Day 5

I don't have many photos or videos today as I went out to work with Marley by myself.  I got out there about 8:45 this morning, and the barn was nice and quiet... just what I was hoping for.  Marley actually seemed a little more hesitant walking up to the round pen, maybe he thought there wasn't enough going on?  In any case, we got there just fine and I started with some clicker training and light lunging to get him thinking.

Marley in his first bridle!

The first thing on the agenda today was a bridle.  I still haven't taken his halter on and off yet, and I wasn't sure how he would react with me working around his head and face so much.  I started off with just taking off and putting on the rope halter, at first only barely lifting it off and then putting it back on.  In a few minutes I was taking the halter completely off, stepping back, and then walking up and putting it back on.  Basically all Marley cared about were the carrots in my pocket, so he did just fine.  To introduce the bridle, and especially the bit, I decided it would be best to put it on like a halter rather than to put the bit in his mouth first and try to pull the crown piece over his ears.  I used to have a thoroughbred that hated his head touched, and this method had really helped him.  Since Marley is still a little bit skittish, I thought a bad experience around his face could set us back a few days.  I started by opening the left cheek piece of the bridle so that it opened up just like a halter, then I put his ears through the brow band and set the crown piece in place.  When he stopped looking at me like I was insane, I held the bit and left cheek piece to his mouth, which he opened right away because I'm sure he thought I was feeding him something.  Sorry Marley.  I buckled the cheek piece and stood with him while he chewed and moved his tongue around trying to figure out what the heck I had just done to him.  I didn't want to pull on the bit at all today, so I decided to wrap up the reins and just lead him around by the halter (which I had left on him under the bridle) until he felt comfortable.  When he did, I pushed him out and lunged him a little bit until he was completely quiet in it.  I was really proud of him.

I'm a good boy...and pretty dang cute to boot!

"What's the point of this?"

Next I decided that it was time to put something over his back.  First I threw a saddle pad on, and he acted as if he didn't even notice.  I then pulled out a big fleece cooler which I folded up so that it would just lay over his withers, but I could unfold it while it was on him once he was comfortable.  Pretty soon the whole thing was on, practically dragging on the ground, and tied in the front.  He was pretty nervous at first but calmed down and then walked quietly around, and stood while I combed his mane.

Practicing picking up his front feet for the farrier

Finally, I practiced picking up his front feet and holding on to them for a bit longer than he was used to.  His front feet could use a trim, so I really would like to have this behavior solid in the coming week.  I was really creative and got a horrible photo for you all to see!  Next week I am going to be on spring break, so I have full days to work with Marley.  Because of this, my goal is to have him under saddle by then.  Stay tuned!!

Day 4

I'm starting to see a big change in Marley.  He is feeling more and more comfortable in his surroundings and with me, and the personality is coming out.  He is moving confidently and investigating anything new, and his expressions just crack me up.

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

I spent the morning at school, so I didn't have as much time with Marley as I would have liked, but we still got some good training and de-sense in.  When I went into the stall to get him he turned to me immediately and walked up.  I guess he knows who has those carrots he loves so much!  When I walked him to the round pen today there was a lot going on around the barn.  Cars driving in, lots of other horses being ridden and walked around, car doors slamming... lots of distractions and things to spook at.  I've found that if I let him stop and look at something for a second, he is usually fine, so we took our time, but we never paused for more than 10 +- seconds.

Combing Marley's forelock for the first time

Yesterday Marley learned about the clicker, and how to "target" to my hand, so today I wanted to transfer the target behavior to a target pole (basically a stick with a buoy at the end of it).  It's the same principle as targeting to my hand, he basically has to touch his nose to the target (the buoy), click, treat.  Right now it's a fun game and is helping him to build confidence, but soon I will be able to use it to shape fundamental behaviors that I will build a lot of his basic training on.  Here's a short clip of Marley learning to target to the buoy.  Notice when he doesn't target the first time, I went back to touching the target to his nose rather than asking him to come to it again.  This is Marley's second day with the clicker, so I'm not too picky about his reaction time, but if he takes way too long or isn't paying attention, I just ignore the mistake and go back to the basics.  There was a lot for Marley to look at today and distract him from training, so to help this, I moved him around a lot to keep his attention on me.

Other training for today included more lunging (Marley cantered today!), brushing, picking up front feet (which he still isn't too sure about), touching his back, belly, butt, tail... He's coming along nicely.  He also let me comb his forelock for the first time, so I was pretty excited about that.  On a side note, a helicopter was flying back and forth because of a fire not far from the barn.  It was the first time, since the first day of training, that I saw Marley ever really jump sideways and want to bolt.  He responded when I pulled him in, and I proceeded to feed him and talk to him until it went away.  Interesting.

Sandee from Forever Yours Photography (photographer who visited us on our first day) sent some more photos over as well, so I'll post a few of them here, as well as on Marley's facebook page.  If you haven't seen his facebook page yet, just search "Marley the Mustang" on facebook, then "like" him to view lots of photos and conversations about his progress.  Thank you again for all of your support and for taking the time to read about our journey.

Day 3

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

This morning started off hazy and I went out to the barn early before it got too busy.  Marley had gotten through the rain just fine, and didn't look like he had used his shelter at all as he was soaking wet.  I guess he's never had a shelter before, so why use it now?  When I first walked into his stall he snorted at me a bit and acted like I might jump on him, but when I just stood still he turned toward me and I was able to touch his nose.  After that it all came back and he realized who I was and he relaxed.  We took it easy for an hour or so, Mike cleaned his stall and I fed him some carrots, we basically just hung out with him while he ate.  It still amazes me that just three days ago he had never been handled other than being run through a chute and corralled. 

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

My two goals for today were to bring him back up to the round pen and to start clicker training.  Anything else I decided I would just see how he was and go from there.  He hesitantly left his stall and walked cautiously the entire way to the round pen, but he never spooked or pulled on his lead.  A couple of times, we stopped and he looked around at other riders, cars, and the dogs that were barking from the house, but after investigating he would step forward again.  I was extremely proud of him for making his second trip through the stalls and up to the round pen, and he really relaxed as soon as he walked through the gate.  I think he remembers it as a safe place, as it is where he spent his first night, and first two days of training.

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Clicker training isn't something that is widely used with horses, but I'm telling you, the look on Marley's face when he finally started to make the association between the click and a carrot was hilarious, even the oldest school cowboy would admit that it was fun.  Pretty soon I was teaching him to "target" to my hand, just a simple game that when I place my palm out, he has to touch it with his nose then I "click" and give him a treat.  This is a video of him figuring it out, I wish I had more of the clicker but mike was diligently going from camera to video to document everything.  I'll try to get more soon.  He was being so cute once he had it down.

In addition to some clicker training 101, we also learned a bit of lunging.  Before today, Marley was rewarded for facing me rather than turning away, so it took him a minute to figure out that now I wanted him to move forward around me instead of turn to look at me.  It only took a couple minutes, and when he finally got it, he was pretty laid back about it.  That seems to be a common trend with this horse, laid back.

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Finally, I spent more time just touching and moving around Marley to get him used to being worked with.  He accepted the brush really well again today, and I even got all the way over his back, tummy, and butt.  He is still pretty jumpy with his rear end, so I haven't started with his hind legs yet, but for the first time today he allowed me to run my hands all the way down both front legs, and he even picked them up for me!  Have I mentioned yet how proud I am of him? 

Photo by Katherine Payne Fotography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

Photo by Katherine Payne Photography

I would like to thank Katherine Payne for coming out today to photograph Marley's progress.  I am so blessed to have the support and interest from artists and photographers like Katherine and Sandee (who accompanied us on Day 1 of our Journey) and look forward to seeing Marley's story being told through their lenses.  I'll finish again with another video, Marley walking back to his stall.  He was much more confident on the way back to his stall then he was walking out of it, he stayed relaxed and was happy to be back.  He's turning out to be a little food monger, and of course, he immediately went to his hay once I let him loose.  Could there be a better way to start a morning?

Day 2

Today was another incredible day.  First off, he finally has a name.  Everybody, please meet Marley.  After only about 10 minutes of pressure/release work with the rope, I was able to attach a lead line and rub up and down Marley's neck on both sides.  Within half an hour, he was leading extremely well with little to no pressure, he simply followed my lead.  If that wasn't exciting enough, the best part is still yet to come... The day was full of major accomplishments and I truly think I've developed a solid bond with Mr. Marley.

Putting on the lead line

Success

The barn today was very busy, and Marley spent the night in the round pen since he could not be led back to his stall.  One of the best parts about the barn I have him at is that there are tons of kids.  That means lots of girls riding around on their horses in halters and zooming around the arenas chasing each other and giggling and screaming.  A lot to take in for a horse who hasn't been exposed to this type of stimulation, but Marley took it all in stride.  We spent two hours taking in all of the sights and sounds of a busy barn on a Saturday, Marley stood calmly on his lead line and ate his grass and allowed me slowly start brushing him.  When he finally relaxed and allowed me to move up and down his neck, I was able to take off the number tag that the BLM has on all of their horses.  No longer will he be referred to as #1670. 

Learning how to lead

Good Boy!

Praises

Working on taking off the number tag

ID Tag finally off! 

Love

First Brushing

That's not so scary!

Eating his first carrot

After working in the round pen for a couple of hours, it was time to make the biggest step of the day.  The walk from the round pen all the way to his stall.  This was Marley's first time leaving the round pen since arriving only yesterday morning.  Lucky for me, I had Lindsey to document it.  Other than one small spook on our way into his run (due to the horse on the other side of him flipping out, so really he handled it extremely well) he exceeded my expectations.  Such an amazing horse with an amazing disposition.

Relaxing and eating lunch

Once Marley was safe and sound in his new stall, we took a lunch break to let him settle in.  I was interested to see how he would be to catch again.  Even though he was out of the round pen, his stall is still huge.  About 25'X40' so it's more than possible for him to stay away from me if he wants to.  As I had expected, the change in location made contact a whole new game.  But it didn't take long before he reached out and sniffed my hand, took a deep breath, and realized that I wasn't going to grab him.  After that hooking up the lead was a non-issue as long as there were no sudden movements. 

Taking a carrot out of Mike's hand

We finished up the day with lots of Marley admirers coming to visit.  He was so calm and good when everyone showed up, and even ate carrots out of everyone's hand.  He allowed Lindsey and Mike to walk up and pet him, and was curious enough to walk up occasionally and see what we were all doing. 

One last video to finish up the blog post for today.  Before we left for the afternoon, I walked up to Marley one last time to hook up the lead line.  You'll see how he does below, but notice how he has taken right to eating carrots.  This means tomorrow we will begin clicker training.  Awesome!

Day 1

Wow.  What an incredible, exciting, long day.  After barely sleeping last night, we started bright and early at 3:30AM to make sandwiches and pack a cooler, and were out the door (coffee in hand) by 5.  It took a solid three hours to get to Canon City, as was expected, but the drive seemed to never end.  I was SO excited and nervous and just wanted to meet the horse I would be spending so much time with already!  Once we got to Canon City, it was a case of hurry-up-and-wait.  We sat for an hour as trainers signed papers and had to clear security into the correctional facility.  Luckily, we were one of the earlier trucks, and we squeezed in with the first round of trainers there to receive horses.

After watching three horses load up and drive away to their new homes, it was finally our turn.  I still had not even had a glimpse of the horse I would be taking home that day, and as I signed the final paperwork to take responsibility for the mustang, he came trotting down the chute before I even had the chance to read his profile.  And just like that, he was loaded, and we were on our way.

Originally I thought I was going to leave him un-haltered, but when I was at the facility, I decided otherwise.  I did however decide to keep the lead rope off the halter for fear he could get hung up on our long drive home.

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

 When we finally got to Denver (entourage en tow) the incredible staff at Amen Acres already had a plan fully devised to unload him safely into the round pen.  He stood on the trailer no more than five minutes before we opened it up, and to my delight, he quietly walked off and trotted into the middle of the pen.

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

When we threw him hay, he immediately began to eat, and he settled in really well.  I have to tell you, I was completely surprised and relieved at how easily he took to everything he had just been through.  He seemed to settle right into his new surroundings, and he even didn't mind eating with me practically sitting on his hay.  Mind you however, he was still wary of me, and wanted nothing to do with me trying to touch him.

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

After we all wound down a bit, it was time to work him around the pen to see what I had.  He was basically calm and stayed at a steady trot, learned to switch directions, and when I stopped would turn in to me.  He even began taking steps towards me.  Once he figured out that as long as he was looking at me and being calm that I would stop moving him forward, he did just that... with minor cases of the jitters and occasional spooks.

Forever Yours Photography

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

Photo by Forever Yours Photography

Once that game got boring, (and believe me, it did... he was looking around at all kinds of stuff, none of it being in the round pen of course) we worked on some pressure/release.  This will be his foundation for leading and groundwork, and basically works as it sounds.  When I put pressure on and he gives to that, I release the pressure and he is rewarded.  Overall, he learned very quickly and was such a good boy. I finished when I had a loose rope around his neck and he would step to me when I asked.  The ultimate reward however was when a light touch that would have spooked him turned into a good rub down up on his neck and shoulder for which he stood calmly and confidently for.

This is where I left it.  Such huge strides in one day, and while I'm completely exhausted (obviously as I'm posting this at midnight) I am unbelievably thrilled and excited to have this opportunity.  Tomorrow I plan to spend another long day out at the ranch, though with much less "work".  A whole lot of getting to know each other and some trust building is on the agenda for tomorrow...oh, and that minor little detail, HE NEEDS A NAME!  I still haven't settled on anything, so if anyone out there has suggestions, please, don't be shy!

I would just like to thank Forever Yours Photography for spending several hours with us today to capture our very first moments together.  The photos you captured are amazing, I can't wait to share more of them with everyone interested in this project, and I look forward to seeing his story unfold in photos. Also, thank you to Jake Merritt who spent the entire day trailering and coaching, we couldn't have done it without you today! You guys are awesome!

Only 3 Days To Go...

It's the final countdown and I could not be more excited to meet the mustang who will undoubtedly be a big part of my life for the next three months.  I will basically be spending the last three days hammering out details and getting organized, but for the most part, it is just a waiting game at this point.  Jake Merritt, a friend and fellow trainer will be doing the hauling and be there for coaching support on the first day (Friday), which I am so thankful for.  In addition to Jake, we have also conjured up quite the audience of friends, family, and supporters who will be coming by all weekend to observe training sessions and just relax with us while we spend valuable down time with the horse.  I am also extremely thankful for the many photographers and artists who have reached out to contribute to this project, your time and support is truly appreciated.  On Friday, Sandee of Forever Yours Photography out of Castle Rock, CO will be documenting our first moments with our horse, so stay tuned for some amazing photographs! 

Once again, thank you to everyone for your support and for spreading the word.  There are thousands of mustangs in holding areas who need to be adopted, including the 50 in this competition.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding this project, my email address can be found on the right hand side of this page.  Starting Friday, I will be updating this blog every day, so please check back often as I will be jumping right in to training!  See you in three days!