Today was our second session after winter holiday, yesterday we just reviewed what we'd been doing, making sure Rain still remembered, and today we added on some progress.
It was quite obvious Rain had been bored over holiday, and rightfully so, a mustang going from exercise every day to nothing for a week and a half is sure to pent up some aggressions. I had chores to do around the stall and paddock anyway, so it actually worked out great. I turned her out into the round pen and the galloped--and I mean galloped--around the outer rail for a few minutes, and gradually worked her way down to trot, and then walk while I picked out her paddock. It was actually adorable because I was in the round pen for her first couple laps of running, and after three or so she turned in and trotted towards me, as if saying "okay, I feel better! I'm ready to go now!"
Today we also started with a little turnout, and then some more review...walk, whoa, back, turn, etc. We worked on grooming prep a little as well, and Rain reacted surprisingly well to my touching her belly...she jerked back at first, but by the third or so time she allowed it just fine.
Our big step today was that we introduced lunging. We've done some pretty extensive free lunging but never with a line, so that was quite a challenge. It took us both a few tries to figure out exactly what the best way to do it was, but we figured it out. I originally tried using the same signals I use when working with "trained" horses: extending the arm out that's holding the lunge line and swinging the other end a bit to inspire movement. Rain looked at me with confusion, as we went in dizzying circles of her simply rotating her hindquarters away and continuing to face me. I was actually very impressed by this response, because she really showed a lot of respect and trust, facing me and moving off immediately. We tried a few different variations of that until I decided to just start things up the way I would start free lunging: get behind her drive line, and move her foreword. This worked great until I grabbed a hold of the lunge line, which caused Rain to stop and turn in to me. Again, very impressive, but still not what I looking for.
Finally I had a lightbulb go off: If I walk in towards her, as I've been doing while teaching her to back up, she moves away with the energy I do. So I did just that. Walked in towards her with energy, and tapped her in the chest with the end of the line, which got her moving. Calmly moving, however, which I was so excited to see. She simply trotted away and I kept her going by staying behind her drive line. We continued doing that until I could use my usual signal while taking a step towards her and she'd trot off, perfectly calm and willing.
Our one little challenge was turning. Rain turns on a dime, and we already have pretty much mastered the turning signal. Our problem today was, because we were using the rope, when she turned to the outside it wrapped around her neck. The wrapping was nothing that could become dangerous, it just caused some conflicting signals. So our task for tomoro will be trying to get her to turn to the inside.
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