Waiting for the day

Waiting for Mag to be sound, and doing what I can each day with him. We've had glorious day after glorious day here for so long, my husband is tired of me going to the window in the morning and saying, "Yet another gorgeous day in Germany." I don't long for rain when my horse needs to dry out, but I do long for overcast.

Since our pasture is as dry as it's ever going to be, I tried lunging Mag a little. He gave me the finger. He ran backwards. He tied to pull me off my feet by running off. He bucked like a rodeo horse and my gloves are worn thin from trying to stop him and bring him back to me. He bucked so hard he slipped on the grass and fell to his knees. That was the last buck of the day, he fixed himself.  I imagine there are more difficult horses to lunge in the world, for example, those who do not have any idea what you want. Mag does, he just fights, and I have the task of convincing him that fighting leads to difficulty and obliging leads to reward.

At Haegerhof I asked if he could be lunged. They said yes, and ..wow, I've never seen a horse who needed repeated whip contact to continue forward. As I watched, Mag got whacked with the lunge whip, maybe 20 times. Just to keep him moving at a trot.

I said, "Well, that's interesting. He seems to need a lot of contact with the whip." But now he's kicking out at the whip if I tap his hock with it.

I began my whip training, which was observed by riders from across the street passing by.  I very gently landed the whip on the saddle, on his rump, even between his ears, and then slowly pulled it toward me, keeping him at a walk. I even purposefully put the whip between the saddle and his back, then pulled the entire lash toward me. He was fine. Mag said he should not have to work when horses walk by. I said, "I understand, but let's just keep walking." 

The next day I tried to lunge him again with a rump rug on, knowing it would be problematic. I was amazed he walked to the pasture with me, with a rump rug on. As soon as I asked him to move around me, he started kicking at it violently. As I'd expected, he felt the rump rug was an alien and needed to be removed. I just kept up with his antics and tried my best not to let go. I rewarded him at every thought of moving forward, but he had bucking fits and backwards runs, I was out of breath and soaking wet trying to not let him pull away completely.

He finally stopped bucking so we quit. I tied him up at the barn and went inside to change into clothing that wasn't soaking wet.


I thought about it, after drinking ice water...go again.

This time I used the small triangular grazing strip by the street, which is small enough he cannot run away without hitting a fence. That seems to be important right now, because he was compliant. I told him, "If you can manage to obey each direction change at a walk, and proceed walking the direction I choose, we'll only be here 10 minutes total." And he managed it. He never did a defiant change of direction - although he did a confused one when I was untangling my line and whip. He jogged politely with no bucking. Rump rug still in place.

(Earlier this week Mag discovered the folded rump rug in the paddock and he picked it up in his mouth and played with it. Of course it's different when it's not attached to him!)

As to his soundness, it depends on the footing. On the pasture he walks sound and trots mostly sound. He bucks excellently. I texted the lady with the fancy arena (who I helped at her show) and asked if I can lunge in their round pen this week but haven't heard back. She stopped by this week and I told her how I'm managing Mag and she said horses shouldn't be allowed on grass after it rains, because the sugar level rises. She also said the safest time to graze is the afternoon and evening. My eyes got so big her husband laughed at me, "Do you disagree?" I replied, "That is exactly opposite of what I've read, and I've never heard the rain thing, frost, yes." Her husband laughed, "You read too much."


Gimped photo from Spring