Halcyon Weekend

Had a couple of really entertaining, enlightening and joyful days with horses and friends. Yesterday, we decided to take Maverick out on the trail. Wendy rode Maverick first, and she definitely got the most exciting end of that decision, but more on that later. Wendy and I both have decided that we have such a smart horse, we need to be as progressive with him as possible. And, since we need 500 hours of riding him before we can start to have a real partnership in the saddle, the more riding with him we do, the better. We picked a savvy team of people/horses to go with, Sarah and Tessa, me and Walker and Rachel and Doc. OK, Doc is not so savvy, but with Rachel in the saddle, we could trust that whatever happened, she would do the right thing.
Everything went very well until we got to the back side of the lake. Since the last time we had gone back there, there has been a lot of construction happening. Apparently, a large trench had been dug to lay pipe, so the footing was very soft with no grass to help. There was a new, large above ground pump station of which none of the horses was very fond. After going about halfway to our usual turnaround spot, we decided to go back to avoid anymore bad footing. Something really spooked Doc, which in turn really spooked Maverick who took off with Wendy somehow managing to stay in the saddle. She was pulling on both reins (we were riding him in a halter and lead rope for reins), then Sarah and I both started reminding her, loudly, to use one rein as he was moving fast and like a dolphin along the edge of the levy. Thankfully, he did no twisting, he just moved forward with a lot of uncontrolled energy, so Wendy was quickly able to get him to a halt by bending him with the right rein. Not everyone would have been able to keep a cool head the way Wendy did given the narrow area she was navigating between the steep slope leading to lake to her left and the soft footing to the right. Once the horses had settled some, we continued on our back, but when we made the bend around the lake towards Court road, all the horses became very unsettled. Wendy did the smart thing and got off of Maverick. I kept Walker busy by doing lots of small disengages until he got more focused. As we walked along Court Rd, Wendy kept Mav busy by doing lots of falling leaf, so by the time we got to the field across from the stables, he was quite calm. I hopped off of Walker, gave him so more cookies and told Wendy that if she felt like riding Walker, she was welcomed to do so.
I got on Maverick, did some circles around the trees as well as some figure eights. He is as green as grass, but he already knows how to stop on my seat, which is quite an accomplish so soon. He has trouble staying on track on the circle, so I had to bump him back to the middle quite often, but he was really trying to understand what I wanted. Each time he softened on the circle, I asked for a walk and gave him lots of scratches. I stopped often to give him the chance to think and assess. We also started the figure eight pattern, just enough to start teaching it to him. Wendy enjoyed riding Walker at the trot and canter, feeling how pushing her energy back into the saddle instead of scooping forward really helps the horse come up and move forward. We helped Rachel with Doc by showing her how valuable circles and the figure eight pattern can be to getting a horse with a lot of energy and ideas of his own to be calmer and more focused. Once Doc got a little softer, we all headed back to the barn. All in all, a memorable and important day for Wendy, Maverick and me.
Did I mention the weather? We got a spectacularly beautiful day, clear blue skies and about 60 degrees.
Today, Sarah and I rode across the street in the park, and she helped Walker and me with some exercises to get us both more relaxed and moving forward and up. It really helped both of us to be more relaxed as he learned to move more forward. I learned more from Sarah today then all the dressage lessons I have had up to this point. It really is great to have so many wonderful people at our barn.
Then I got to play with Maverick on the ground. We warmed up with some circle/change of direction games, then I had him step onto, over and then back onto a tarp, stopping on the tarp and staying there for 10 seconds. First time, no problems. Yo-yoed him over a poll, again first time, no problem. It is so much fun to play with a horse with excellent breeding AND no baggage! Then I started to teach him the weave, which after just the third go around, he started to understand, so we stopped and he licked my hand for about 3 minutes. Have you ever stood and let a horse lick your hand for 3 minutes? He and I were both at peace with one another, just a wonderful feeling. Then I took the halter off. After a few stops and starts, he gave me one circle to the left and one to the right. Even though he gave me several circles at liberty both ways on Friday, it felt a little robotic. This time, when he circled me, he made the decision to do so, not because he was doing a mindless circle. How different it felt to have him do the circle willingly, not like a chore. And what a draw we already have! Even when he wandered away, it was easy to return his attention to me and have him trot back to me. So many things can bring me joy, but when Walker and Maverick choose to return to me willingly with energy and respect, it makes my heart sore and brings a giant grin to my face. We finished by yo-yoing backwards over a poll, again at liberty and for the first time, and some stick to me game, walk, trot, stop and backwards from zone 2. Maverick still doesn't like me being on his right side, so we did twice as much on the right than on the left side. We stopped and I fed him cookies and again waited as he licked my hand for quite some time. He yawned a bit as I walked him back to his stall, where he drank some water, sighed and started in on his hay with satisfaction.
I am having so much fun with Walker now. It's hard to quantify how far he and I have come and how much we have learned together, so I don't even try, I just look forward to how much farther we will go. And I know Pat says your second Parelli horse is always smarter than your first one (tongue in cheek), but speaking with complete objectivity, Maverick is something special.