We had the whole barn to ourselves tonight which was really nice. I spent some time grooming Marley and could stuff a pillow with the amount of hair that came off of him. I can't believe how thick his winter coat is, it's falling out like crazy and it doesn't even look like he has shed out at all!
We started out with the same exercises Jake left us with yesterday, which really set the tone for the rest of our ride. Marley was soft and our transitions are improving dramatically. I worked a little bit on rollbacks, and spent a good portion of our ride working on the canter. I was really happy with how the session went, so when we finished up I took his saddle and bridle off right away and we played for a while.
After running around the arena for a little while and getting a good roll in, I decided to work on Marley's bow. I wanted to do a few approximations, but when I asked him to come down to the target pole and tapped his leg (which right now is his cue for bow, eventually it will be a hand motion), Marley actually came completely down onto his knee for the first time, and stayed until he heard the click! I was so excited, he won the jackpot in carrots. Basically, I think I got the point across that his response was exactly correct.
I didn't have a camera tonight, but while we were playing around in the arena I had my phone and we took some self photos. For all of the photos we did get, there are about 5 more of Marley trying to eat the phone.
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