Winter training update

Mr. Marker continues to show me just how different horses can be. Between maturing and reasonably consistent handling, he’s managed to acquire a certain amount of ground manners that he had been lacking when I first got him. Now that we’re in the season of slick surfaces and ice, that’s really showing up–along with a level of surefootedness that’s better than anything old Mocha has achieved. Up until she popped her knees, she was pretty catty and surefooted. Now, not so much.

Oh, he’s still pushy at times. However, he’s a lot better behaved than he used to be and more respectful of human space. The other piece is that he is a snoopy, curious, young gelding with an urge to use his lips, tongue, and teeth to investigate the world around him. While he’s learned to keep lips and teeth off of humans, that doesn’t always extend to objects. Last summer he developed a fascination with the grooming caddy, especially the little jar of molasses I have in there to tempt Mocha into eating her grain when she’s not interested. The other day, he managed to get the lid off of that jar. Did he lick it enough to loosen it, use his teeth to turn it, or what? I still don’t know. Nonetheless, I decided it was time the molasses jar moved out of the caddy. He still gets into the caddy, carefully extracting items piece by piece from it.

Today, he deliberately picked up his empty grain bucket and shoved it toward my husband, who was holding Mocha’s grain pan. A request for a handful if she didn’t finish it? Most likely. The husband’s given him her leftovers before, and he had finished up his own grain before husband and Mocha made it to the hitching rail. It’s not a behavior I’ve seen him display before. Normally, he licks the bottom of the bucket when he’s done, then flips it over and starts licking the outside.

At least I know that I can find things to keep him entertained should I need to confine him!

Under saddle work continues in spite of snow and ice. Marker learns differently from Mocha. With her, repeated schooling drills refining a movement in one session worked best. Not so Marker! He gets anxious and edgy if I repeat and refine. The roller in his bit mouthpiece helps a little bit with that tension, but it’s still present.

Luckily, the easiest way to release that tension is to ask him to fox trot for a little ways, with a long rein to let him stretch. As we progress through a session, he starts to relax enough that we can walk on a long rein. Walk doesn’t work quite as well for tension release early on, though–it has to be fox trot.

What appears to work best with him is to introduce him to a new movement, repeat a couple of times, then move on. Refinement happens over repeated sessions rather than doing it all in one session. I need to break down the steps of a movement and build his understanding by honing a single small step in those repeats. He seems to be one of those horses where you introduce him to something, then let him think about it and ask again the next day. For the most part, I’ve found that he’s figured it out by then.

That understanding seems to stick even after a layoff of a week.

Canter is coming right along. Marker has a lovely rocking horse canter. Unlike Mocha, he isn’t inclined to take off in a hard gallop–up until the last few months of her riding life, the old lady relaxed best if she had a chance to gallop and blow off steam. His leads are starting to be more solid, but it wasn’t until the other day that I figured out that it’s easier for him to trot into canter on the left lead, while walk works best for the right lead. Not sure why that is, but it’s something to work on. Probably a strength issue. I’ve noticed some resistance when two-tracking to the left, so he may have strained something on the ice, or roughhousing with the other geldings. Or uneven muscle development. It happens.

I also introduced rollbacks. Fox trot into the rollback, whoa, then turn and pick up the correct lead. We did it for the first time before I had to be gone on some business stuff for a week, and when I came back, he more or less had figured it out. Oh, there’s refining to do, but it’s happening.

He’s solidly in the neck rein and is developing a greater responsiveness to seat and leg, with hand primarily dictating speed.

All in all, he’s progressing well.

Mocha…let’s just say that I’m glad that this has been a fairly mild winter. She developed a small hoof abscess during the wet period and is still not quite right. Oh, she’s still perky and eats well, and loves being brushed and scratched. But it’s clear that the time to make that final hard decision is approaching and closer than I would like. This winter I’m taking the time to enjoy my old lady. Scratch her favorite places; give her the peppermints she so adores. She’ll be 25 in March.

This might be the year the old lady gets a birthday party.

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