Lots of Lines

The Good, the Bad and the Snuggly

I decided tonight was a long lining night. I'm not 100% sure which horse suits which of the top list best. However, all of them were snuggly.

Tucker was first and he was rip roaring ready to make his opinion about the restriction of the rein very obvious. He bucked, he bolted, he battled and in between, for the most part, he really worked his buns and rounded up into a super frame and looked great! He was on the snaffle, by the way, so the bit was not an issue. The biggest training problem is that he still wants to drop too low into the contact when he decides to escape it. When he doesn't do that and settles himself into the contact in a soft acceptance, he is super! He just needs to get in the right spot and stay there.

Which is exactly what Toby does, so I suppose it will happen with Tuck in time. Training, training, training. Need I say it? Toby was practically perfect....again.

Which led to Chance as the bad boy of the team. Well not actually bad, but definitely the most unsteady of the trio. My ultimate goal was to simply get one full circle on the left rein without his head bopping up or down or all around. Once I finally had that, I put him on the right rein and started all over again. It started off well and then went completely haywire with head tossing and rearing.

I finally stopped him, suspicious that he had gotten his tongue over the bit. Sure enough, he had. I took the bridle off, put it back on and shortened the cheekpiece by one hole so there was less room for his tongue to repeat the error, and then sent him back out on the circle. At that point, we had some simply lovely work at the trot and not too bad work at the canter.

I don't think Chance is really a bad boy, though. Some of it is habit, some of it is finding his balance, some of it is confidence and a small portion is attitude. Like so many horses, if it becomes difficult he will try an evasion, but he is really pretty easy to correct. He doesn't hold an argument very long and really seems quite pleased to be told he has done something right.

All in all, in the end, I had successful sessions with everyone. Carrots all around and a good look at the sky as it clouded over hinting of the possible rains to come.