Maraschino's first 4 y/o play

Yes, Maraschino turned 4 last Monday and we hadn't really had any decent play time this week - so today was the day.

He was really good to halter, no resistance at all... and I picked out his feet (tick)... and off we went - the others came too into the middle paddock. We started with Figure 8 and he got a wee bit stuck 'at' each spool. He also ran out to my right when he had the chance too, even just the carrot stick coming a little bit of the ground for him is enough to 'send'.

He went a little introverted for a bit at one point after some 'sends' and practising carrot stick transitions..

I just waited...

From there we tested circle game and got two laps of trot with coming in, then we also did some over the pole on one side of the circle.

While we were at the pole we tried backing over the pole which he got on his third try I am happy to say, and the we worked on draw - I had to crouch down on the ground.

So - his drive is better than his draw right now... mental note...

We squeezed through the gap between the tire and the round pen which I thought was extra cool because the ground was still a bit soft and boggy in the gap.

He's still jumpy with the carrot stick so we played friendly with that for a while...

Then I sat on the outside of the round pen and played 'mount from the fence' but without the mounting - I probably spent 10 minutes just stroking him while he was up close and I was in Zone 3 alongside him. Sometimes he would move me back to Zone 2, so I would wait there a bit then move along the rail more. He eventually relaxed so much he looked like he was falling asleep.

After that some more more circle, some change of direction and we finished there. I was very pleased with him - it's probably the longest play session we've had so far (about 45 minutes all up).

Maraschino checking out an empty birds egg...