Running out of Titles

I'm running out of blog titles when I visit the horses this often! It might not be until Saturday or Sunday that I can get out to the barn again this week so I thought I better use the last warm day to visit. Of course it started raining/sleeting on my way there. But yay for an indoor arena! I wouldn't want to be a horse when it rains in February, that's for sure. It wasn't coming down too horribly though. Axel and I went right into the arena to work on some lunging. Right as we were heading to the barn another border came in. She asked if it was alright if she rode while I was in there. She thought it would take her a little while to get that far. I had planned to stop working as soon as Axel did some good work so it wasn't a problem if she came in to ride. While she was grooming Axel did really well on the lunge. He trotted and cantered both directions, picked up both leads, and only had one tiny "weee" moment. For a while there I thought "who trained this horse to lunge!?" He did so well. The other border came in so I thought we'd keep up a little just to practice working and paying attention while there was other things going on. He was very interested in this pretty paint mare and tried his best to grow a hand or two to impress her. He remained calm but had some attention issues and we couldn't really get any momentum on the lunge so we worked on leading and paying attention that way. Overall I think it was a success. Axel appreciates that the barn owners keep nice green bales of alfalfa right by the arena gate for him to sneak on his way out. Hrm.

I didn't want to bring Cody into the arena with that flashy mare in there. He would have been beside himself trying to get her attention. And on top of that he was covered in mud so it wouldn't have been a great impression in the first place. I did very minor ground work with him just standing in the pasture, just a little backing up and the "stand" cue. I've taken to using "whoa" for stop and "stand" for when the horse is already stopped and I don't want him to move. Cody and Axel have had some exposure to "stand" when they were in Canby so I think it's working out alright. I found it actually worked with both Cody and Axel while I was trying to get back far enough to take their photos without them following me and sticking their nose in the camera. I figure even if I'm not out there doing a whole laundry list of activities they are still going to pick up on cues and things just by me being out there for a few minutes.