Ventured out of the round pen

I haven't really ridden Maraschino in the paddock since he was started in June. I've ridden him in the round pen and in a couple of arenas. Tori rode him on a trail around Waimarie, and Michelle's ridden him on the track at Crescent. So today was the day. My fiend suggested I ride him from the round pen back to the barn. So that was my plan.

Yesterday we did some yo yo between the pedastal and the jump stands, and today when I asked him to do the same he offered to get up on the pedestal. Happy about that.

In this photo he was chewing on something and I had a look and it was a piece of rubber from the arena...he spat it out. Funny thing.

We did a little trot to make sure he wasn't emotional and then I got on.

We've been working on the mounting process. He'd been moving off which we have fixed, but now when I hold his mane to mount he lifts his head up. Yesterday I did lots of up and down until he relaxed, then I got on, then I got off. :-) today he was really good at standing and the head lifting is getting better.

We did follow the rail, and don't come off the rail today. Then a little trot a couple of times, and then we practiced mounting again because I needed to open the bungee....didn't want to try out doing it while on board with Maraschino just yet. I can do it with Garbo just fine. Then I got back on and focused on heading back to the barn.

I had been playing Jewel on my speakers and at the end of the songs was applause. He looked up there after each song while we were playing and riding. So heading back to the barn wasn't as enticing as it normally is lol. He was drawn to the left to see Garbo so I turn him back to the round pen as a retreat then headed back to the barn again. We got half way before he hesitated so I got off there. Pretty happy with that.

 

Ride at home

Since Maraschino has been home I have been playing with him every day and when I do that he's such a fast learner. He was much more relaxed today despite the rain this morning and he offered to get but on the pedestal. Now this is no s mall pedestal. It's a filled tractor tire!!!

This was just as he was getting off.

Soon after this Michelle arrived as she had offered to ride him for me. She was happy with what she saw I'd done after seeing him canter and trot, and she hopped on. It started raining!

She did some lateral flexions and disengaged the hq. Then we got him hooked on to me to get him to go straight instead of what he seemed to like to which was going round in circles. He had a couple of frights but she's super cool and calm and one rein stopped him. We observed that he almost gets so fixated on something he's concentrating on that he momentarily forgets he has a rider, then gets a fright. She just walked today but he went really well. It was bucketing down at the end so it was challenging for him and he did really well.

 

Still cold but we played again

It's turned quite chilly but I got out and gave the boys another brush to try and get rid of some more winter hair. Then I worked on getting the boys to pick up their feet from a less than phase 1 - snapping fingers...

George came up the driveway with me and held which ever horse I wasn't playing with.

Maraschino was a little jumpy so we did some half circles with a disengage at the fence, then some figure 8's which he does beautifully even at trot. Then circle - today he had so much suspension while on the trot circle and also flexion it was amazing - looked amazing. Sorry I didn't get a photo.

With Garbo we did Falling Leaf again - he wasn't pushing into me so much today. Yay. Progress.

Then we let them have some grass and hopped them on the pedestal on the way by. Then I showed George how to do the On The Barn Halter knot.

Garbo has his ears back because Coco was backed up to about 2 inches from his back end - he was not impressed. When I am cleaning out their hooves, Coco backs right up to me and bumps into me for a scratch.