Anyway I went out to the barn and really should have done a lot more than I did. It wasn't terribly cold tonight and I had a lot of time but as usual I just dinked around for a while. I groomed Axel and put him on the lunge line where he proceeded to trot like crazy several circles without me asking. Lame of course but not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I think he was tracking left/counter clockwise at the time. I can never remember which sides are my horses good sides and bad sides. Anyway, he walked when I asked and it was a really nice forward walk until I told him "good boy" and that's when he slowed down. I'm pretty sure he thinks "good boy" means "whoa." We spent a few minutes working on "whoa" and actually stopping when I said it. I had him switch directions and he set off cantering and bucking (on the right lead thank you). It took a few tries to get him back down to a walk but he's much better at stopping going to the right, he must not like that side as much. He seemed pretty alert on the lunge line so I thought maybe he'd be up for some fun with Cody.
Cody spins and rolls from Elise Ferguson on Vimeo.
I brought Cody in and turned both horses loose and that's when I tried to get to my phone in time. There was some running and bucking and rearing and I pretty much missed it all. I did manage to get a clip of Cody trotting around looking for a place to roll. He would spin and spin and spin before he finally got down to the ground. Why can't I get him to spin like that under saddle?
When the boys were done playing I thought I'd experiment and put Axel out and see if Cody had the same fit he did for N over the weekend. He did call out quite a bit while I turned Axel out and he nearly walked on top of me when I brought him to the center of the arena. I didn't have to encourage him to keep moving on the lunge line either. He was more than willing to get up and go. He was being a bit of a pill and trying to duck behind me so I wasn't in a position to drive him forward but other than that he was pretty decent. I didn't ride of course so I don't know how patient he would have been with tacking and all that. But hopefully we got a point across that it's not the end of the world. He'll probably be fine if he's first in the arena alone. I guess the alternative would be a horse you couldn't get to move.
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