Lunging Lessons...Again...

Had the day off today, and seeing as I had the car, I decided to head over to see my kids. And a little sad. I talked to Dad a little while ago and he said that he was talking to a lady about trading Reno for a Reining mare that she has. But he hasn't gotten anything back from her yet. So I guess my time with him is limited :(. I'm not sure how I feel about that because I know he has a lot of potential, but for all I know, she could do the trade with Dad, end up hating Reno and ship him off to auction. I've grown kinda fond of him, but don't have the money to own both. I'm just hoping that everything works out OK.

Got down to my parents place and went out into pasture to grab them. Started calling them as soon as I started heding out there and of course, Dollar lead the pack right to the fence. Love him ;-). Grabbed both him and Reno and managed (again) to get them out of the fence without Mars getting out. That's a challenge every single time. Brought them up to the barn and started getting Dollar ready to do some lunging.

And I decided to try something new today. I've been wanting to get a surgincale, but don't have the money to get one. So I improvised. I grabbed 2 lead ropes, tied one to either side of his halter and ran them between his legs and up over his back and then adjusted them, not tight, but not overly snug. I  wanted him to know that he has to work and not just play around. And seeing as I was trying this out, Dollar was my guinea pig. Lol.

Once I got everything adjusted, we went out into the coral and proceeded to do some working. Or at least I tried to get him to work. He decided to be snarky today. He behaved very well at the walk and trot both ways on the lunge, but once I asked him to canter, he was REALLY snarky. He started pinning his ears, swishing his tail a lot and doing small bunny hops. Of course, I had to laugh at him and then he settled down.

Once we went both ways working at all 3 gaits (walk, trot and canter), I called it a day with him and called into me. I brought him into the barn and put him in his stall with some supplements for him to chew on and then I got Reno-boy. This would be interesting for sure. I adjusted the ropes loosely and headed outside.

Reno wasn't sure what to make of it at first, so we started with going to the left. Then I noticed that the ropes were way to long because he could still put is head up nice and high. So I re-adjusted them and went on our way. And it worked way better! He was listening fairly well and not pulling too much, so I was pretty happy with him. I didn't ask him to do any loping because he's still fairly new to the lunging and I didn't want him freaking out as he likes to do and then we have hell on our hands. So we stayed with walking and trotting, although he just wanted to stay trotting and show me that he could really extend. Man, I wish that Dad would let me show him in Dressage. Sigh.

After we went left for a while, I turned him around and tried going to the right. As if. Nope, he balked and just eyed me as if I was crazy amd asking him to do something stupid. Sigh. Why do you have to test my patience Reno?? So I grabbed him from the right and just started walking around in a circle to make sure that he understood that he was supposed to go to the right. I let the rope out after a little bit and pushed him out into the circle. Nope, still didn't work. Then he started throwing little shit fits and I raelized that he didn't really like the ropes that I had on him. So I went up to him and loosened them up a little. That seemed to do the trick and then he was no problem at all. He went willingly to the right, so I 'm guessing that he just didn't like the ropes too much because the right side is his weak side.

Once I had put him through walking and trotting to the right, I called it a day with him and went to grab Dollar out of the barn so that I could kick them both out. At least Reno seems to be getting calmer. That's always a good thing.