Little Bit of Lunge

And So It Begins

Spring is still here, although it rained a lot last night. The arena had some puddles and I
need to drag it--after another poo picking--but it was serviceable.

I opted for lungeing Tucker and Chance instead of riding, considering how long it's been since I've been in the saddle.  It's only fair.

Tucker proved his Thoroughbred heritage. As one of my trainers noted years ago, lunging does not necessarily settle a TB down. He wasn't naughty, it's just that the longer I lunged him the more energetic he became.

His first canter on the left lead went into "auto pilot."  Toby does this all the time. I guess because TB's were bred to gallop, it's particularly easy for them. When I asked Tucker to transition back to trot, he just kept on cantering. I didn't make a big thing of it, but just kept making the lunging circle smaller. It wasn't until we were at nearly six meters that he decided perhaps the trot would be a good idea.

The same thing happened on the right lead, although he did get a lot faster as he cantered along, thinking perhaps of a buck or two just to entertain me.  I did get the trot from him sooner, but again, he really didn't want to stop.

Then I worked him on leading just a bit to refresh his memory of his manners--something Tucker needs at regular intervals.

Chance was a different story altogether. He is a slow motion video.  He wasn't too bad at the trot once I got him going a bit forward, but I wouldn't say he was putting too much effort into it.

Then, I asked for canter. How slowly can a horse canter and still stay at 3 beat? Get him to drop his head a bit, throw on a western saddle, and we're ready for a pleasure class. *G*

Needless to say, after two or three slowbeat circles around me, I encouraged some more effort and, although he still was not fully engaged nor offering great impulsion, we had nice honest canter on both leads.

Carrots all around and some good stall cleaning finished up the work for the day.

The vet is coming tomorrow for teeth and spring vaccinations, round #1.