• Gender: Gelding
  
• Captured: July 3, 2008
  
• Color:  Bay/Black

• Weight as of 4/5/10: 438 kg
  
• Height as of 4/5/10:

• Students: Elyse Conway
  
• Sponsor: Nancy Connolly; Dr. and Mrs. Bauer

      April has been a very exciting and eventful month with 2 previews, Ag field day, and the auction all rapidly approaching.  Marley’s training has excelled so much in the last month, and he is really becoming quite the horse.  Ag field day sessions are continuing full steam ahead, and both Ian and Amanda are rapidly preparing to show on the 24^th.  In their Ag sessions Marley has been doing very well for the most part, and has been adjusting nicely to his new handlers.  Both of his Ag students have been working on completing obstacle courses that include walking over pitch forks made into ground poles, walking on top of cardboard and plastic, trotting in hand, turns on the haunches and forehand, and backing up.  They have also been practicing in mock showmanship classes to prepare Marley for looking and acting his best at the Ag field day show.  I have been continuing to work on sponge bathing Marley, and adding in new challenges like spray bottles, whenever I can.   Because of the previews this month and the auction just around the corner, I have been challenging Marley more and more each day.  He recently allowed me to put him in the wash stall and clip his feathers from the bottoms of his legs.  The student that was holding him for me reassured him constantly that the clippers were not going to hurt him and he could remain calm, and he did.  He was wonderful for the clipping, and only required a small amount of coaxing with grain to reassure him.  I have started working on lunging him in the round pen, starting with small circles around me and increasing the size as he gets better at it.  I began working with the surcingle again as well, except this time I free lunged him in it as well as lunged him on the lunge line with it on, now that he has gotten much better at longing.  This month I also introduced a bit and bridle to him.  Because Marley loves to touch things with his mouth, it made accepting the bit very easy and uneventful even when I began working on steering him with reins attached to the bit.  Recently, polo and standing wraps have been brought to the barn, and I began working on wrapping Marley’s legs as well.  At first he was very unsure of why he could not shake these foreign things off, but he quickly settled down and accepted the wraps on both front and hind legs.  He looked very handsome in the white polo wraps and didn’t seem to mind working in the round pen with them on either.  The latest addition to the list of new things for Marley is a fly mask.  At first he was too intrigued by the smells on the mask to let me get it past his nose, but once he finished inspecting and smelling, I quietly put the mask over his eyes and ears and closed the Velcro below his jaw.  He did not seem frightened by the mask, and was very content walking around with it on.  The vet also came out this month to give Marley (and all of the other horses) their vaccines as well as draw blood for a coggins test.  Marley was surprisingly good for the needle pricks and stayed very calm and quiet throughout the whole process.  I look forward to watching him compete in the Ag field day show on the 24^th, and I hope to have him continue to excel in his training until the auction on the 25^th.       

     This month all of the horses moved over to the red barn from Ryders lane where we will begin preparing for AG field day.  Marley loaded on to the trailer with ease, and was great for the ride over.  The red barn was very busy that particular day, and Marley had to stay on the trailer with Cass for quite some time while we waited for the parking area to clear out enough to maneuver the trailer into place.  Both he and Cass remained calm and did not dance around or scream for the other horses; I was very proud of him.  The red barn brought on an entirely new set of obstacles and fears to conquer including the very frightening piglets that live in the farrowing house right outside of Marley’s stall window.  Now that the weather has been a lot more cooperative, Marley and I have been able to work in the round pen and begin free lunging.  He has become very responsive to my voice commands and body language when we work together on free lunging.  His flashy movement is a definite eye catcher.  Now that the horses are all at the red barn, Ag field day sessions are underway and moving along quickly.  Marley has two experienced students working with him 5 days per week to prepare for the Ag field day show on April 24^th.  Marley is still learning to trust his new students, but both Ian and Amanda are patient with him.  Because of the freakishly warm weather that we have been having, I was able to introduce water and sponge baths to Marley in the wash stall.  He was hesitant at first to stand in the wash stall alone, but eventually he settled down and realized it wasn’t a bad place.  Marley now knows how to stand on the cross ties in the wash stall so I can groom him or sponge bathe him without him getting nervous.  I also found a cooler (stable sheet) that fit him, and desensitized him to it rubbing all over his body until I was able to put it on him and let him walk around wearing the cooler.  He accepted it with ease and acted as if he had worn one his entire life.  Both Marley and I are becoming very trusting of one another, and we have been working together quite well, and I hope to keep up the progress and continue advancing his training. 

        Marley has been doing well and progressing every day.  We have been working with the clippers in his stall to get him used to them being turned on and touching his body.  He was hesitant to accept them at first, but after some convincing he accepted them and began to relax as the clippers buzzed up and down his sides.  I did not work on putting them on his face yet, I try to not overload him too much when he learns how to deal with something new.  A few days after that Dr. Ralston conducted a behavior test by seeing how the horses responded to the dust buster in the stall and in most cases how they responded to it touching them.  Marley was one of the few that we were unable to actually touch with the dust buster, but it is something that I will continue to work on.  He was frightened by it being his stall with him, but he was able to eventually settle down and accept that it was not going to hurt him by just having it next to him.  We have also been working on teaching him what the chain on a lead shank is and how to respect it.  I have also been working on getting him used to people being above his head to try and prepare him for being saddle broke when the time comes after the auction.  One of the other students came into Marley’s stall with me and held him while I climbed up on top of a stool and scratched him all over.  He allowed me to reach my arm over the top of his back and down his flank while leaning on him with some of my weight.  He was VERY good for this and seemed to really enjoy being able to get scratches from both sides at the same time.  We are continuing to work on his ground manners and move on to new things each week.  Within the next few weeks I plan to have sessions with Robin Rivello where we will hopefully be teaching Marley to cross tie, ground tie, and learn to steer from reins attached to his halter.  His trotting has become flawless now where I just need to say the word “trot” and he begins floating across the ground beside me, and he stops effortlessly as soon as I say “whoa”.  I have just recently been able to get him to trot in the scary aisle back and forth without being frightened, and then have him come out of the scary aisle into the scale room where he now will walk over obstacles such as small ground poles made from 2 pitchforks laying on the ground.  Overall, Marley is doing very well, and I look forward to continuing his training.

    This semester I have been assigned to work with RU Marley instead of RU Casanova.  At the moment, Marley and I are just getting to really know each other, as I have only been working with him for the last week, and I am quickly finding out what we have to work on and what he does well. 
    This week Dr. Ralston conducted a behavior test on each of the horses to get a standardized baseline for each of them.  From this test she was able to see where the horses excelled in their training and where there were flaws.  Dr. Ralston was the first one to walk Marley through the test, asking him to complete a series of specific tasks.  I then took Marley and walked him through the exact same test to see how he responded to my handling.  This gave us a good idea of what I now have to work on with Marley, such as keeping his attention, turns on the forehand and haunches, and making him stand still when picking his feet.   
    Over the past week I have been grooming Marley as often as possible, as well as working on his turns on the forehand and haunches, standing still, and being brave when walking down the “scary aisle”.  So far, Marley and I have been getting along quite well, and he has already put his trust in me.  I feel that he will excel in his training from this point forward now that I know the specific areas he needs work in. Marley has brought on new challenges for me that I had not come across in working with Casanova, and it has taught me how to continuously work on being patient and understanding as well as allowing me to appreciate Marley's personality.

Marley is learning and growing with each passing day, and is really settling into the swing of things at the barn.  Each week, we introduce a new behavioral test item to each horse and grade them on their responses.  Marley has been exposed to being rubbed by a towel, clippers, jolly balls, having a surcingle over his back and walking over a large piece of cardboard on the ground.  He also continues to make trips down the “scary aisle” and is getting better every time. As far as his learned commands go, Marley has been improving on all of them, and is starting to learn how to square up on command.  He has also become very familiar with roundpenning, and will respond to the commands “walk,” “trot,” “halt,” and “turn” very smoothly in the round pen.  All you have to do is point to where you want him to go, and he goes.
      Marley had some more firsts this month, namely his first ever encounter with the equine dentist, Mike.  He actually did amazingly well, only fidgeting for a few seconds when the dentist first put one of the tools in his mouth.  After a moment, Marley was actually enjoying it and apparently thought it was over too soon, because he stood watching the dentist wistfully as he moved on to work with Pardner in the next stall.
      When he’s not being worked with, Marley loves to entertain himself outside by playing the drums with his hooves on the large metal trough out in the pasture.  He has also learned to play tug of war with the other horses.  We have pictures of him playing with sticks, rubber feed buckets, jolly balls, and other horse’s halters that he somehow gets off of their heads.  But at the end of the day, Marley is happy to come back in and be groomed and scratched behind his ears.  As his confidence grows, so does his personality, and he continues to be a joy to work with.

      Over the past month, Marley and the other horses were put through a series of behavioral assessments.  All three of our groups, the yearling draft crosses, the weanling draft crosses and the mustangs had to perform the exact same tasks, so that we could compare their responses.  The first test required Marley to do things like lead from the wrong side, step over obstacles, stand still for an extended period of time, and pick up his feet without being tied.  He performed way beyond our expectations, getting all A’s and B’s on his “report card.”  The second test required Marley to walk down the “scary aisle,” which is an unfamiliar part of the barn to our horses.  Once again, he surprised us, walking bravely up and down the aisle.  He was wary, but obedient.  Marley can also now confidently pick up his feet with just a tap on his leg as a cue, do turns on the forehand, halt when asked, and he approaches new situations with curiosity instead of fear.
      Marley’s improved behavior definitely showed at our annual Coming Out Party, which was held on October 10.  He did not flinch as dozens of people came by his stall, reaching in to pet him.  As a matter of fact, he ate his hay cubes through the entire thing.  As Dr. Ralston talked about him, several people came up to take pictures and he stood quietly through all the commotion and flashes.  We were all very proud of him.
     In other news, Marley and the other horses are eating a new kind of feed, total mixed ration hay cubes.  These cubes replace both hay and grain, and he loves them.  Also, Marley finally got his first trim from the farrier!  He did great, only pulling his hoof away once as the farrier worked on him.  As of October 13, Marley is now a gelding.  He did well for his surgery, although his survival instincts made him unwilling to lay down at first.  He was on antibiotics for the first few days but is recovering well, and certainly has no hard feelings.  The next day I brushed him, and he stood there curling up his lips and leaning into it.  He now lets me hug him and kiss his nose and he will put his head against me so I can scratch behind his ears.  It is these moments with Marley that I think back to the days when he first came, so fearful and untrusting, and appreciate just how far he has really come.  He is going to be a terrific horse for someone someday, but in the meantime, I love every second of working with him!