Lunging styles and an email compimenting Mag

I was invited again short notice to lunge my horse in the round pen for the first time, which sounded really good after all the times Mag has tried to drag me across the arena in his running off ploy. Lunging him in a normal arena is a lot of exercise on my part to keep myself attached to the line and encourage him forward as he refuses to canter more than a half circle.

As bad as that sounds he's improving and it's only what, 6 times that I've lunged him?

The thing that worried me, the owner lady said I needed to use side reins with him, lunge him only from a cavesson, and use leg protection. I don't think Mag is ready for Ausbinder yet, and I told her he's barefoot and not likely to injure himself, and if he does bump himself with a mustang-rolled hoof, I think it will help him learn to be careful. I know, I sound like those CMO cowboys: )

I was under a lot of pressure, thinking I'd only be invited again if I conformed to her expectations, since she passed her Abzeichen and now has a certificate to prove what she knows about horses.

J told me to hold to my convictions.

But I thought a loose chambon would be OK to try, if Mag was in a good mood. And I had Sunny's cavesson on his face. He tossed his head the entire way there, telling me what he thought of the lunging cavesson.

Once I started lunging I realized the cavesson was too much, so I removed it. He was so upset he continued flipping his head around almost whacking himself on the fence poles even afterwards, to show me how much he hates it. I kept laughing saying, "That's you Mag, I'm doing nothing, and the thing is off your face." I had my lunge attached only to the halter ring, no stress. He was completely raucous, bouncing along. I kept him off the perimeter simply so he wouldn't brain himself on the posts in his thrashing. T agreed that Ausbinder are not an option, whew.

Then he was better and complied and only tried to change directions a couple times but I caught him quickly and he submitted, and I was thrilled to see that at my first real increase in my pace, he sprang into a canter before I even kissed to him. Normally I'd have to increase, kiss, and then swing the whip to insist. He was totally ready. But also totally confined and felt pressure from that.

He bucked and bucked even though I wasn't putting pressure on him. I told him he'd have to continue until the bucking ended.

The owner said, "You should let him rest, he's tired."

I said, "I cannot reward bucking by giving him release, if he bucks he needs to canter until he stops."

I remember being curious why she thought he was tired, or needed rest. We'd only just begun.

I got a few nice, compliant canters from him and rewarded him by letting him jog and walk. His reverses were very good today, even in a new area, where he can see 270 degrees around on this high point in the landscape, and a tractor went directly by the round pen, and a car too. So much to see.

The Irish boy who is the owner's son in law stood there there the entire time, watching.

Finally the owner said, "May I?"

I said, "YOU want to lunge Mag?!" Yes.

OK then.

She put on gloves (totally required with him) and switched to her own soft lunge line (mine is hard nylon).

She started with leading him around, doing those horsemanship patterns where he turns right away from her signals, and backs up with her. He is pretty good with groundwork, especially backing, so that went well.

Then she started to lunge him and I realized she does it by the German Riding Federation method, she just stands perfectly still and pivots, and uses voice commands to control the horse.

Since I use my body language to signal Mag while lunging, it was a real trip to see him try to respond to someone who Does Not Move and just uses vocal aids.

Especially cuz she wanted to use my English and her German. She asked me what I say to him but I said I don't rely on vocal aids, I do them as a secondary aid. However a cluck means trot, a kiss means canter, whoop means downward transition and ho only means stop. Over time I've learned that my body language is more relevant to a horse than whatever comes out of my mouth.

It was odd to see someone lunge so differently from me, but to see Mag try to obey was interesting. A few times he spun into a crazy gallop, and she brought him back down and calmed him very well.

He repeatedly tested her, changing directions at random, that's Mag's way of saying lunging is stupid. She took a while to figure out how to keep him in the same direction, and she laughed about it, every time it happened, so she wasn't upset.

She was sending him a nonstop litany of talk and sounds, and he had to figure out what the litany meant. Hopefully Mag will learn ho well one day. But I don't say "ho, ho, ho, ho" on the lunge hoping that eventually he'll stop. I use body language and if he doesn't stop at the first ho, he gets tugged on the halter and then stops, and he's always surprised by this cuz I rarely ask for a ho. That's cuz it was his default whenever asked for a downward transition, so I mostly ask for downward transitions, and only 1 or 2 times per session an actual ho.

As T lunged Mag he would spin off into a crazy counter canter every so often, unexpectedly. I honestly couldn't tell why.  He was kicking out. Then he's slam from a hand-gallop into a halt, and spin the other direction. When I asked her what was that, she said she asked for that......What?. From that out of control run she got him to not only stop, but change directions? Later I asked again why she thinks he ran suddenly without being asked and she said she thinks he was confused about her requests, and frustrated by the small area. I felt his claustrophobia too at first. It's a 17 meter pen!

She got him down to a jog again but over and over she told him to stop at the gate where I stood with her son in law. Every time she said "Brrrrr, Ho" to him, it was at the gate. Indeed, even when she did not ask him to stop at the gate he did. The young man said to me, "Look how Mag is looking at the gate as he comes around, seeking it."


Finally she was done and she praised him and said how clever he is, that he learned so fast I need to watch out for him. I said, "I know, especially since you and I lunge differently, and he picked up your way."

She said we should let him loose to roll in the sand while we had coffee.

I was appreciative of the coffee and more so that Mag just stood there in the round pen when we let him loose. He got all relaxed and the owner kept teasing him, "Do you have to pee? Are you an elephant?"

Eventually we just drank our coffee and talked.

Mag just stood there, in contrast to March 2015 where Mara, after 2 hours of work, when left in that exact spot, tore around full speed about to injure herself on the fencing. Mag just stood there, gazing at the city on the horizon.

Then he finally thought about rolling. And he did. Countless times. After 10 times we stopped counting, it was so funny.

I think that perhaps Mag has never rolled in sand before, because he didn't attempt as soon as we let him go. It took him a while to decide to try, and then he could not stop.

He had like a centimeter of sand on his back, he looked like a statue of a horse, not a real horse. He was hilarious.

Then he just stood there staring at us, and when it was finally time to go, and I walked to the pen, he nickered harshly at me, "Finally, human." (Which proved to me that although he was cool hanging out there, he was also ready to head home.)

On the way home, at one point, he stopped and shook....

and left a pile of white sand in the street. *lol* (Later I found a white sandy spot in my pasture where he rolled the rest of it off. Beach horse! I promised him I'd take him to a real ocean one day. When I say real, I mean the Pacific.)

***

That night I got a nice email from T, let me translate:

"I'm totally excited about Mag. He is highly intelligent! He learns faster than any horse I've ever met. He reacts amazingly when he doesn't understand something. I think he has more a lack of understanding than disobedience. He is totally thirsty for knowledge*. He wants input, he's so intelligent, but you'd better be damn careful that you do everything right with him. Because if you make mistakes, he'll remember. He loves to be praised and does it again, what he just learned, to confirm. I told my husband that if he had two weeks of daily training, he'd know as much as my horse. It really is fun to work with Mag. Next time let's lay down some poles to see if he'll stay on the rail..."

* - German has a way better word for this: Wissbegiehrig

 I thanked her and told her I look forward to our next visit. I'm also temped to just board my animals there for a couple months, but I don't have the 1400 E for that.

I find it interesting that she finds him smart. I honestly think he's no smarter than Baasha nor Mara. He definitely deals with stress better! I know he'll be one of those horses who goes to a show or clinic and acts as if they're at home. Smart? Adaptable, reasonable are better words. I've never had a horse learn slower than him, perhaps T has.

An example: She had a trail course set up and two yellow garbage cans set up close to each other. I walked Mag up to them, let him see them, and then backed up and raised my arm and gestured, "Go between" and he did without hesitation. The first time he'd seen such a thing. Perhaps it was luck, but I think he's just cool about novel situations. Then I let him nibble on the garbage cans and I opened a lid and let it slam down, and that was OK too. I think he may see the world more logically than other young horses do, or perhaps he's mentally delayed. But he remains Snorty McSnorterson - just take a tissue out of your pocket and he's like, "SNOOOORRRTT" what can that be?" or the hay bag he eats from every day, "What is that!?" I know horses don't lie, they don't pretend, but I can freak him out by taking off my jacket, and then slap it onto his back and he just stands there. WTH. I think my photographer friend is gonna have fun with him though, cuz simply everything can get a pose out of him. But he's not truly frightened.

T thinks his resistances during lunging are from a lack of understanding. I disagree. When he bucks and kicks on the lunge line, or suddenly switches directions, it's not that he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. He's expressing how stupid he finds going in circles, or perhaps obeying in general. He's willing, but with a streak of teenage rebelliousness. Therefore in my mind, I will keep lunging him until he submits to the activity and then we'll move on. That may sound adversarial but I think being able to lunge is a skill every horse should have. And at this point my highest goal is that he makes three circles around me at a relaxed canter. Well, and that he stops reversing suddenly. Mag's not in the military, and he's not on a reality weight-loss television show, he's just in Kindergarten.

It does feel good to hear how much she likes him.