He's gotten better about longeing.
Which is not to say that he's gotten good about longeing. He's just less bad.
He's starting to understand that he must go FORWARD. Stopping to face me and backing up are not acceptable responses. On the bright side, he got a good butt workout when he did decide to back up... he'd backbackback, and then when I cracked the whip good and made him go, he'd spring off his hindquarters and move smoothly forward. Or he'd spring off his hindquarters and buck to let me know he doesn't appreciate having a whip cracked at his rump. I did end up closing the sliding door back into the barn so he couldn't see in.. otherwise he gets too distracted and hopes he can quit and go home.
Going to the left, he ended up being pretty good about going around and not stopping. Asking to canter was tricky.. I don't think he really knows what "canter" means, so we'll work on that.
The right wasn't so good. Partly because he's an OTTB, partly I think because we spent a while going to the left and he was tired. But he was a reasonably good boy.
I wrote on my friend's wall, the one who is willing to canter River...
Me: So,
cantering River this weekend probably won't work... we practiced
cantering on the longe and there was lots of running around and
bucking..
Me: Just to clarify... you want me to let you know if my horse who injured himself bucking me off and has lumps of bone on his head from repeatedly walking into walls is still stupid in a few days. Right. Will do
Tuesday morning is my AM chores day... walking my guys out to their turnout:
Princess in his new halter. Stupid weirdly sized head. I suppose the horse size would have worked after all, but his previous horse sized halter was too big, so I went with cob.
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