Quarter Horse Rodeo

Ugh, winter.

Sunday there was freezing rain all day long so I didn't do anything with the horses. Monday was a nice day but I had a project I had to work on last night so I couldn't do much with them again. I turned them out, that's it. Though Gwen did try to give me a heart attack. Apparently I wasn't getting her haltered fast enough to bring her in so she pawed at the gate... and her foot went between the bars. She thrashed around long enough for "oh sh-" to go through my head before she got it free, and then I passed out from fear. Not really, but it sure felt like it. Silly horse.

Anyway, tonight we worked in the mini-indoor. Coriander got some lunge work. He went over a ground pole at walk and trot and did well. He's been over a pole before but only at the walk. We also worked on cantering. When I first started lunging him I only asked him for the walk and trot, letting him build some muscle before we started cantering. Now he's ready. I also want to start him cantering under saddle sometime soon and I'm hoping that knowing the voice command for it will make it easier. He jumps right into it going to the left, to the right it takes a while, so we'll work on that.

Then I took Gwen out, and I decided to take my lunging surcingle out with us. After she got to trot around loose for a bit, I had her do a little bit of lunging at the walk. Then I put the surcingle on her. She actually stood still while I was cinching it up, that shocked the heck out of me - it being her first time and all. Then I unclipped the lead rope and BOOM!!! She took off across the ring like she was strapped onto a rocket, racing around bucking and twisting. That lasted for about 3 minutes and then she was done. I walked up to her, tightened it up a little more and backed off in case she wanted to jump around again. She trotted off a bit but that was it. Good girl!