lunging in side reins

After our woeful efforts in the lesson/ride last week, it was decided i should lunge tallic to get him going forward. in an attempt to also get him used to accepting a contact, i was to use side reins. he'd never been lunged in side reins before, but i was ready to give it a go!

• i began by lunging him off the bridle, (also a first, i used to lunge off the halter or lunge cavesson). i'm putting the rein thru the bit to the other side and attaching on the inside.
• after a few circles each way i put the side reins on, nice and long (hole 5)
• seemed to go well, so hitched them up 2 more holes (hole 7), went around both ways
• had a little go at a canter or 2
• quit while we were ahead!!

Tallic managed to come onto a contact in the walk, but not for very many moments at the trot

He was overtracking really well, but i'm not sure how much his off-side hind leg is still crossing over. decided to put some penetrene liniment on him afterwards over his rump.

bit and bridle

Woohoo - we hit a bit of a milestone today. I lunged Lutallic in a bridle!
About a month and a half ago, I started trying bits and bridles on Tal.
I tried Boo's good Hubertus bridle on him, accidentally, three times............. Is it still an accident by the third time? Possibly not! But I was trying it on him for fit, and obviously I had to adjust it, so, I'd pop it on, work out if it needed to go up or down or whatever, take it off, adjust it and so on. Turned-out I got it right on about the 3rd go!
We were standing in the corral, no headstall or lead or anything, and I still had the reins attached. I can't remember for sure, but I had taken a bit from Saddleworld to try on for size, so that might have been on it. I had thought I would get Tallic a gold KK Trainer, and Kerry had the equivalent stainless steel one in stock, so that's what I was trying. It was a 5" bit, and turned-out to be a little bit too small (no punn intended). For some unknown reason, bits no longer come in 5 1/4" sizes, so a 5 1/2 is needed.

Anyway, back to today......... I finally went and bought the SS bit; it's a lovely small style, not fat like the Horseland ones. Apparently they could get a finer one in, but I get sick of having to order everything. I'd been looking on the internet and discovered I could buy the bit I wanted from there, but in the end I decided to give the good ol' stainless steel a whirl. (I did put Cruiser's old bit in his mouth, and I had a really good laugh. They really are like chalk and cheese those two!)

So, today I decided to attach the new bit to a bridle (I think it's Flame's; no reins, no noseband). He threw his head straight down onto the bit and into the bridle (after I removed the throat lash from his gob!!) He had a really good chomp and lots of little head-tosses, but allowed me to adjust the height whilst on him. I put it on over the top of the rope halter. And off we went....

We walked on up to the round yard, and he was a little bit surprised by the wheel barrow that was sitting up against the rails from where Darren has been working on a new drain near the shed. No big deal, but I got him to circle around me and walk forward again.
We walked a lap of the round yard, did some yields and to-ing and fro-ing, bit of trot, and then I swapped the lead for the lunge rein and lunge whip. I decided I wanted to work him on a longer line so that if he decides to do his little bucking thing I've got a bit more room and a tool to move him away from me. Turned-out I needed it too!
Tallic tends to have a run around with his nose along the ground, which, I realise is good in terms of him stretching his back, but not so good in terms of safety (I DON'T want him putting a leg over the rein) and I'm also not sure how 'with me' he is when he does this. Therefore I tend to try to bump his nose back up when he's doing this. He also likes to go around with his nose poking to the outside. I dont' like this because I feel too much pressure on the rope, plus, I don't think his attention is on me when he does this (and his bum faces in towards me a tiny bit. I know that's 'fussy' but it doesn't seem right). Therefore, I find myself bumping his face back towards straight or inside. When I do this, he sometimes mistakes it for a slowing down signal, so the whip is handy for saying "no, go forward, I just wanted your face". I'm not sure whether I'm going about this the right way, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Overall, I think it was a really successful lunge session, with bit!!, and I think he'll get used to working with it on very quickly. I just need to be doing more of it.

Right, now I better go back and do the posts that belong before this one. I would have sworn I had done more than one since Nicole and I started our playdates, but where are they?

Post Script: Christine and I went to look at bridles at Horseland and then Saddleworld back when I was going to send him off to the breakers. H/L had one on sale that I thought I'd get, but after measuring better quality ones before I found the sale item, I realised I just can't stand the idea of buying yucky Indian leather (even though its usual price is $100, it left black crap all over my hands - yuek)
When we were in S/W, we found a Kieffer bridle made out of synthetic material. It was a hanovarian style, and I want a cavesson noseband, but I love the concept of having a bridle that's good enough to compete in and doesn't need cleanig, oiling and creaming the night before. I've since been looking into getting a weymouth bridle in the same style, called Seku, but cannot find a photograph of one anywhere. I think I shall persist in my endevours to find one, as it's my first preference.

But wait, there's more! I also decided to give Tallic a mini-wash after his little work session. I go the old purple shampoo of Cruiser's out (there's almost 5 litres sitting there) and gave his mane and neck a good scrub. He loved it, I think he's been a bit itchy from some dandruff, so that should feel better now. It's funny how well he handles these little adventures. I hose his lower legs after I remove his work boots, and that's also no drama, so I think all these bits and pieces I'm doing with him are adding up to a well handled neddy!

SCARY TREES AND USING THE CARROT STICK

I thought I would teach Lutallic to lunge in big circles in the round yard using a real lunge rein instead of the 22' rope today. As usual, I changed my plan, but this is OK.

As we walked up the arena paddock, Tallic grew a few hands and got rather 'excited'. I thought he was staring at the paddock lice across the road, but it turns out I had forgotten all about the freshly trimmed trees at the fenceline near the road. Powercore send a mob out to cut the trees back from under the powerlines every so many years, and they were here the other day, but as yet have not returned with the branch muncher.

Tal did do one little take off and turn, but I rubbed his whither region and talked to him, and we walked up to the arena. He tends to put his head up high, stop and stare, and then rush forward to see what he's worried about. He listened and kept pace with me quite well considering; much better than he would have done 2 weeks ago.

We did some walking/leading exercises for a little while, progressed to trot, and only had one little 'shy' at the nutty dogs next door. (They have recently acquired another dog and the crazy thing grabs the fence with its teeth and pulls violently at the wire. God help us if it ever gets out, I can imagine what it would do with a limb.) Anyway, off to the round yard we go.

I grabbed the carrot stick and string which I'd already placed on the peanut gallery and proceeded to rub it along and over his body, allowing the string to dangle and tickle etc. He's not overly keen on it being on his ears, but he put up with it. I did do this sort of work with him very early on, I think when I was preparing him to wear a rug (2 days after getting him!!) I probably used the lead rope though (I think) as I can remember winding it around his legs and all over.

We then progressed to walking along with the carrot stick on his back and rump, string trailing. This was going well, so we moved on to trotting, using the stick with a 'tap tap' motion to ask for the next pace. If he dropped his head to eat (he is WB) I used the stick as an aid to go forward. Same if he backed-off for any other reason.

Lutallic figured all these things out quickly as always, so when Nicole arrived with the kids, I decided to take the halter and lead off and leave him in the round yard loose for a while. Well, off he went! Tal managed to do quite a few laps of the round yard, quite fast, and I managed not to panic! Yay for me!

I watched him for about a minute and decided it was safe to leave him galloping around. He eventually slowed to a trot (I watched him from inside). Although he was only on his own for a few minutes, he managed to work up quite a sweat and was still huffing and puffing minutes later when tied-up in the corral again. What a goose.

I decided today was the perfect day to give him a hose down. He was hot and sweaty, and, it was still hot enough for him to dry before nightfall (we're getting a few warm days now). Hosing him was no problem, he acted just like a grown-up! Afterall, we have done it maybe 2 or 3 times before. What a champ!!

It seemed a good idea to leave him tied-up to dry, so I checked that my tie-up knots were safe (no loops for him to stick feet in if he pulled-back) and left him in Boo's capable care. I kept an eye on him, and visited and brushed him, before finally returning and releasing him.

Overall, another successful adventure.

Lunging - oooh

On Monday (today is Wednesday) I took Tal into the round yard for a bit of a go at lunging. He actually did quite well. I took the 22' lead instead of a proper lunge lead, so that meant that I had to do a lot of walking to allow him the full use of the RY. I tried not to let him do too many circles without asking for a change of some sort, and he did seem to stay fairly focussed. Quite frankly, I've seen broken-in horses do a much much worse job. Hopefully that means I'm doing something right with him?
Only down-side was when he launches himself into the canter. He still tends to stick his rear end in towards me and look like he's going to buck. I then have to turn his head toward me to disengage it, and then he returns to the trot. Maybe if I use the lunge lead and have him further away from me it might work better, because I am going to have to let him canter! I might also just let him go loose in there and see what he wants to do.
He got a fright again with his back boot slipping down, and the dear soul came to me. I didn't fix it though, just rubbed him and talked to him, and sent him on his way again. He got over it.

Tallic has been a bit of a grumpy bum yesterday and today, and I think he's hungry. He's in the lock-up with Boo, and they're being fed chaff and speedi-beet, and Tal gets to go into the grassy paddock for a while, but I still think he's hungry. I put out some hay again, as I think that's what is different to last week, but he really is quite the tubster.