Memphis, Day 4

I still hadn't led Memphis anywhere besides in his pen, which is 36x24. I decided to work him in the round pen for the first time, and aside from not being completely convinced he had to follow direction, he got better as we went along. He still doesn't know he's stronger than me, and it's the plan to keep it that way. ;)

In the round pen, we worked on going forward (he didn't know how to lope, especially in the pen there), and then had a leading lesson in the round pen. Continued moving shoulders and hips, overall body control, and I saddled him in the round pen. I dropped the saddle in the middle of the pen, and he immediately came over to check out. Big improvement; he didn't show much interested the first couple of days. I liked to see him interracting more. He picked up the saddle pad and took it with him. Goof! So cute.

Found his bucks in the bigger pen. He's pretty vocal about it too. After a couple times around, he was done, and went on with it. I worked him on the ground the rest of the evening with the saddle on. We continued to work on facing up and following like we'd done in the smaller pen, and he was a true champ. We're becoming good buds! He also got his first bath outside, which he hated at first, until he realized he was hot and it felt good, and then we moved to the indoor wash rack. He got to spend some quiet time with a tree, and that was it. Another great day!