Woah There!

Woah there! Easy buddy! SLOW DOWN!!

These are the things that are running through my mind as I lunge Tarzan in the arena on Wednesday. You see, before Wednesday, I hadn't worked with Tarzan since the previous Friday, and hadn't lunged him since maybe the previous Monday! It had been a while, and you could really tell.

Everything started out fine; Mom had brought me out, and Jenna Ivy was with us. Mom had to stay while I lunged Tarzan because Erica was off on Spring Retreat. Anyway, everything went well; I got Tarzan brushed so that he looked half decent (he was FILTHY!) and I got the lunging/bitting rig onto him easily enough. For once, Tarzan stood still in the cross-ties and gave me no trouble with anything while grooming him and putting the lunging/bitting rig onto his back. It was wonderful, and I felt really good knowing that I had gotten Tarzan past the I'm-afraid-of-the-big-scary-thing-you're-trying-to-put-on-my-back phase. =D

The thing is, everything turned around when we got into the arena. I got Tarzan onto the rail soon enough and with ease - we have worked on staying on the rail and following verbal instructions, and that 'training' has started to really work.... - but something was wrong. Tarzan was practically trotting out of his skin, and I was incredibly surprised! Usually, when lunging, Tarzan plods along at a slow and lazy walk or an easy trot until I command him to speed up. But Tarzan was just plowing ahead, without a second thought or glance at me.

It struck me how long it had been since I'd ridden or lunged him. Mentally scratching my head in thought, I absent-mindedly flicked the whip towards Tarzan's heels, because I was so deep in thought that I didn't think about the fact that Tarzan could burst into a canter at any moment. So, when I flicked the whip toward's his heels, Tarzan burst into a wild, take-off-very-quickly-and-don't-stop-until-you-run-into-a-wall canter. When he reached the point where he didn't have a wall on either side of him (when he was in the middle of the arena), Tarzan burst away from me, pulling me in the other direction. He did this about FIVE TIMES, and my arms are still sore from pulling on that lunge line.

Finally, after all of that crap, I got Tarzan to canter past that point until he cooperated. It was an okay day after that, because I just got some basic Halter Showing Training down into his brain. Jenna Ivy hung out around the barn, and Rainmaker kept coming up to the fence, snuffling Jenna's head. Jenna would run up to Rainmaker, reach out to pet him (Rainmaker would blow out of his nostrils), run to the other end of the barn, and do it all over again. It was quite amusing, actually. =) So, I guess things turned out alright, after all. But still....

Woah there! Easy buddy! Slow down!