Breakthrough!

Don't laugh at the clip job.... he's not done yet. Note the hairy hind legs.... oh well, we'll get there.

Marti and I had a real and true breakthrough today! He let me catch him fairly easily out in the field twice - once to remove his blanket, and once to take him to the roundpen - and I let him loose in the roundpen to see what we could accomplish. He moved out well, trotting and cantering on command as well as halting on command, and then at some point he finally just turned in and marched right to me after I had given him the command for whoa and he had stopped. He came RIGHT to me and initiated a grooming session... so awesome!! I scratched him all over, and he scratched me right back. When I walked away, he followed, and asked for more scratches. Do you guys know how amazing it feels to have a horse who just a few days ago was bolting away from you and twitching every time you touched him actually ask to be touched? It's wild. He has no idea how big he is, and he was practically trying to crawl in to lap, but I'll take that for now because at least it means he wants to be there. There will be PLENTY of time to get him out of my bubble... all I want right now is for him to be involved with my space. I clearly don't want him to squish me, but I don't really forsee this being too much of a problem once I built a relationship with him. He is seriously submissive.

When I turned him back out into the field, he stayed there and nuzzled me again even after I had taken his halter off. A few days ago, taking off his halter was an invitation for a manic gallop in the other direction. He actually stayed! Or well, until Gogo came over... then it was all over. I took her out of the pasture so she could get a green grass snack (you have no idea how much the grass is growing here, it's wild!), and leaned on the gate while she munched away. Marti came right over to me and nuzzled my back, tried to eat my hair, and in general stayed with me nosing me all over while I let Gogo eat. SO AWESOME.

I'll keep it brief, as I am trying to get into Ft. Worth to see the Future Hubs before it gets seriously late, but I can only hope that tomorrow is as awesome as today was!