I am quite sick with some sort of plague, so I haven't been feeling up to doing much. I couldn't resist the new fresh snow and sunny skies yesterday though. I free lunged Spencer in his paddock to start and was getting a bit of attitude from him. It made for some good pics!
Then, since the footing seemed decent, I decided to lunge him for a few minutes. And man did I get attitude from that horse! I know his attitude now when I see it, so all I did was laugh and make him work a bit harder every time he did something goofy. I was getting lots of head snaking, squeals and little bucks. He makes a funny squealing noise when he doesn't want to work. To me, it sort of sounds like something a horse might sound like if it was hurt or something - it isn't mean or agressive sounding, but more of a whiny sound.
I ended up longing him longer than anticipated, due to all of the attitude. I did lots of direction and gait changes and when he could walk/trot/lope without any attitude, I let him walk a few laps to cool down. Mr. Tubs was puffing and sweating from his 20 minute workout! lol
Today, the weather was even nicer. A few degrees warmer and lots of bright sun. I was tired of being cooped up in the house, so thought I would do a repeat of yesterday, minus the free longing. I tacked Spencer up, thinking that if he behaved on the longe I would get on and walk around the pasture a bit.
It felt good to be on my horse for the first time since late December! The footing was ok, but not great for riding. I just meandered around in his paddock for 20 minutes before calling it a day.
Hopefully the weather holds and I can do a bit of work of most nights after work. I am sure getting impatient for spring!
3 comments:
Glad you got on - some regular work will make that attitude disappear, I expect. We've had snow too which has improved the footing a lot outdoors, although now it's rained on top of it . . .
Good for you! I am praying that we don't get any rain or crazy temperature swings anymore. Ha!
I got a bit of a head-toss and a whiny squeal the other day too. I swear the translation would be "I don't waannnna!" complete with stomping feet and pouty face, lol.
That's great that you got to go out and ride!
Brandy is always crazy on the lunge line. I usually don't lunge her anymore due to her arthritis because she gets too crazy. But the others are pretty good and mellow!
Hopefully you will get some more rides in soon! I can't wait to get back in the saddle after a really wet winter... again!
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