Val has been in for the past 2 days due to the deluge of rain we received in such a small timeframe. Luckily, the barn had no storm damage and we were able to get right back to work in the high wind today.
Val showed improvement in several things today, to include response to the lunge, standing and waiting, no chewing of lines, and true understanding of cues. He lunged very reliably today.
He went into the round pen and was "round penned" for about 10 minutes or so to work out the excess energy from being stallbound for 2 full days. He handled it well, and after trying to stop and stand over where the horses were, he stopped trying and was successfully changing directions, stopping, changing direction, standing, etc off of quiet body cues. Vicki was working with me, watching and learning. We harnessed him up in the round pen and he stood quietly for the process. I attached the lunge to him and he was a bit surprised about the "structure" of lunging (thought he was stil "free" and round-penning) for a few minutes. He settled right into lunging, though, and was responsive on all the points he's been working on (i.e. "out!"--making the circle bigger--and voice commands).
A true test of how well he had learned was handing him over to Vicki--she had never lunged a horse before, but was a QUICK study (quicker than anyone I've ever taught to lunge!). She was able to successfully lunge him with NO problem and he was listening to all her cues very well. He stood quietly for taking the harness off as well. Overall, a good day for Val and confirmation that he's ready to move forward.
3 comments:
I always knew Val was incredibly smart. It's good to see that he's taking so well to training. Now, if you can just convince his "mother" that she, too, can be firm with him and get the same results and that it will only reinforce and strengthen her relationship with him, that will be FABULOUS!!!
I'm certainly going to give it my best shot that's for sure! LOL I know I do cave but he was a baby then....can't give in to that anymore. To be honest I didn't know how to get him to stop chewing everything! I can't wait to see how you did that!
The only way I could make him stop was to hop on him and have the reins so he couldn't get them. :-)
Fran
I can't wait to see you riding him. That's going to be very exciting. Just make sure that everyone knows that I'M the President of his fan club. 'Course if you weren't so averse to driving, you could do driven dressage with him too! He'd probably eat that up. :-)
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