Lunging and such

Well, I was feeling guilty about Nine's lack of training. So I went out the other day and lunged him around a bit. He isn't crazy about circles, but he will actually do it for me now. I can't seem to get him to canter on the circle, though; when I ask him to canter he takes off in a tangent to the circle, and either runs strait for the corral - if that's the direction he is headed - or stop and look at me as if to say "Hey, what happened? Why did you jerk on my face???"

Then, yesterday, my mom came up and I wanted to show her how Nine was doing, but he flat refused to behave on the lunge line. He made it very clear that he was not enjoying trotting in circles anymore. So, Mom took him for a walk. Maybe next weekend I may have another chance to work with him.

Long time, no post...

Sorry everyone (Karen, I guess that means you :P). I know I haven't posted any progress in ages. Unfortunately that's because we really haven't made any. I have been super busy with school. We did take Nine out a couple days ago, though. Fiance's mom rode Ashley and ponied Nine while I rode along on Hammar. Nine had three "spaz" moments where he decided to remind us that he is, indeed, just a three year old! He got away once, but only went about 6 feet before he stopped to graze. I walked right up to him and caught him again. So, he's ponying well, and he got to get out to see the sights, at least. Ashley was a wonder - whenever Nine pulled back (or forward, trying to run) Ash just stopped and pulled the other way! What a good girl.

Today Fiance and I went for a ride since the weather has been so nice (it's unnatural for it to be this warm at the end of November!). As usual I rode Hammar. Both horses were tired and lazy, but we went in some new territory which woke them up a bit. Hammar got to lope around and both horses got some hill work. We even saw elk! The dog, Katy, chased two cow elk over a couple hills before she let us call her back. Hammar was a bit nervous about that - he's never seen elk before! He really wanted to run. Then Katy found another cow elk and her calf up on the big hill. They just watched us ride past. So that was eventful, and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

Hopefully I'll have something to post about again soon! Winter break is coming up, but until then I have (gulp!) final exams, so I suppose I should get my head out of the corrals and back into the books for a while.

Gosh darnit!

I tried to get on Nine the other morning before I fed. I tossed the halter on him and got the feeder next to him and hopped on. I thought he would be okay with that, since I've gotten on him so many times already. Well, 6 times isn't enough. The feeder isn't as tall as the mounting block that I have been using, so I had to jump a bit. And in response, he jumped a bit, then bucked me off. So, I got the mounting block and got back on. I suppose by that time he realized he could just jump around a bit and I would fall off, so he did, and I did.

I landed on my butt both times, but other than a skinned shin (again! Sheesh...) I am fine. A little sore, but fine. I thought about getting back on him again, but my legs wouldn't hold still and I didn't want to fall again. So I got the mounting block next to him and leaned over his back. I even out one leg on him, but didn't slide up. Then yesterday (it was Friday when he bucked me off) I turned all the horses out so they could get some exercise. Nine spent most of the time by the corrals scrounging for loose hay, but we made sure he got to run some (even if we did need to chase him with a stick).