Discussion 2: Remembering how to lunge

Today was Digger's 2nd day of work, and he has really started to settle in. He is still rather dependent and came trotting up to the fence line when he saw me drive up. Apparently this morning there was a deer in the yard, and he was so puffed up his little 16 hand frame looked all of 17 hands. He is still fascinated by staring off into the distance at unseen things, but when I hand walked him, he was more than happy to chow down on all the grass he could get his muzzle on. We walked around again, and all the places that made him nervous yesterday were pretty dull today. Grooming at the post was no issue and I was comfortable tying him after I started by picking his feet. He stood fine, and even gave to the pressure on his poll when he stepped a little too far back.

He learns quickly.

We had a big scary incident when my coach's Husky puppy started yowling. He had his head down grazing, and all of a sudden he was gone. Fortunately, he's not a bolter, just took several scattering strides sideways and backwards, and then stopped to stare at her. I encouraged to come back where he was, and after a few wary looks, was grazing peacefully once again. Good boy!

Today was the introduction of lunge line work. He got to put the bride on, with my nice soft french link D-ring. He made some faces, but I suspect he needs his teeth floated. I then set him up with some loose draw reins to encourage him to drop his head and work his topline. His topline is AWFUL right now. (The picture is from when I went to go see him for a second time two weeks ago) I would have been happier putting him in side reins, but my coach insisted it is better to start them on the draw reins in case they rearing and flip. Fair enough.

So he gets the concept of the draw reins within 3 minutes and is going with his head just above level with his withers, nose still slightly poked out. Good boy! He has been taught how to trot and canter on the line, but not walk, so we trot in both directions (though he does NOT want to go to the right, and backs up to avoid being pushed out at first) and then I walk him out by hand. 10 minutes of work, in total, but it's warm and he's just starting to break a sweat, so I leave it on a positive note. I pull off the equipment and walk him out in a halter, challenging him by walking around to places we didn't go yesterday. There are again, things way off in the distance that are fascinating, but the grass takes priority over the invisible-way-off-things. We walk it once slightly tense, and on the second loop, the grass is way more fascinating. Good boy! He gets carrots and we call it a day.

Tomorrow, the big plan is to actually work him on the lunge line and teach him to go forward. He has pretty good natural rhythm as it is, but he also has a tendency to quit when he doesn't feel like doing it any more. I don't want to ignore that he's tired, but I also need to challenge him to build up some muscle. I'm going to try for a soild 15-20 minutes of work tomorrow, but I won't push it any more than his attention span can handle. Then maybe I can get up on him on Wednesday!