Lunging Before My Birthday

And Why Didn't I Ride?

I have no idea. I put on my tall boots, headed out fully intending to ride.

Hiked out to the pasture with a pocket of "horse bait," and caught a chestnut ex-FEI horse. I can't say Toby was entirely pleased as I had been calling Tucker, but once I had him, I decided I'd better take advantage of it. I gave him a nice grooming and then took him out for a lunging session.

By then, I was on a roll. After working Toby, I collected Chance and put him on the lunge. What a good boy he was! No more of the pulling away on the right rein or refusing to take the right lead. He was edging towards rivaling Toby as Lungemaster of Follywoods.

Which left "Le Ruckster." (Where do all these nicknames come from?) Actually Tucker came to me at the barn door, quite interested to have some of my attention. He was not quite the lunging star mostly because once he started cantering on the right lead, he lost the "off" switch and just kept going, ignoring my commands to drop back to a trot. I had already done some trot/canter/trot transitions on the left rein--a good strength building exercise--and wanted to repeat it on the right. We finally got it nicely but Tuck's brain had definitely disconnected before that as he just kept cantering and cantering and....well, you get the picture.

I have a clinic with Patrice Edwards on Wednesday and a lesson with Gabriel on Saturday. I definitely need some saddle time.