Lunging with a cavesson

Out of the blue the fancy arena lady emailed me that I should come by today to lunge my horse if I like. I would never decline.

I put on Sunny's lunging cavesson and Mag immediately started shaking his head and rubbing his head on his leg trying to get rid of it. I said, "Wait til I actually tighten it!" The idea being if he tries to run away while lunging, he'll hit pain and rethink that.

Well it turns out in an enclosed arena he doesn't try to run away, so it wasn't necessary. And as loose as I could keep the line, if I put any pressure at all while asking for a downward transition, it was too intense for him. "My face, my face!"

(Since then I've been told I need to just push on, that he'll learn it. What do you think?)

Anyway the lady wanted to watch me for the first time, lunging a horse, she said she was curious how I do it. I felt dismay - with an audience, Mag will surely be horrible!

For the first time, the horses were grazing the fenceline of the arena, and hanging their heads over the arena fence and pawing the ground trying to get in to play with Mag. Mag was delighted, and found it hard to pay attention to me for the first minute or so.

He was perhaps 1 meter away from the pawing white Arabian and he decided to tell me what he thinks of lunging by switching directions. I cracked the whip immediately behind him to change his mind. I must say, I'm really good with a lunge whip. The lady said, "He's so beautiful, his eyes, and look at his tail!" Mag's got the best-condition tail alright. Now if I could just make it white (like her horse!)

After that one moment of rebellion he gave up and complied with all my transitions and changes of direction, and the owner lady was amazed. When we did our first direction change, it was nearly perfect, not quite, but the lady said, "That is wonderful, that he can do that, the way he's watching you and obeying your body language! And he's so young!" I laughed, "This is our 4th time lunging and he's finally getting it. And to be honest I'm impressed too, he's almost like a grown up horse."

He trots smartly when I cluck and increase my walking pace. He went immediately back to a walk on my slowing my feet and saying "Walk." The lady heard me and said she couldn't believe how obedient he is again.

Then I warned her I'm going to attempt a canter but it probably won't go well. Mag is explosive and lazy simultaneously.

I increased my pace and kissed to him and he just sped up his trot. So I cracked the whip near the ground and he blasted into a horrible scrambling, cross-firing canter, tail over his back, head tossing angrily. I had to run to not let him hit the end of the rope because the last thing I wanted was to put pressure on his face after getting a canter. I praised him and then he broke into a trot after not even one circle. *sigh*

I asked again and didn't need the whip, but he bucked twice in my direction, so I was adamant that he keep cantering at least twice around. We'll get it!

Then the other way, no arguing, twice around times two. I don't think it will take long before he realizes it's no use getting upset, I'm not going to give in if he's naughty, so he may as well save his energy and canter politely.

But since he was so much better with almost non-stop transitions and direction changes, I called it good. The owner lady was surprised but I explained, "When he's this good, I need to reward him by quitting. If he's bad, the opposite happens."

(Truly, our first time there, it was 40 minutes! I was totally exhausted because he was making me work as hard as he was.)

Then Mag didn't want to go home. He was biting his lead rope, standing there and I had to convince him to come with me. He dragged his sandy feet all the way home. Such a change, Mara hated that place with the fire of a thousand suns.

It's getting hot out. It's supposed to be 28C this weekend. That is way too hot for me, but I look forward to bathing Mag for the first time properly, with soap. I've never seen a clean Mag. (His brands are becoming barely visible, exciting!)

He needs a bath because Sunday we have a big adventure planned. I'm taking him to the Balkontrasse with S and Bintu for the amazing exposure it will provide our horses. It's a rails-to-trail with every type of user you can imagine (including horses!). On Sundays it's packed. On good-weather Sundays it's mega packed. And there is a church waffle booth where we can tie the horses and have coffee and S can have a hot waffle. Oh right, she doesn't tie her horse. We'll see what happens. It will be a 3-4 hour walk for me and Mag. My feet hurt thinking about it! Also I can't wait for Mag to meet his future best friend Bintu. Two East European Arabians come together on Sunday. I wonder if they'll somehow know that they were at the same dealer barn.

Looking forward!