive ride, I got off and we worked a little more on the ground.  We spent the whole afternoon with him, enjoyed the sun, and got some good play time in.  At the end of the day we decided to start working with Marley accepting someone else coming in and haltering him, so who better than someone who has never haltered a horse??  (hahaha).  Actually, it was great.  I showed Mike a few times how he would approach Marley, put the halter on, etc., and we ran through it a few times.  I think they were both a little nervous at first, but the session was great for Marley and Mike, and Mike even walked Marley all the way back to his stall!