Sunday was the day to start bonding, and to get comfortable with each other. Max got a birthday bath, birthday carrot, and birthday apple. He totally didn't understand the apple, and he is the MOST GENTLE carrot eater I've ever met. Bath went fairly well, all things considered. He stands like a perfect gentleman in cross ties, and you can pretty safely maneuver yourself around him without too much worry.
Monday was spent getting Max acquainted with his new digs, and new life. We started with grooming. Since I know he doesn't care for grooming, we started really slowly and with my softest brush. Because Max is such a gentleman, though he doesn't care for grooming, he still maintains composure and just makes lots of facial gestures and tail swishes. He has never offered to intentionally hurt me or anyone else around him. Just simply lets you know that he doesn't care for it. We walked around the property, and I introduced Max to the round pen and surrounding areas.
By Tuesday Max was settling into his new home very well. I decided I would sit on him. We went into the round pen and walked around a bit. Max was a bit more willing to move forward than he had been when I first tried him out. I believe that his feet are finally starting to feel good after 7 years of race shoes! We walked and walked and turned and turned until that was just too boring for us. Prince (his new buddy) was being worked in the paddock next door and so I thought it would be a great chance to get him acquainted with those surroundings. Nothing phased him and he kept a steady, quiet pace with each lap we did. Typically at the farm we like to walk the horses in the big open field for the cool out, because it's a great mental decompress for both human and equine alike. Prince was headed that way, and since Max seemed to be doing so very well, I figured, hey, why not? OTTB and an open field, what's the worst that could happen? (hehehe) He was a superstar. Walked around on a loose rein like he'd been doing it his whole life. Everything with this horse is just so easy. He also met a new turn out buddy named Uno that night, and now has a whole row of paddocks full of geldings who share the love that I have for this horse.
Thursday and Friday were more bonding times.
Then came Saturday.
We brought Max and Prince up to the big grass arena up front. It looks pretty scary for an arena, with a pond in the middle, a street nearby, and lots to hear and see. Max took it all in stride, and we practiced walking over poles, going between jump standards, and practicing our walk to halt to walk transitions. He was getting VERY proud of himself for carefully walking over obstacles and poles, that after one go through he trotted away. I kind of went with it, because up until that point he had been foot sore to trot. We had an AMAZING first trot in both directions on Saturday. Videos were uploaded via facebook, so I can't really figure out how to link here, bummer!
Sunday we had another trot session that went flawlessly, followed by another bath (geldings are DIRTY!) and more bonding. Max is getting SO much better about being groomed.
Now that we're trotting, we will start working on transitions, bending, softening, and really using his body.
Maxwell really is turning into my dream horse, in the short week I've had him.
I always thought my dream horse was a 17 hand dappled gray warmblood gelding. I came close (not really) with my 14.1 hand dappled buckskin MARE. Now I have a VERY happy medium: a 16 hand Bay Gelding that would do anything you asked of him. <3 <3
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