October 28, 2011 - Back to work at last

Today I longed Rory in full gear in the arena.  Rory seemed happy to get out and he bounced and half bucked a bit before settling down.  I let him trot several circles before asking him to do any transitions, then got him to do transitions within the trot and to walk.  He went to canter easily once and kept it going most of the way around the circle.  After I changed direction he had a few bounces and a couple of attempts to change direction, before he settled and went very well.  I set up two planks and a cavaletti and longed over that.  At first he had trouble with it and his solution was to canter, then I brought him closer to my end where they were closer together and he got his feet organized, then was okay further out with a longer step.  He did remember how it worked when we changed direction to the right rein.

I found a new halter for Rory in TSC last week.  When I saw it I thought the colour would look fantastic on him.  I didn't realize it matched his blanket!

August 11, 2011 - Sit!!

Rory on the way to sitting down

 We had a full peanut gallery today.  I set up four trot poles today, one of which was a cavaletti.  Rory started off well, but Totyo was interested in
all the action in the sand ring and came down to hang over the fence.  As Rory trotted by Totyo bounced and invited him to play.  Rory speeded up, but settled when I told him to take it easy.  Each time Rory went by he got more distracted until he got too interested in playing with Totyo and took off towards the fence.  I checked him with the longeline and as he put the brakes on, his hind feet slipped forward and for a moment he ended up sitting on his bum like a dog. 

 Rory got up quickly and faced me.  Totyo was still bouncing around, but Rory had decided he was going to pay close attention to me.  I got him to walk and he looked okay so I asked for a trot.  He looked fine at the trot as well.  I longed for a few more minutes and sent him over the poles a couple of times before mounting up.

Rory was good under saddle.  We walked and trotted over the poles and around the ring.  His right lead canter was good with an easy transition, but he really didn't want to take the left lead.  Several times he gave me the right lead instead.  I finally managed to convince him to take the left lead, but he really wasn't happy and broke to trot after only a few strides.  I didn't push for more because I felt that he'd probably done something when he sat down that made the left lead uncomfortable.  Hopefully he'll be back to normal after a day or two to recover.

March 17, 2011 - The good, the bad and the ugly



Spring must be coming - everything's turning to mud

I took Rory out for another longe session with side reins tonight.  Once again it was later in the day than usual and there was a fair amount of activity outside the arena to distract him.  When we first went into the arena his older paddock buddy was already there walking with his owner.  Totyo's whinnies got their buddy a little up, and his owner took him back to the barn.  That's the first time Rory's had to watch another horse leave while he was working.  Naturally he was a bit distracted and whinnied a couple of times, but he still walked and trotted when I asked.  I had set up four trot poles on one side of the arena and made sure we didn't start over them until after refreshing the longe commands.  Rory bolted, or tried to, several times tonight, once managing to pull the longeline right out of my hand.  He only bucked once, and walked out of a couple of halts without being asked.  But Rory did give me some very good work tonight as well.  He walked and trotted over the poles, and stayed in a steady trot as I jogged with him along the long sides of the oval.
The barn was busier than usual as well, but Rory stood still on the cross ties while I untacked him, put things away, and got his blanket.  It's frustrating when the youngsters get distracted and seem to forget all they've learned, but it's just as important that they learn to deal with distractions.  I just have to keep that in mind.