More Horse Lunging and Other Matters

I took old Monte out for some more training on the lunge line today. He did much better than he did last week. He was much more responsive to my cues to change gaits both up and down. I used primarily voice commands supplemented by flicking the whip when needed. He got it right most of the time. The more subtle my cues, the better he was. Either I've gotten more clear with my cues or he has gotten better at reading me. Maybe both. I did have a problem when I asked him to gallop. He had a tendency to buck and kick when I did that. This behaviour would not be good with a new student on his back so maybe I'll just stick to walking and trotting.

Last Friday, Martina took Sabre out for some training. However, Sabre was acting very strange. He starting bucking at the tie up post. We got him settled down a little and took him out to the training area to work on jumps. I ran him over some ground poles while waiting for Martina to arrive with another horse. He was okay so I tied him to a tree and concentrated on training for the other horses. When Martina finally got around to riding Sabre he was very agitated again. I asked her to take him around the jogging track with another rider to settle him down but eventually we decided it would be best for her to dismount and let me work him a little. I took Sabre to the round pen and worked him for about 10 minutes. He was more controllable after that and I was able to walk him back to his pen without incident. Today, during horse checks Debbie determined he had a sore back. Possibly an arthritis flare up. We gave him bute and gave him the day off. We will check him again on Friday. He is not a young horse and is believed to be about 20. He was very mellow after getting the bute.

Worked with the group tonight on bomb proofing the horses. Using a .22 starter pistol I had them ride in an oval pattern while I fired the pistol at various ranges. Once the horses got used to that I had the riders take them over to a small jump course I had set up. Taking their horses through a few times until they were comfortable, I had them ride through again but with the pistol. At first I had them fire between obstacles but later had them fire as they were crossing the obstacle. If the horse had problems I had them start over without firing the pistol. It went fairly well and all the horse were eventually able to go through the jump course with the pistol.