You Mean I Actually Have to Work?

Ace looked a little shell-shocked last night after our session. I suppose he thought it was going to be all fun and (ground) games. So our first free-lunging workout came as a little bit of a shock to his system.

I’ve been planning to start free-lunging for a while now, and finally got underway last night. I love free-lunging because it gets your horse moving out, balanced, and carrying himself without having to worry about a rider on his back. This is especially important for Ace, who has been out to pasture for nearly two years and had who knows what kind of work before that. He needs to build his muscles, improve his cardiovascular stamina, and get used to moving in the turns of the arena. It’s also another way for us to work together; for me to be the leader and him to look to me for direction.

We started with a few ground games on the line to make sure Ace and I were communicating with each other and that he was easily moving away from rhythmic pressure aimed towards his front and back ends. He was relaxed and paying attention, so I removed the line and sent him out.

Ace automatically picked up a trot and started moving around me with very little prompting. Apparently lunging, free or on a line, is something he knows how to do. He started to challenge me after we’d been working for a while by trying to stop in the corners and reverse. Dave came down just in time so he stayed in one end and I stayed in the other to push him through the turns without stopping. Every once in a while we’d have to go back to a walk to re-establish a rhythm while moving through the turns.

After a little warm-up I encouraged him to up his energy so I could get a good idea of how he moves. With a little encouragement, Ace picked up a nice working trot and even tracked up pretty well. When I let him relax and slow down a bit, he misses by half to a full hoof. He tends to move with his hind end to the left.

I didn’t want to push him too hard on our first time out, so after some good walk and trot work we called it a night. I parked myself in the middle of the arena and let Ace do what he wanted until he finally came in to see me. And he did! He definitely looked a little out of sorts and wasn’t as relaxed in his eye as usual. All in all, it was a good first session.

I went back out this afternoon to free-lunge Ace again, and it went very well. He’s very much a left-handed (hoofted?) horse, and is less comfortable and more challenging when we’re on a right rein. That’s the direction he’s constantly trying to stop and reverse. I was able to keep him going by myself, though, and we established some really nice trot work and even got a little bit of canter.

Ace definitely let me know when he was getting tired, so I just kept him going long enough for stopping to be my idea. He was definitely worn out, but didn’t have the same shell-shocked look in his eyes as yesterday. I’ll give it a few more days, and then he should start getting used to doing some real work again as well as the ground games.

Are we done YET?

Now THIS is gonna feel good….

Ahh, much better!