Marco leaves his country roads of West Virginia
for the long trip to his new home in Massachusetts.

Marco arrives home to be greeted by his very own new person,
Mary Stuart Booth.
QUIETUDE MARCO POLO arrives in Massachusetts & greets his person, Mary Booth, & a new friend, Cyd, who gives him a welcoming pat.
ALL IS WELL!!!
He was so, so good. Unloaded nicely. Walked brightly and on a loose rope up the long drive to the barn, looking around, touching my sleeve a couple of times to check in. Startled a little when he caught sight of Markel, his new horse friend – but nickered happily to see someone. Enjoying hay, BIG drink of water… lots of pets, leaning into being scratched. A huge hit with my mom and Charles and Nancy, who own the barn! They think he's adorable!

I am heading over after dinner to check on him – not sure if I'll end up staying in the barn or not… he is so settled looking, I might just try and get a good night's rest and then go over really early tomorrow.
 
I'll keep you posted! ~ Mary MA

FEBRUARY 7
I just took Marco out for his first real walk. First I let him roll in the ring where the deep snow is, but after he just stood looking wistful, cause we'd left Markel bellowing his bereavement in the paddock below. I was worried Marco might resist going away from the barn, but we headed up into the hemlock woods on the trail and he immediately turned into Mr. Perfect Trail Horse. Walking on a loose line…splashing and drinking from streams… stepping carefully over fallen branches… the only thing that betrayed his lack of experience was that he doesn't know yet that pine needles taste yucky (he does now). Also he got a little anxious when we left the trail to shortcut thru the woods – he wasn't sure who was supposed to be figuring out the route, him or me. 
He was so good, I decided to go all the way down to our house thru the woods, so I called my mom on my cell and told her we were coming. She fed Marco uncooked rolled oats off the porch to show him that going to Grandma's House is a good thing, and I thought he was going to climb up on the porch with her! Then we were off again, around the house… under the clothesline (good boy!) and catching sight of our reflection in a full-length sliding door (who's THAT??).  Going home was even better, he was just perfectly, perfectly calm and sensible the whole way.
And wow, am I tired. This is going to whip me into shape – can't wait for him to be big enough to ride, he sets a hell of a pace to keep up on foot with!
So that's it!

~ Mary

Marco thinks his new barn, pasture and fence will be just dandy!

FEBRUARY 11
I "see" Marco more and more every day, as his character is revealed! He is really, really good - *most* of the time… every once in a while he has a "I don't WANNA eat my peas" moment (like, when I'm leading him away from the barn) – but he quickly gets over it! His attitude in hand is bright, friendly, and eager. When he walks on the line, he "checks in" now and then with his nose on my sleeve. He thinks it's hilarious to remove my hat when I'm brushing his legs. He simply can NOT understand why Markel, his stablemate, is less than happy about sharing hay… and will insist on trying to get in on Markel's hay pile no matter how many other piles are out in the paddock!

I lunged him for the first time the other day. I'm not sure if Kelly had done this yet (I know she worked with him in a roundpen) – but he was pretty good! He trotted nice and low with his neck stretched out, a lovely frame for a young horse. He has moments when he looks less coltish and more mature and I can see so much of Barcelona in him.

The weather and footing here are keeping me from doing as much with him as I'd like, but I've at least taken him for a couple of walks, including walking down a road a little way with some traffic – which he seems to handle with aplomb.
~ Mary

HOME AT LAST MARCO TAKES A BATH IN THE SNOW

FEBRUARY 26
Hi Susan,
Well, Marco is doing fine. Fine, that is, considering that the weather, and the footing, have been consistently terrible for about three weeks now!  We had a nice 8 inches of new snow the other day that covered over the icy crust below, so I've taken Marco up to the upper paddock to play a couple of days in a row now. He has a couple of new things that he's doing – one, he gallops around the paddock (which is large), heads straight for me, ears up, then comes to a screeching halt right in front of me and oh-so-delicately extends his nose to say hi. He also likes playing fetch with my gloves! I toss one into the snow and he goes over, paws it, picks it up in his teeth, shakes it all around… and then if I cajole enough, sometimes he'll deliver it back to me. He also eats snow like it's a snack (though this may be to show me how pathetic he is, lunchless, when I have him out past 1 pm). Surrounded by an entire field of snow, he'll take a snowball from my hand, bite half of it, munch thoughtfully, and then ask for the rest. I figure he'll be a sucker for lemon sherbet in the summer.
 He'll also sometimes follow me without a lead in the pasture, and when I run a bit, he runs too – though often he gets carried away and speeds off, tail up.
  We are working on leading from the off side, carrying towels and coats on his back, longing, "gee" and "haw", being cautious when I say "careful", and being nice about Feet Handling. Once he gets his bucks out in the field, he's very cuddly… will stand quietly with me for ages, just looking (and eating snow…)
  The people who own the barn where he's staying were away for ten days – Charles said when he got back that Marco looked bigger! He's not getting fat, but he does seem to have filled out a bit in the last couple of weeks. He had some moments the other day when he definitely looked like a Big Horse to me.
  So that's it! I'll try and get some more pictures soon.
~ Mary

WHAT IS THAT??!!!

I'M GOING TO GET IT!
A HAUNTED VEST YIKEES!

A FLYING HAUNTED VEST!!!
I'LL KILL IT BEFORE IT ATTACKS MARY!!!

APRIL 6, 2008

Things here are good. I went to a tack auction and bought Marco a full cob-size harness and a surcingle for starting driving training, plus I have my friend Cyd's training harness from when she trained Standardbreds. It's a sea of mud here now so we aren't doing too much work in the ring yet, but still doing walks, etc. – and yesterday I set up a fence for our paddock over here and Marco came over for a few hours to hang out in a leafy, unmuddy paddock. It was great having him right in the back yard. I was laughing because I thought of Lucy Ray's email about how Lamberts could make good bucking horses – Marco sure fits the bill! Mom and I were in the house having a cup of tea and looking through the barn windows and out there we see this ENORMOUS buck – more like a capriole or whatever that move is where the horse springs up and kicks  out – it just came out of nowhere then he went back to eating his hay!
 
Marco is doing well, just as sweet as ever. And he's coming along so well, I'm even considering taking him up to that Morgan Classic in VT in July to show him in-hand. Something to shoot for!
MARY

A LADY IS COMING TO VISIT MARCO!

HI CHICA!

CHICA HAS SUCH PRETTY EYELASHES!

CHICA I HAVE TO WORK NOW.

CHICA! COME BACK SOON!!!
END OF APRIL

Marco LOVES exploring in the woods, especially when I let him "go first" (ie walk next to him instead of in front). He's all ears up – AdventureHorse. Right now he's OBSESSED with finding green things to eat, poor guy, they're not on pasture here yet because it's been dry and the grass hasn't been growing.
 
So, yesterday he did something that impressed me so much. You know of course I think he is Wonderful In Every Way, but this was really exceptional. I was walking him on the road and saw the neighbor's kids, who are about 6 and 9. They wanted to say hi and Marco did his usual polite sniff greeting, very gentle and calm… but just after, the family's German Shorthair came barreling down the driveway, screaming/barking in an absolutely terrifying way – I thought we were done for and I actually turned my back on the dog because I thought it was going to jump up on me. But: Marco. Did. Not. Move. A. Muscle. His head was up, ears pricked, eyes bright – but he didn't move his feet one inch. Then he went right back to his noblesse oblige routine with the kids (he maintains that regal attitude, that is, until he starts yawning, which he does all the time! All dignity out the window).
 
Anyway that was our little adventure!

Mary~~~
CHECK BACK SOON TO SEE MORE INSTALLMENTS
HOME