Another Lunging Lesson And An Award

First I would like to thank 4 bloggers for giving me the Beautiful Blogger Award. They are Juliette from honeysuckle faire, Linda from Beautiful Mustang, Colleen from Bay State Brumby and cdn cowgirl from (Not Quite) Home On The Range. All these bloggers are wonderful people and friends. I am so glad I have gotten to know each and everyone of you!! If you haven't already, please go check out their blogs. You won't be disappointed! Unfortunately, I have to be really bad and not follow the rules. I know this award has been going around a lot lately and I think everyone I know has already received it, okay, not everyone, but pretty darn close!

I hope I am not boring you all or sounding to repetitive with my Chance stories. I had another lunging lesson with her over the weekend. She is doing really well. Going to the left that is. I know horses have one way they like better then the other. Well, Chance likes going to the left. She doesn't try to reverse, or do anything too naughty. When we reverse and go to the right, she does fine at first, then decides she wants to switch directions.



Here she is trying to switch. Nope, sorry little Mustang, you are not going to go whichever way you want.



I always get her back on track. Until she tries to switch directions again. Then I get her moving back in the right direction.



I do have to say that I really instilled the "whoa" in her. That silly filly stops on a dime the minute I say "whoa". She doesn't miss a beat.



I am very thankful that she knows that command so well already, considering I only get to work with her once a week. Even if she is upset or freaking out over something, I can say "whoa" and she stops immediately. This should translate to everything I do with her in the future, especially riding.



Practicing the back up.



I know that this picture is really blurry, my OH zoomed in a little too much. But I just had to put it in here so you all can see how sweet she is. She put her head up on my shoulder and rested it there.



I decided to do something new with her. It didn't work out too well at first. I always use my handy stick and fling the rope all over her body, around her legs etc. She doesn't care about that at all. But I decided to stand next to her and fling the handy stick back and forth through the air right next to her, like when I was doing ground work with Fritzy. I had a feeling she would react. She did not like that at all. I think she was confusing the handy stick with lunging, when I hit the ground with the handy stick, and it made that slapping noise, she thought she should go forward.



So she decided to go backwards, sideways, and every other way she could, including rearing and striking out, to get away from the handy stick.



She eventually calmed down and was fine with me swinging the handy stick back and forth next to her.



I did some clipper work with her again. She is totally fine with the clippers running all over her, but once I go to actually clip the bridle path, she starts to shake her head and pull away, so I just worked on keeping the clippers at her head without clipping but turned on, until she stood still. Then I would take them away once she was quiet to reward her.



I also took her for a walk throughout our property. My OH had left my camera up by the round pen, so I don't have any pictures to show you of our walk. I promise I will get pictures the next time. She was so good. She was not spooky, and would walk by anything. She is cautious and curious. I even took her to the bridge my OH built specifically for the horses. It took about 10 minutes, but she went across the bridge!! I so wish I had the camera for that!! She never freaked out, just sniffed, put a foot up and then would back away a step. She was just unsure of what the bridge was. When she finally got both front legs on the wood part, the sound really made her unsure, but she totally trusted me and went over it! Even with the stream rushing below.

I was telling my OH that she is going to make an excellent trail horse, she isn't spooky, just curious, she will hesitate over big objects for a second or two, then realizes that it isn't going to get her and she continues on. After the bridge, I walked her on the wide trail by the property line. She just walked along like she does it every day. Next time we are going to take her on the trails on my neighbors property. Their property isn't cleared yet, but has nice, wide trails throughout. It would be just like going on a trail ride.

Now with daylight savings time, I will be able to work with Chance when I get home from work. Speaking of work, I have gotten to ride a couple horses from the farm, and I will be riding a western horse this week, plus I will be ponying horses and training 3 yr olds to pony. I am sure I will have stories to tell about all that later on, so stay tuned!