Bridle

Sparrow got sprayed with fly spray and bridled for the first time today. He is an amazing horse, just seems to take everything in stride without much hesitation. The fly spray didnt bother him at all and the bit just gave him something to play with.

The Saddle

While working with Sparrow on standing tied I decided to throw my saddle on him. Not wanting the situation to go bad I untied him so if he shied he wouldnt hit any resistance. With his lead rope on the ground I threw on the saddle pad with no reaction from Sparrow other than the attempt to graze. I took the saddle and let Sparrow smell it, when he didnt seem bothered I lifted it over his back and set it down as gentle as I could manage. then untied the girth and cinched it up. No reaction came from the front cinch and no reaction for the back cinch. So far he doesnt mind the saddle at all so I decided to finish his ground manners lesson with the saddle on and took a walk over to the neighbors house. The saddle didnt even bother him at the trot. I shook the stirrups and moved the saddle around by the horn while Sparrow stood on a loose lead.

Tarps

Today Sparrow was introduced to the tarp. He didnt want to have anything to do with them at first but after a little bribery he walked over it. As soon as he figured out it wasnt going to hurt him the tarp was no longer scary and he walked over every one I had, all different colors and sounds.
After he was ok walking over the tarp I picked it up and draped it over his neck. When he didnt mind that, I covered him completely. The tarp is no longer anything to Sparrow, grazed and walked around with the tarp as if it wasnt even there :)

The Cavern

My mother and I found a new idea for a trail obsticle. We built a "cavern" which is a tent-like structure to lead and ride horses through.

Sparrow was the first to test out our new toy and he didnt mind at all. Walked right in as if he had done it all of his life. He is going to make one kick-ass trail horse one day, nothing really seems to faze him.

horse sense

Yesterday morningn I put Sparrow out into the large pasture with the mares. After a few hours I went outside to check on him only to find him loose and grazing in the alfalfa field. Again i checked him over for any injuries and found none. Next move was checking all of the 5ft high fencing to find it perfectly in tact with only one difference; take off and landing marks next to the driveway with tracks leading to the alfalfa. It appears my mustang has some talent in jumping ;) He stayed in the pen for the rest of the evening however.
Just before dark I caught Sparrow and was in the process of leading him back to his pen. He was walking quietly with his head down on a loose lead like normal when he froze in his tracks and stared off toward another field with his head up. Thinking he simply saw one of the neighbors horses I tried to encourage him through the gate. He didnt move. All he would do was stare past the fence into the field and on occasion glance back at me. It was almost completely dark and I could see nothing so was getting rather annoyed. After close to 10 minutes of not being able to get him to move I finally walked over to the fence seperating the pasture from the field to show him there was nothing worth paying attention to when a coyote took off in the opposite direction not even 100yrds away. As soon as the coyote was over the hill Sparrow resumed to leading with his head down calmly to his pen without any more problems.

Fences

Sparrow has been doing so well that we decided he could be put out with the two ponies during the day. That way he could move around and have some company during the day. With it currently being hay season I dont have as much time to work with him and didnt want him to be lonely.
Yesterday we came home from the fields to find Sparrow in the large pasture that we turn out all of our mares onto. He was perfectly happy munching away and allowed me to walk right up to him without running away to keep his new freedom. After catching his we discovered no injuries the would be sign of him running through a fence, after inspecting the pen he WAS in we determined there was no possible escape. All of the fencing was undamaged and the gate was still tightly closed. The only possible way of escape we can think of was him jumping over the fence. What a wonderful talent lol. My horse, Oliver, has a lovely habit of doing the same thing when he gets bored. (Hey mom, I guess i just have a knack for finding natural jumpers haha). Because Sparrow allowed me to walk right up to him in the large pasture we decided he can stay there during the day and go back to his own pen at night. So far he is loving the new arrangment and having a great time investigating his new ssurroundings :)

end the day on a good note

Made our first attempt at ponying today. Sparrow was perfectly content to follow along, but he would only follow nose to tail. Oliver, my main riding horse, is a bit of a brat himself and in fairness has ponied some nasty horses before. He is fine as long as the horse has his nose at my knee where it should be. Needless to say the lesson ended early when neither horse was willing to cooperate very well. However none was lost as Oliver got to go for a gallop since he was all tacked up and when I got back Sparrow got a ground lesson. We worked on yielding his front end away from me, since he tends to think he can just put his head up and stand his ground. With great happiness from me he learned to move away from me when asked. He also was walking along side me and stopping with no pressure just watching and verbal ques. He trot when asked and came to a halt when I did with no pressure from the lead rope and walked across our ply wood sheet  without any concerns :)