So, tonight was Daisy only night. I decided to practice lunging as seen on the previous video...I had no idea of how she would act; I know my friend worked a little with her on Sunday, but I wasn't there.
First she walked in a circle in her favorite direction...to the left. I circled, then went straight down the side of my riding area, then circle at the other end, and walk straight. Did this twice. She was distracted at first...Starlette and mini-Cooper were out grazing right next to us, and the girl next door was riding her horse practicing jumping. But Daisy was really good, got her attention on me, and focused on what we were doing.
We (and I say "we" since I was next to her) then trotted....circle, straight, circle, straight. When I first started trotting next to her, she couldn't figure out what was going on, and broke into a canter. I got her back into a trot, and she figured out that I was not chasing her, or going to whip her, and did the pattern very nicely.
On to the canter...she did very well left lead circle, but when she went straight, hit the end of the lunge hard and stopped/spun/got ready to rear. I just got her faced in the right direction, and tried to figure out how not to have her hit the lunge hard at the turn...and found out if I said "easy" she slowed just enough to use the lunge to guide her.
She did so well, it was time for the right. Walking right, she got a bit hyper and started trotting, but I got her back to a walk and kept her walking until she was calmly going around the riding area. We then moved onto the trot, and she is so smart, she figured out what I wanted. Time for the canter....
I started her along the fence line...I decided that gave me the better advantage if she went to spin and rear...the fence would keep her straight. She went into a canter very nicely, but on the left lead. Suddenly she switched leads...and I could see her anticpate pain. Only it didn't hurt. She didn't know what to do, and she pulled, spun and popped up a little. I let her think about it for a moment, got her going in the correct direction again, asked her to canter, and she did the same thing...started left lead, switched to right lead, pull, spin and pop. I gave her a moment, then again, I asked her to canter...and she took the right lead and held it! I let her circle two times, and asked her to walk, praising her all the time.
After the break, I wanted her to use her right lead going straight, so again asked her to canter. We did the pattern....big circle, straight, big circle, straight...and she did it like she had been doing it all along. I quit at that point...I didn't want to get her sore from using muscles she was not used to using in the right way, and I wanted to end in a positive note.
She is really sweet...while I walked her out, she kept touching me with her nose as if it ask if she did good. Of course I told her what a good horse she is!
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